Those are both hickory sprouts. Ginseng should be starting to turn yellow/gold by now in most places if it is still up.
Don't feel bad. I once had a lady stop by and ask me about going price. She then confided that her farm was loaded with huge ginseng. She knew it was ginseng because a couple old fellas from the neighborhood told her it was. Eventually, she got to the point that she couldn't dig it all and needed help. A deal was stuck as to percentages and I arranged to make the 2 hour trip to her farm.
When I finally got there, she took me into the barn where she was drying the ginseng she had already dug. She said there was a really large one with a root about 4" in diameter and maybe two feet long. I became quite skeptical at that point. So we walked into the barn and there hanging on a wire were a dozen small hickory sprouts when her 'friends' had confirmed was absolutely ginseng.
We went to one of her friend's woods and I showed her want ginseng looked like and how to dig it. In the end, I drove back home and she showed up a couple weeks later to sell maybe $12 worth of broken up damaged ginseng.
...so seriously..don't feel bad.
The biggest thing to remember when trying to identify ginseng is that all the leaflets come out of the same spot on the prongs, and all the prongs and seed stalk come out of the same spot at the top of the stem.
