TOPIC: The time has arrived here in East Tennessee

Somewhere around the middle of July the first ginseng berries are ready to pick and either plant or place in stratification boxes. I made some pictures this morning and these will be used to plant in the mountains. I have always believed that this is the most beautiful stage of the ginseng plant and it just really stands out in the mountains. I also made a trip to the mountains yesterday and took pictures of several patches of three year old plants. Many of them are setting on their first berry pods and they will be decorating the mountain sides from this year on. I hope you enjoy the beauty as much as I do and for those who will be harvesting some soon, Good Luck With Yours .Have a good day and enjoy.

Hugh
http://www.smokymountainflyguide.com/Choosing%20places%20to%20grow%20ginseng2.htm

Hugh...

Nice looking berry pods. I love those big fat red berries.

I think there is one time that ginseng is even more beautiful than this...

and that is when a plant still has red berries and the leaves have turned yellow.

The forest floor in the fall with a tall yellow 4 prong and a wad of red berries... man that is just a hard site to beat.

TNhunter

TN,
I think that I agree with you except I've never seen any get to that stage around my neck of the woods. The berries either fall off or some critter gets to them by the time they start to turn gold. I've seen pictures of them and I've seen lots of turning plants, but the berries are long gone by then. Maybe I'll get to photograph one this season.

Hugh

Nice Hugh, hope you get a lot of berries this year

Fellows,
It's off to the mountains with the first plantings.

Well,
I just got back from the mountains and this is what it looked like as they went into the ground. It felt good putting life back into some good looking , but bare sites.
Hugh

Nice pics Hugh!

Well done Hugh

Thanks fellows,

It's been a few days since I picked from the first wave of early ripening berries and today the next round was ready to come off and go to another mountain. There are plenty of bare spots on almost all of the mountains of the Appalachian chain so a couple hundred more will fit nicely. Let's hope they do well.
Hugh

Man looking at those ripe berries makes it seem like forever before mine will get there.
You get a real good feeling when a native berry germinates , this year was the first time for me . It's better than having store bought seed germinate ain't it