Glad to hear you replanted them, they need another 5minimum-15 years really. When you go digging and you start breaking up the soil around the root as you work your way down the neck the stem it is attached to will become exposed. If the necks not at least 1\" long just push the dirt back and tamp it down and cover the exposed dig area and the plant with loose leaf litter. A 1\" long neck generally means 10 years of the root sending up a plant. 2\" 20years, 3\" 30years, etc....
If you look at the neck closely you'll see little flat scar rings, each flat ring is where a plant was sent up, 10 scars and a stem = 11 years old. 10 years is about the very youngest you want to dig. We try to go for only 2\" + necks here. Harvest every 10 year plant and the woods will slowly begin dropping in the # of available plants to dig, harvest 2\" necks primarily and carry along extra seed to plant with you and the ginseng in the woods will continue to flourish if not expand in the # of plants present. Never dig all mature roots, leave at least 25-50% and the woods will really begin to flourish.
Many tout topping any left plants by pinching off the leaves so others don't enter the woods and take what you left. Myself I can spot a topped plant quite often ( I see deer topped stems all the time ) so I take leaf litter and lay it on the plants to hide them allowing them to finish the season naturally without worry of them being spotted by others. I also break my berries open and then wrap each seed in a ginseng leaf blade when planting back the seeds. It helps keep the seed from drying out and going bad before they get a chance to sprout in 2 years. ( you can tell the areas I dig by the small plant clusters formed at my dig holes from doing this ) After planting I then step on the spot the leaf litters on to firm up the soil some to keep it from being washed away.
EVERY plant I dig and keep U bury the plant ( In Indiana you do not have to harvest plant with root if you can see 5 visible scars on the neck unlike some states I hear that you must harvest the plant & root together ) then after burying the plant I place leaf litter on the dig spot even if it had no seeds present any longer to hide the fact that ginseng was dug. That way if a poacher enters the woods I've been in they find no signs of ginseng having been harvested and no visible signs of any 1, 2, 3, or 4 prongs left behind to grow as they are all hidden under leaf litter.
If you look on the steep hillsides that are extremely difficult to walk you'll generally find the older ginseng ( quite often I need to cut steps to be able to dig they become so steep ) Hope this helps and may you be blessed by Tyche ( Goddess of Good ) on your next outing.
Paul
