Elizabeth Kendall

[quote=Robin Katz]Welcome to Permies!

Are the seeds sprouting yet? Are you keeping them in the fridge until planting? It's called "smiling" when the sprout starts to emerge. If they are then I would plant them in the soil asap. My preference is to not disturb the root too much by planting in pots then transplanting but you might be able to get away with it.

I'm a big fan of planting a lot of seed in a lot of places to find out what works, but you can go through a lot of seed that way and ginseng is expensive. It's really up to you how you want to approach this.

I bought my seeds from hardwoodginseng.com and was very happy with the germination rate. They came up beautifully then the heat and drought last summer killed them off. I plan to try again but I guess I have to plant them closer to the house and baby them a little with the weather the way it is.

Good luck![/quote]

Thank you!
Yes, we are having an unusually dry, long spring here. I think it's La Nina. I am a bit concerned about them drying out. So keep them in the fridge until they sprout? It's about 39-45 at night here, so I suppose that's not a lot warmer than the fridge.
Good luck to you as well! let me see some pics if it works for you this year.

Hi guys. I'm a n00b, but I've been lurking here on and off for a couple years, when I started looking into American chestnuts and micro hydro energy. The background is, my husband and I bought 6.5 acres in Southside, Virginia, USA, in the fall of last year. This property is much hillier than my old place, and needs some restoration. It is about 1/3 woods and 2/3rds fields with 1/3rd of the field part being a creek bottom land that is too squishy to do much with.

My mother suggested I plant ginseng in the wooded parts. I ordered 50 stratified seeds off Ebay for $7 as an experiment. Should I rake up a couple patches in the woods and plant them directly? Or should I start them in some pots out in the woods instead?

I suppose I bought these way too early since you are supposed to plant in fall. I didn't know until after I got them. Will they sprout if i plant them now? Or will they sit in the ground another year and sprout next spring?  And likely get eaten by wildlife before then?

I have heavy red clay soil in some areas, and black silty soil in the holler around the creek. The slopes are  mildly rocky. So far in different patches of forest we have pecan, chestnut, red maple, white oak, red oak, pine, ironwood, poplar, sycamore, hemlock, red cedar/arborvitae, may apple, Virginia creeper, poison ivy, magnolia, a variety of ferns, locust, mimosa, redbud, dogwood, azalea. Some of it is definitely more shrubby than others. The guy who build the house was an avid hunter who planted lots of mast trees for deer and turkey.

Maybe 1ish acre might be suitable for ginseng, but I've never done this before so who knows? We are definitely in the historic range. There is a licensed buyer up the road a mile. And, my husband's grandfather used to hunt it in the national forests about an hour or so west. But I don't know anyone who has it here. I have an acquaintance who tried it once but turkey wiped out the entire crop in a day. But folks around here tend to keep stuff like this all hush-hush, whether it's their moonshine still, their pot plants, or their 'sang.

I'm considering a bed close to the house up under the biggest pecan tree, maple, or chestnuts. But I don't know if it's dense enough shade.

Should I buy about half a pound and just randomly stick them in the ground in the woods and see what happens? Or is that a super fail?

Hi. I live in Virginia where there is heavy red clay soil. A slope is best and would require not much changes. I've had great success with peaches, pears, and cherries. Apples have gotten blight from the wet soil though, and none survived for me. Make sure you plant hardy varieties customized for your area. I dig the hole 2-3x's larger than needed, at least 2.5 feet across. Then mix sand, river silt, or bagged topsoil to the clay soil to lighten it up so it drains better and doesn't crack and bake so hard. You can also toss a couple handfuls medium/small sized gravel into the bottom of each hole you dig. (I'm lazy and stupid so I pull a bucket from the driveway. XD) I will fill 2/3ds of the hole, water heavily, pack, add more dirt, repeat.  Then add the tree, then bury the roots with the same type mix. Tamp down. Add more dirt, gently tamp, etc. Flip the grass clods upside down, so they die and make a spongy top. I will also throw down porous fabric/weedbarrier and then mulch around my trees after planting. Here, it goes back and forth from being very wet to suddenly being very dry. When clay dries hard, water will run off and be wasted which is just as bad as it staying wet for too long. My orchard hillside has a natural spring underground so the taproot can reach water easily, and this is beneficial during the dog days of summer, and does not cause disease. Standing rainwater from oversaturation, I think is a much worse problem. Good luck!