Ginseng: Start in Pots or Plant Direct?

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?

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=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.

Hello Elizabeth and thanks for posting! Your place sounds lovely with lots of diversity and opportunity.

I don't know much about Ginseng, although I was considering trying some here. If the seeds were bought stratified, then I would interpret that as having undergone the vernalisation required for germination, and as Robin suggests, keep them moist in the fridge until ready to plant. Hopefully the vendor will include instructions, or will provide them if you ask.
50 sounds quite a lot to me so I would think you could experiment a bit. I would plant the majority direct in different places you think they may like, and keep maybe 12 back in pots for a season in reserve, if you can manage to water and protect them. Critters are probably the biggest risk. What eats Ginseng and do they live on your place?

Elizabeth,

I am still trying to grow ginseng and I started trying 5 years ago.

I did learn a few things that may be of interest.

All the books say it grows best on a north facing sloped wooded hill. The reasons they give vary and don't make much sense, but I think I figured out one reason.
Ginseng must grow in low light, shaded areas.
Ginseng roots sprout early in spring before the trees leaf out. if the sun is high in the sky and the trees have no leaves, the sun light burns the ginseng and it dies.
On a north facing slope, the shadows of the trees are long in the spring  (cover a much larger area) and protect the fragile ginseng plants. Once the trees leaf out I don't think it matters what if any slope they're on.  A few evergreens in the wooded area help as well.

Another thing to be concerned about is the fact that ginseng is highly vulnerable to fungus infection. Many commercial growers spray their crop with fungicide and some recommend doing so once a week.
You can minimize that problem without using toxic chemical spray by raising the ph of the soil. Fungus grows best in a low ph environment.

I discovered that I can spray my crop with water from my well which has a ph of 9 thereby neutralizing the low ph soil.
If I don't spray with well water frequently, all my plants die. If I do spray I get a decent crop.

Good luck.