TOPIC: security strategy

I've just started reading this forum and am loving it. One thing that is bothering me about trying to grow ginseng beyond the couple small patches I have going is the potential for theft. One question I have for all of you is whether you think installing security devices (signs, fences, cameras, alarms, dogs, etc) might attract more attention than its worth in preventing theft. Although there are definitely a few sang hunters in my area, I'd say most trespassers are neighbors and deer hunters that wouldn't necessarily recognize ginseng, unless a bunch of security measures tipped them off that something was unusual. Am I being naive? What do yall more experienced growers do?

Vafiddler,
You brought up a good point. Posting too many signs can draw attention as well as can Fences, Cameras, Alarms and Dogs. I do know that if done correctly some of these can be a big help. If your planting site is close to your house a dog that likes the outdoors and is comfortable with being in a dog house can really let you know when someone is in the woods. I have a buddy that lets me Mushroom hunt in his woods and his hunting dog starts barking even when I am 100 yards in the woods from his dog house. Even when I think I am quiet he hears me and starts barking.

Game cameras are good for catching people and are not too unaffordable. There is a post on Wildgrown of a guy that says there is new game cameras that feeds a Video right to your computer.
As far as fences this is just going to tell someone that you have something going on there in my opinion.
I do know this, if you want to keep deer out of your beds many ginseng farmers are buying 12 lb test fishing line and wrapping it around trees to encircle their beds. You can buy 1000 feet of 12 lb fishing line for $10 to $20 dollars. They say to make sure the line is ran so it is about head high on an average size deer. Apparently the deer will walk into it and they feel the tension of the line and will not cross it. Granted if a deer is running it is going to bust right through it or a tree limb might fall on it and break it. If so just stretch another line. I am going to try it this year.
Some say Deer do not eat ginseng and some say they do. I have found many a ginseng plant on the deer trail that were untouched so I am still not sure.
I do know this for sure thou, wild turkey will take your ripe seeds and I have seen many a turkey scratches next to ginseng plants that have had the berries stripped clean. So I am not sure what to do about that.
When I was at the ginseng farm in MD we saw a dozen young turkey going to town on the red berries when we came upon them in his truck checking out one of his planting sites.

Talk about security there too, he has cameras all over the place and has caught many a poacher and has prosecuted them to boot. It is a Ginseng Farm and everyone knows it is there thou. So he needs the cameras for sure.
Good luck,
Latt

I would just keep a close eye on everything and not tip a possible trespasser off with anything until I seen some go missing then I would start with more obvious preventative measures

Hillhopper,
That's my plan for now as well. I have a lot of my seng planted in different woods in different areas so all of my eggs are not in one basket. I wish I had a large woods to plant all of my ginseng beds in but I do not. The good thing is if one of my ginseng sites gets poached they are only going to get a fraction of what I have growing. I have already come to grips with expecting a site to get wiped out by a poacher. So if it does I will be pissed but not surprised. Maybe I will get lucky too thou and I would be happy to be wrong.
Thanks,
Latt

I agree that fences are a dead give away. Same goes for utility flags, string and stakes, etc.
I posted a bunch of no trespassing and no hunting signs around my property. I feel like they still get the message across without revealing too much about my sangin'.

Regarding the deer and turkey, I hear the fishing line works really well as a deterrent but I also learned a new one over this past season I'd like to share:
Tie up some plastic garbage bags and tack them up around your plot. The idea is when the wind blows even a bit, the motion and noise of the thin plastic keeps away critters.

Someone shared that little tid bit with me recently, three weeks later I noticed that just about every veggie garden along the main road
by me has bags strung around the fence, so the idea must be somewhat effective.


Below is a portion of a previous post of mine from a year or so ago regarding security.


Someone on this site recommended a more visually stunning deterrent, a noosed effigy of a sang ripper with a sign on it.

What I did was I towed one of the old vehicles from off a neighbors property to mine, right near my patch, where I proceeded to send roughly 300 shells down range at it out of my AK-47. The peppered paint job leaves a lasting impression.

Shit, I meant shopping bags not garbage bags.

Hey Guys,

Something I ran into a couple years ago.

Me and my seng hunting partner were hunting on some property of a land owner that my partners is friends with, and he had told us to beware of his neighbor and the property line because he had made it clear to them that he did not want anyone tresspassing on his property. He told us about where the line was so we kept an eye out for it while hunting up that hollow.

When we did get to the line it was clearly marked and had signs in place spaced out around the property border.

The signs read something like this \"best I rememer\".

WARNING:
Plant and Animal Conservancy
Federally Protected Property
Then it went on to state some stuff that sure sounded serious (like Federal law you would be breaking if you harmed any plants or animals on that property).

It sure sounded serious and we made darn sure we did not step over that line.

But then on up the hollow we got to a place where we could see the upper end of a old grown up field over on that property and there was a nice deer stand built in a tree there, a deer feeder in place and not far form there there was a blind built down at ground level in another spot.

We talked to the land owner we were hunting on later on and asked about those serious sounding \"federally protected\" signs and he said that land was not anything special, not federally protected, that his neighbor had just purchased those signs and put them up to put a serious scare into any would be tresspassers.

I can tell you one thing for sure, it worked on me and my buddy - we were not about to step over that line even if we saw a big old 4 prong over there.

I have considered searching and finding a place to buy such signs and posting a few on my property where growing seng.

They sure did sound much more serious than your average no hunting, no tresspassing sign.

Anyone have any idea where such signs could be purchased ?

They were good quality painted metal signs and he had them nailed to trees around the property line.

TNhunter

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I like hillhopper suggestions of keeping everything real subtle until there's a problem, then start with the other mechanisms.

Latt- that's a good point about having different patches in different woods so a poacher won't likely get it all. One other big benefit is that if each patch is a different age, then when you harvest you can basically dig the entire area, and not have to worry about someone that helps you going back and getting the rest.

TNhunter- good to hear that those signs were a detterent to you. I would have thought they would raise more suspicion than prevent theft, but I guess not in your case.