TOPIC: How do you mark your ginseng beds & ID year planted ?

I have been planting most of the 2 lbs that I have planted at this point over in one hollow (where my best soil test results came in from).

I have about a dozen beds planted over there now and have basically been picking the best spots (nice lanes with few saplings to clear out) to make those beds.

There is probably room for 100 more beds in that hollow but it will require more work to clear for planting.

At first I thought I would mark my beds by dragging up old logs/limbs or making rock piles but that is a lot of work and once you get several beds in one area the supply of logs/limbs/rocks runs low.

I put down those little wire/flag markers to mark the bed good when planting, but don't want to leave those, need to replace them with something (much less obvious) but still something I can locate myself.

I had some 1/2\" grey pvc (electric conduit) and experimented with it some yesterday making stakes. It worked nicely.

That is something that will definately last 10 years.

A 10' piece of the conduit you can cut up into 20\" long stakes (and get 6 per 10' piece). A 10' piece cost around 1.50 - I purchased 10 yesterday and made 60 stakes.

I cut them with my chop saw and then cut a angle on one end to make it sharp.

They drove in real easy and I just left about 1' above ground.

From a distance they are not real easy to spot (grey color blends in nicely in the woods), but once you do locate the bed you can tell exactly where the seed bed is.

Since I will be putting down gypsum and possibly rock phosphate over the years, will be important to know exactly where to broadcast that for top dressing.

Even though I finished planting all of my seed on Friday - I cleared out 2 more nice long beds yesterday evening so I have them ready to just rake and plant when I do get more seed in.

I may end up planting another 8-10 beds in that same hollow this year.

But now for years to come I will be clearing and planting more beds in that same hollow.

Just wondering how you guys that have been planting for several years (in the same location) how do you mark the beds to show the year planted - if you attempt to keep up with that ?

I have considered color coding them, perhaps spray painting a couple stakes blue on each 2010 bed, then next year could change to orange, the next year green, etc.

Are any of you attempting to keep up with that - if so - what plan did you come up with ?

Thanks

TNhunter

I have kept my beds fairly close together so when broadcasting soil amendments I just cover the the whole area, including the walkways between them. I draw out a map of the beds and record anything different I may do for future reference. I have a metal detector I bought years ago and a old bucket of bridge nails so Iv been pushing them into the ground at the bed corners. I suppose it's unecessary but iv been doing it for good measure anyways.

Hillhopper

I've been marking my beds with stakes made from sugar maple. And then like hillhopper, I make a map of the area that shows the year planted and what the germination rate was. Maps are important when you have too many to keep track of. I think I have over 80 beds. But after a year or two, I know where the bed starts ands ends even if the stakes were not there. I mark my beds on the corners and about every twelve feet down the sides.

Here's a couple pics showing the stakes.

classicfur

Another bed.

I mark some spots by lining the beds with logs that I cleared out of the beds. However I try not to make them too perfect as I do not want to make it easy for a trespasser to notice something is going on there. Secondly on sites where I plant I just memorize a unique tree or rock or something to identify the area. Sometimes I take a pic with my cell phone of the landmark. If no land mark exist I will take four or five 3'' thick logs and lean them up against a larger tree to mark the area. I look for logs with a fork in them and when I lean them up against the tree they will last a few years and will not fall over. They are easy to spot when you are looking for them. If you are not looking for them I believe a trespasser would walk right by them without noticing them.
Sounds like everyone has some good ways to mark their spots.
I do not have one but I hear hand held GPS units are great for this. I have buddies that use GPS to find their morel mushroom spots. I hate to brag but I think I have a GPS in my head sometimes. I can always find my ginseng or mushroom spots without too much trouble . I bet you guys are the same way.
Thanks,
Latt

I don't think your bragging at all Latt. After you put so much effort and time into an area it seems second nature to go back and find a rock, a tree or a certain limb that hangs a certain way and know exactly where everything is

I cut a tree on one corner like a claim post, with year enscribed. Pictures from every corner work the best though, ten years later some posts rot out.

guy

Thanks for all of the suggestions guys.

I started to use wood stakes (oak) but doubt seriously that would last 7-10 years and I did not want to go to the trouble to cut and install something that was not going to last the duration.

Where possible I have been putting my beds in along old logs so the log is a marker on one side then just a few stakes on the other side and you have it done.

I like the grey pvc pipe solution for making stakes - they should basically last forever and blend in fairly well but can be spotted if you know what you are looking for.

If some tresspasser did stumble upon them (say in the winter time) they would probably just think they were property line markers.

I am keeping a map and marking the areas planted with notes but I can see down the road after planting in that same hollow for several seasons it could sure be difficult to keep straight exactly which beds were planted in which years.

I have 6 more 5x50' beds cleared of saplings and marked now ready for planting but it may be after Christmas before I get do to any more. If not then (if I can't get seed then), then they will be ready for next year.

TNhunter

I would say that would work as good or better than anything else TNhunter

I used my handheld GPS and Google Earth to make a map. After I planted each bed, I marked it in my GPS as Bed 1, Bed 2, etc. When I finished, I went to Google Earth and had it pull up a map of my area with all the waypoints marked on it. I have a coresponding spreadsheet with information listed for each bed such as date planted, where I purchased the seed, the conditions the seed was planted under, and so on.

I can't speak for the rest of you gentleman, but it would have been just as easy for me to physically mark each plot is some subtle way. If some trespasser was walking through my property, unless they were a total dope, they would have to wonder what was going on when they hit all those cleared out areas in the woods. They stick out like a sore thumb.