TOPIC: Some more roots from Eastern KY

I apologize for not being on here in a day or two but I've been hitting some places pretty hard and finally fell into a nice little patch of ginseng. I dug 50 plants in total and the place was within walking distance of my house. Go figure. I've noticed that all the sites I think should be dug out by the locals are the ones that they think should be dug out as well so when you take the time to go check it out, you can be surprised. Anyway, here are a few of the nicer roots from my find on the 26th. I have never seen a root like the one just to the right of the dollar. The bulb root on this one looks like its been split or something but if ginseng heals parts of the body that the root resembles, well lets just say I don't have those kind of parts.

This was an odd root and it appears that the largest root on this plant had quit making root hairs or something and it also felt softer than the other two roots. It had a small segment attaching it to the main root body and broke as I put it in my bag. I had never seen a root shaped like this or one that didn't have any root hairs at all. If any of you guys would have any input on why this happened on this big plant, please tell me. Anyway, it was a nice root.

Nice find, I've traveled all over within 20 miles of my home only to find the largest sang within a mile of here in places you would not normally think to look.

I have seen roots similar to that one before, I believe the root either hits a root or rock or something that won't allow it to grow anymore and the plant starts another root structure to survive. Or could be the soil conditions around that root weren't tolerable for the plant which started the other roots. Could be a number of things but those I mentioned would be my assumption on what happened.

I concur gijoey1980.
Latt

Nice Roots Gib!!

Thanks for the comments guys. I tend to hit the places that have very little woods and dig what I can find and go onto the next place. I know that its easier for me to concentrate if I have a defined area that I can look in. Around here, you have a lot of surface mining so you focus on the areas that still have in tact forest which are random at best and then you have to find an area thats facing the right direction (N to NE) in these parts. Anyway, I've started looking closer to home simply because daylight is fading fast after work and I only have about 2 hrs of dig time before the woods are too dark to dig. I'm going to go back to this same area this weekend and hopefully cover the rest of it. It's been a great place so far and I'm keeping it on the down low.

As for the root, I tend to agree with what you guys said. I'm a biologist and the area I dug this root was extremely rocky with and right at the base of a big poplar. I believe it just ran out of room and began spreading out. It had a nice big four prong top on it but it just surprised me to see that big of root with no filaments. Anyway, I hope you guys are still digging. With all of the deer and elk sign I've been seeing, its about time for me to hang up the digger and grab the bow but its hard to do. I can hunt throughout the winter but I can only dig for another couple of weeks.

GibsonGranada looks like u have had a bumper crop as well this year. I'm curious about Letcher county and was wondering what cities are in it. Mainly to see if i've ever been thru your area. Keep up the good work my brother. By the way are u still digging? What was ur biggest top this year ? Root? I found the tallest 4 prong this year. The berry pod was about 3 inches above my belly button! Healthy but wasn't extremly old root didn't even weigh an oz! Crazy huh?

Bawhite,
I have had a good year. I dug about pound over the weekend. Got access to another big tract of land up on the Pine Mtn. Its steep and high in elevation. I dug some old big roots up there but the tops were nearly gone. The largest top I've found this year was 28 inches tall and the largest root I dug was a little over 2 ounces. The places I dug before getting this new tract of land has a lot of seng but nothing really worth writing home about. They are all good mature plants but the soil just don't make the big roots. I've found 35 to 40 yr old plants that have roots that may way 1/4 ounce. It's strange but anyway, every root I dig is legal to dig. I pinch the tops off of the smaller ones like most people do. I ran into a poacher this weekend who was on my new tract of land and he had a nice bag of seng off my new tract. I told him not to be back on it. The place is posted but he said he didn't think anyone owned the property because it was so big and on top of the mtn. I told him my family owned it and he said well do you care if I seng in here a couple more times. I told him I better not catch him anywhere in there again. He got huffed up and left but that's his problem. I can't stand people who do this. Anyway, some of the \"cities\" in Letcher county include whitesburg, jenkins, Isom, blackey, etc.. I was finding seng up until yesterday but I believe this heavy frost we got this morning will close the show. The big plants I found yesterday were very brittle and brown but still standing. I may do one more once over to make sure its gone but Id say it she's history.

GibsonGranada,

Congrats on finding some decent roots and getting access to a new tract of land! Sorry to hear about the poacher! The guy had a lot of gaul to ask if he could seng a couple of more times, even after you told him not to come back because it is private property. His statement that he did not believe that anyone owned the property was very stupid. All property is either owned by some person or persons, some entity (corporation or company) or some agency (state or federal). I would bet that this poacher was right back there this morning or will be there in the next day or two. Some folks just think that they have the right to hunt seng on other's property even when told they can't, so you then have to take the next step by catching them and calling law enforcement.


Frank

I agree with you Frank. I get so fed up with having to come to work and knowing that the guy is probably right back out there with his backpack and digger. I hope that the fire nettle and the black bear keep him ran off. He said he had already been out to the right of where I ran into him and said he had hunted it pretty good. (I guess he was only trying to tick me off even more). So I ran him off and then I headed back out right handed just to see if I could follow where he had been. Well, to my surprise, I found a lot of big seng that he apparently didn't see or just didn't make it up that high on the hill. I hunted the property twice and never ran into any dig holes where he could've been. i'm not sure if he knows what he's doing or if he's just hunting the easy stuff. Everyhting I've found has been a beast to get to but well worth the effort. I know it sounds awful but I hope the frost kills it off before the poacher gets another single root.

Thanks for the advice on the canopy and fog ideas. That's some good thinking Frank. I hope I can get one more day in but its about time to start scouting for my deer spot on this new tract so I may just go do some scouting and dig whatever I run into but not plan on spending the day looking for seng like I normally do. This new tract is a big piece of property so I'm excited about the deer prospects.

GibsonGranada wrote:

I agree with you Frank. I get so fed up with having to come to work and knowing that the guy is probably right back out there with his backpack and digger. I hope that the fire nettle and the black bear keep him ran off. He said he had already been out to the right of where I ran into him and said he had hunted it pretty good. (I guess he was only trying to tick me off even more). So I ran him off and then I headed back out right handed just to see if I could follow where he had been. Well, to my surprise, I found a lot of big seng that he apparently didn't see or just didn't make it up that high on the hill. I hunted the property twice and never ran into any dig holes where he could've been. i'm not sure if he knows what he's doing or if he's just hunting the easy stuff. Everyhting I've found has been a beast to get to but well worth the effort. I know it sounds awful but I hope the frost kills it off before the poacher gets another single root.

Thanks for the advice on the canopy and fog ideas. That's some good thinking Frank. I hope I can get one more day in but its about time to start scouting for my deer spot on this new tract so I may just go do some scouting and dig whatever I run into but not plan on spending the day looking for seng like I normally do. This new tract is a big piece of property so I'm excited about the deer prospects.

You are probably right in saying that he might not know what he is doing and is going for the easy stuff. However, if he was filling the holes back in then covering with leaves and sticks, this tells you that he did already know that he was on private and posted property and he was covering the evidence of his digging. Since he flaunted digging out to the right to your face, you probably should have called law enforcement as soon as he could not see what you were doing, then stealthfully follow him to his' vehicle or until law enforcement arrived! If you find him in there again, I would not advise an armed confrontation with him unless necessary but I would be armed just in case. You just never know about some folks and he might be armed the next time.


Frank