TOPIC: Nothing sprouted

Sorry if I feel a little skeptical about growing ginseng, but absolutely none of the seed I purchased last year sprouted. I purchased about quater pound of which I divided up into 4 small patches in various locations. I cleared the leaf litter, gently pushed the seed into the humus, and covered back over. ...... nothing.
Any Suggestions????

JP

Takes 2 years to stratify , for wild plants anyways! Check next year.

JP wrote:

Sorry if I feel a little skeptical about growing ginseng, but absolutely none of the seed I purchased last year sprouted. I purchased about quater pound of which I divided up into 4 small patches in various locations. I cleared the leaf litter, gently pushed the seed into the humus, and covered back over. ...... nothing.
Any Suggestions????

JP

JP, what is the site like? Could the ground be too wet? What other plants are in the area? Any Trillium, Christmas fern, Dolls eye, jack in the pulpit? Did the weather get real dry after you planted? Could the seed have dried out and died? Was the seed stratified or green? Lots of things to consider,perhaps with more info, we could help more.

Dieselrider,
Thank you for responding...very respectful thing to do.

Trillium? .... yes, a limited number of white and a few red. Also blue cohosh, may apple, plentiful christmas fern along with hayscented, and spinulose wood fern, not much in the way of jack-in-the-pulpit, trout-lily, white baneberry (dolls eyes) yes, and mayflower a little later on in the spring. The site I have selected consists of 70-100 (and a few real old fellas) year old sugar maple (15-20\"dbh), black cherry, American beech, a few scattered hemlock and ash as overstory species. Not much in the
way of understory species...... rather open...great for deer hunting.

I cannot remember when I received the seed....but I planted them within a couple days of getting them....late Oct., early November. The humus was not particularly dry and I covered with the autumn leaves after planting for protection. General characteristics of the site are...a fertile, upland, well drained site where sugar maple does well. Well shaded with few
openings in the canopy. Soils are derived from limestone/shale so they are not acidic. From my reading I would have guessed this was an ideal site, but having never grown ginseng before...?????? What do you think?

JP

JP
Which direction is the slope facing? N, NE, E, SE, etc? It sounds like a good site in other respects.
I just thought of this too. Are you looking for three leaf sprouts or are you expecting to see one prong plants with five leaflets right off the bat? I know this may sound elementary but, I am just trying to think of anything that may help.

Dieselrider,
I want to thank you for trying to help me solve my problem. As it turns out, I think I was expecting something totally different....something bigger. Please take a look at the attached photo. Please confirm ....is this it?

Thanks again.

JP

oops! here it is!

You have Sang!!!!!! That is what the sprouts look like the first year. Next spring some may still look like that but, some will have four or five leaflets and look a lot more like what you were expecting. Some may even have a second prong next year. Congratulations!