TOPIC: Planting all the berries you find.

I was reading about the Berries in Scott Persons book. And he said this in regards to the berries:

\"If the human hand does not intervene, any berries that are not eaten by the critters will shrivel and fall to the ground. In a natural setting, less than 1% of ginseng seeds survive, germinate, grow to maturity, and in turn reproduce.\"

I said WOW!

So just 1 plant from 100 seeds survives to maturity? Or lets think a little larger! 100 plants from 10,000 seeds survive to maturity if you let nature to do the planting?

I know that good stewardship requires that all the seeds from harvested roots be planted into the soil.

I would think that planting the berries into the ground would raise the success rate to atleast 10%(1000 plants from 10,000 seeds survive to maturity).

I am a Ginseng Grower and not allowed to hunt seng in my state. I am totally Jealouse of you Guys that get to hunt for Wild Seng. So I was wondering when you hunters come across an area that you harvest some of the plants and leave some of the mature plants. If those plants that you dont harvest, have mature berries, it would make sense to take the time and plant the berries from those also.

Perhaps some of you are already doing that. I believe that there is a better chance of germination by putting them in the soil compared to just letting them fall on the ground.

And TNhunter, I know you are going to have a big population of Wild Berries this next season and was woundering if you would be willing to take a set amount of berries, say 30-50 and plant them in a seperate location and monitor them to let us know how many sprout. I hope thats not too much trouble.

It would be good info to know how much difference it makes by taking the time to plant the berries versus, letting them fall on the ground.

What are your thoughts?

classicfur

it is flat where i hunt and this is true. i have found old wild four prongs that are 30 plus years and they will only have one or two young plants around them. but if you plant the beeries you get a good patch going. if you re plant the wild seng it does good around here. but not to many people hunt here. so you it dont get planted to well but the woods you dig in and replant it does really good but the wild seng does not reproduce good by its self here without human replanting. they say if the seeds dry out they wont grow

classicfur,excellent thread.

I can tell you from personal exsperience that it is a 100 0/0 fact that the seed produces better if they are planted by hand I have always told fellow diggers this and want everyone to know that this is so very true.

Anyone reading this please do take note to it and follow these steps to insure a better reproduction of your ginseng and not only yours but your childrens.

My sons will be digging ginseng from seeds that I have planted and whats even better they can tell my g/grandchidren and also dig plants that both me and there father have planted....

Here is a video with proper harvest and replanting instructions that I think you will enjoy....

Well said guys!!! You just HAVE TO plant those berries.

Billy

I love that video that you made! The whole thing is all about doing things right. From digging the root with all the hair roots attached to planting ALL the berries. It's not just dig the root and run.

Billy, thanks for taking the time to show people how to do it the right way!

Wild Seng Hunters:

I know I offered TNhunter to do a test plot of planted berries. I did'nt mean to make it sound like anyone else could'nt try this out.

Next season:
Take a set amount of berries, say 30-50 and plant them in a seperate location and monitor them to let us know how many sprout. I hope thats not too much trouble.

It would be good info to know how much difference it makes by taking the time to plant the berries versus, letting them fall on the ground.


Hopefully theres one or a few of you seng hunters willing to try this out and let us know the results.

classicfur

Classicfur,

I think a large % of berres that just fall to the ground are not going to make it. Scott's 1% estimate is probably about right.

This year it has been hot and dry for most of our seng digging season which opened Aug 15 and as early as first week in September I saw plants that were dropping berries already and all of those berries were just shriviling up and drying out. We have had almost no rain here for 3-4 weeks. I expect that nearly all of the berries that just fell off this year here in Middle TN are just going to dry up and die.

I expect that the large majority of natural reproduction success in ginseng happens from those few plants that keep the berries on longer and drop them just before heavy leaf fall and rainy weather (much later in the season than most). You know occasionally in October you still find a few plants with red berries. I think those are the ones that have the best change of surviving when the berries just fall off naturally. Reason is they soon get covered with leaves and it often rains more mid-late October than it does in September.

Not sure if you were posting on the board back earlier in the year when we were discussing season opening dates and green berries but I did find online a nice article where a detailed study was done on germinatin rates - by planting date and berry color.

Below are a few details from that article:

On August 1, August 26, and September 22, 1998, ginseng berries, randomly selected from those available at each
date, were collected from the 20 reproductive adult plants in the population. Because they were randomly chosen, the frequency of green and red fruits at each date reflected the natural frequency occurring at that time. On August 1, all berries were green, on August 26 there was a mixture of red and green fruits, and by Sept. 22, all fruits were red. Seeds were planted 1 cm deep within paper ?nut cups? (to prevent seed migration) in native soil.

And below is a chart that summed up the germination by date/color.



Aug 1 is obviously way to early to be collecting berries and planting them but a small % of green berries planted on Aug 1 did germinate.

If you read the full article it did say that 50% of green berries planted on Aug 26 germinated. Also notice that by berry color just slightly more than 50% of all the red berries germinated. So a Green Berry that is planted at the end of August, First of September has about the same change of making it a s Red Berrie does.

It is intersting that a higher % of berries from the Aug 26 planting (mix of red & green berries) germinated than did from the Sept 22 planting (all red berries).

If they had eliminated the Aug 1 planting from the test then there would have been very little difference in the germination rates by berry color.

And here is the link to the full article:

www.as.wvu.edu/biology/faculty/JBMPerson...005BerryRipening.pdf

PS - I will sure be planting some red ripe berries here on my place after my seed producing bed starts paying off and will gladly do some test plot plantings with a measured # of berries and report back the results.

TNhunter

TNhunter

Thanks for posting that article. I was not able to find much about the berries and seed germination rate when I searched online.

Here is someting that stood out to me in that article you posted.

\"When seeds are
scattered on the soil surface, they are subject to herbivory by rodents or
excessive drying, either of which can cause mortality. An experimental
study showed that seeds planted 2 cm deep germinated at a rate 8-fold higher
than those scattered on the surface (J.B. McGraw, unpubl. data, 2002).\"

By the way, 2cm is about 3/4\"

And Big thanks for your willingness to test some berries. I know it's no little thing to dedicate your effort and lots and lots of waiting to see what the results are. Appreciate it.

classicfur

classicfur wrote:

Billy

I love that video that you made! The whole thing is all about doing things right. From digging the root with all the hair roots attached to planting ALL the berries. It's not just dig the root and run.

Billy, thanks for taking the time to show people how to do it the right way!

Wild Seng Hunters:

I know I offered TNhunter to do a test plot of planted berries. I did'nt mean to make it sound like anyone else could'nt try this out.

Next season:
Take a set amount of berries, say 30-50 and plant them in a seperate location and monitor them to let us know how many sprout. I hope thats not too much trouble.

It would be good info to know how much difference it makes by taking the time to plant the berries versus, letting them fall on the ground.


Hopefully theres one or a few of you seng hunters willing to try this out and let us know the results.

classicfur

classicfur,

Thank you and you are welcome,

Billy.