TOPIC: New to the hobby , first season

Good day and hello! Do licensed buyers pay more for large or unique roots? We stumbled on to a large untouched patch with 4 and 5 prong plants. Many of the roots were very large one wouldn't fit in my sink completely. and how do I handle damaged roots? I nicked or broke a couple since it was our first weekend doing it ever. Thanks

Well there are two parts to your answer.

First...yes...sometimes.

Secondly...that's not ginseng. Its sarsaparilla I think.

BCastle wrote:

Well there are two parts to your answer.

First...yes...sometimes.

Secondly...that's not ginseng. Its sarsaparilla I think.

I hate to do it, but I have to agree with Brad... lol

I hate to poke fun but...we all wondered what the repercussions of Appalachian Outlaws and new diggers would be like. Well, I think I now know. More sasparilla being dug on the forum this year than we've ever seen.

Newbies are going to have to realize seng hunting is not a walk in the park.
A lot of times you'll walk for miles and come home empty handed.
We seasoned diggers all know pretty much how to read the land and the forest canopy to determine if it might hold ginseng or not, but still a gamble.
You better love hiking for miles through brush and briers and insects or stay home!

I was out hunting ginseng yesterday morning. Came across a spot that had recently been dug. Someone had carefully dug out about five feet of virginia creeper. Right past a nice three prong.

I was laughing so hard the deer told me to shut up.


Good luck

No worries. I have dug sarsaparilla before. The leaf pattern was different on these than the sarsaparilla I know. I was taught that the leaf of the sarsaparilla plant was tight to the stem, these has mostly 3 leaves with 2\" stems for each leaf, not leaves tight to the main stem. BTW I had to look up the tv show that was referred to lol. Ironically I am 2 years into a new business that people thought was started due to the \"moonshiners\" tv show. www.facebook.com/littlechicagodistilleriesllc

Funny stuff

is that better? lol

Nice root. From the coloration on the edge of the leaves you must be way up north or your soil is a bit low in phosphorus.

Good luck