TOPIC: GROWING for a LIVING (who actually can do it ? )

I had very good luck with rootlets, however these are a whole group more expensive to purchase from any seller. Every one I planted came up, however my deer problem did real damage to them.

Getting your seeds is a real good Q, as mentioned above.... please consider following the conventional wisdom on the more expereinced growers here!

And, look for the best price! Don't know about you, however this is an important consideration for me. And it make good business sense as well.

Here's the answer to question one, whats the difference between wild simulated, or woods grown ginseng.- wild simulated means; (without cultivation of any type, grown where wild [/b]\"could\" grow).- therefore it is detrimental to the continued survival or existance of wild ginseng, unless it is grown with a 600 ft or more buffer zone of any known wild plant, CITIES,2011.

Question 2
IF you live in an area where all the equipment and chemicals are available from companies offering their services, soil prep and sterilizing, planting, including seed cost , applicable fertilization and disease prevention programs, berry harvest and cleaning and stratifying for the 8 or more years, and the finally harvest drying and marketing of your crop,and you have zero overhead including the land and home then yes you can make a middle type class living off cultivating in the woods, trying to make the root look close to wild as time allows.

Or you can make a few extra bucks if you register as a farm ( for the tax right offs) work every friggin spare minute on your farm on your off hours from the full time job you need to keep ya going till any farm monies start filtering their way down to you. But don't worry it's only 8 plus years if everything goes your way.
But then again you can loose your shirt and the kids shirts to like most farmers now adays.

For the best advise go to the two largest ginseng growing ares in the U.S.and ask a few ginseng farmers not the conglomerate farmers just the family farmer - if you can find one!!!
remember the old saying - the grass always seems better after a few beers.

guy

LOL Guy......a few beers does help!

I am new to this game, but from what i can see, the consistent money in this buisness is in the seed sales. Based on your origional scenario of making 50K a year, here is my 2 cents.

Wild simulated plots left to natures whims cannot be expected to return much more than 10-20% of what was planted if all you are planning on is a one time plant and the roots for income. I dont know this from experience, but if it were that easy to stuff 5 lbs of seed in the ground and get 5 bucks per root after 8-10 years, i think there would be alot more people involved in the wild sim method. One option that seems cool to me is to establish a site that ginseng likes, let nature do its own thinning, and keep re seeding every year through the next decade. Then depending on the size of the plot you would have a nice mix of different aged Wild looking roots to sell all in one digging site.

Woods grown on the other hand with much denser plant per acre numbers, if maintained and monitored for plant health and fungus, fertilizer and what not. Could possibly triple the % of wild sim? I cannot say from experience but it seems so. If you do the numbers on the seed poundage its quite suprising how much can be gained while still growing a middle of the road root. If time and resources are available, woods grown seems the most profitable overall if you tally in the seed factor.

I learn so much from this forum. I am only in my first year of this and hope to continue to learn more about successfull ginseng farming. Just like anything else in life, i believe that diversification is the best way.

Buckeyefist,
You are right on the money. 10-20% survival rate after the 10th year is what most will end up with even in a great planting site with all the right conditions. Yes there will be exceptions some better some worse. If you go into it knowing the survival rate then you will be able to get past the discouragement you will feel at about the 4 or 5th year when you see your planting sites thin themselves out by about 5 to 10% a year. I have personally experienced this discouragement. The once \"Carpet of Green\" ginseng seedlings that you will see the first year (if all goes well) will continue to thin itself out as it does in mother nature.

We all know that Mother Nature knows this and this is why so many animals and plants produce a large quantity of offspring or seed. Mother nature knows that only a few will survive.

I have found many mature 4 prong plants that are 30 years old. If this plant produces 30 berries then there are 60 seeds per year. If that same plant produces this year after year for lets say 20 years just to be safe, then that's 1200 seeds it has produced. I have never found a 30 year old 4 prong with 1200 seedlings below or around it yet. Yes many seeds get eaten and are dispersed by animals elsewhere or simply destroyed when eaten. However, I have found many late season seng where the berries have fallen off and are laying on the ground and the seeds are all dried out.

We give our seeds a better chance at surviving by planting them and the germination rate of our planted wild or purchased seed has a great chance for germinating. But survival rates go down tremendously when left to stand the test of time in the wild setting.
Good luck and I hope you achieve all your goals what ever they may be with planting ginseng.
Latt

Latt,
Ah yes, MOTHER NATURE, She sure throws us some curves doesn't she. But every year I still plant seeds. I guess I just love doing it.

rootman

I am with ya Rootman.
Heading out this weekend to plant a pound myself.
Latt

guy wrote:

wild simulated means; (without cultivation of any type, grown where wild [/b]\"could\" grow).- therefore it is detrimental to the continued survival or existance of wild ginseng, unless it is grown with a 600 ft or more buffer zone of any known wild plant, CITIES,2011.
guy

Wow IMHO everything in red is wrong on every level....unless cultivated ginseng has been genetically altered, i believe that it came from wild ginseng, so unless ginseng has some magical system of morphing into a totaly different plant common sense should tell that wonderful regulating athourity about a well known property of living things to regress back to the wild.

I suggust that this conversation about genetic differences vs altered seeds, vs morphing in relation to wild gensing and cultivated genising..... is actually deserving it's own thread/posting.

I find it interesting, and really worthy of discusssion!

Whitjr here is one from 5 months ago:

Re:differences in seeds? 5 Months, 2 Weeks ago Karma: 6
Whitjr,
That is the million dollar question. It is kind of like the movie trading places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. If you take so called inferior seed (Shade Grown Field Cultivated) and put it in an area that is optimal for growth, will it not perform as well as the so called better quality seed (Wild Simulated).

I had thought that Wild Simulated seed would have better genetics and a better resistance and ability to cope with what mother nature has in store for a seed growing in the wild in the woods. I thought that Shade Grown Field Cultivated seeds that comes from ginseng that is pampered under controlled conditions with sprays to fight off disease, fungus etc would struggle in a wild setting. Therefore I surmised it would be best to invest in Wild Simulated seed and pay the higher price for it.

However, I am not so sure anymore. I have planted Shade Grown Field Cultivated seed and it is doing really great in the woods. I tried a couple pounds and I have plans to try some more.

There are a lot of post on this forum pertaining to this topic. There are a lot of good testimonials as well as thoughts pertaining to Shade Grown Field Cultivated verses Wild Simulated seeds.

Good luck,
Latt

I for one have no problems at all with shade produced seed. The stuff I sell and plant normally runs in the 90s (this year 92%) according to the germination test. I have to tell you, even when I plant them in tilled beds, if I leave them past two years you are hard pressed to tell them apart from naturally occurring indigenous wild plants. I've not dug any of my wild sim yet, but may this year to see how they look. I can't believe they are anything but wild at this point.