TOPIC: Seedlings are up

Lenno,
I haven't ever noticed them being up this early before. I am in the landscape business and we have started cutting grass about two weeks sooner than we ever have here in TN. I think everything is just a bit ahead of schedual this year.

TNhunter,
Alot of mine that I found up weren't really covered over very good and all the one's that are looked to be a few days behind but are trying to push up. It is a good site but it makes me a little nervous also. I found quite a few snails under all the leaves while I was looking around. I used snail bait on my strawed beds but not on my others, I think they will get an application today as well.

classicfur,
I agree, it was a good site to see. I was checking my beds to see any new fresh snail remains when I spotted them. By the way, the Deadline you told me about seems to be working great. Everywhere it was applied I cant find any live snails \"only fresh shells\" but in areas where it wasn't I am running across em left and right. My whole planting is about to get a good dose today.


Hillhopper

Hey everybody,
I know Slugs or Snails without shells eat my ginseng like crazy. But I have never seen any snails with shells chewing on my sang. Does anyone know if the snails with shells attack ginseng? One of my planting beds was riddled with empty snail shells when I was planting. All I kept thinking about was the amount of calcium that these shells were going to provide once they decompose. I am sure this site will be good as the calcium reading was 6,900 PPA. Not sure if the snail shells that have decomposed over the hundreds of years added to this or not.

Hillhopper,
I think I will order my Deadline that Classicfur recommended ASAP or go to Lowe's or Home Depot and get some. If your sang is up already, I am sure mine will start to come up here in Ohio in the next 3 to 4 weeks too. So I would hate to be late on spraying. I do not want to see my plants stripped clean again by these little slimers.

TN,
Looks like both you and Hillhopper are a bit surprised as we all are that these little ginseng babies are up already. I am still amazed that a few came up already. I bet you that 80% of the rest of your seeds that are going to sprout will be up in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Can't wait to see both of your sea of green ginseng pics real soon.

Thanks,
Latt

I have been putting down snail bait periodically for the last few weeks. But whatever ones that survived still managed to cut down the stems of about 1/3 of what's already up from the few rootlets I have. Pretty much there is nothing else that can be done, right? Usually this amount of snail population is never a problem for my other plants since they just out grow the damage quickly. But for the ginseng, I suppose one year of growth just went to waste in this case.

Lenno,

I can't really speak as to whether this is normal for my area. I sort of doubt it.

This fall/winter was my first time planting stratified seed.

Now I do have a small patch out back where I transplanted some small two prong (wild roots) and last spring I checked them several times in April and on April 15 none were up, but on April 17 (5 out of 10 roots) had tops up.

I was sort of expecting the seed I planted to be up around that same time this year or possibly a little later.

Others hear (I think classicfur) mentioned that seedlings usually send up tops a week or two after older established plants do.

I sure was not expecting any of mine to be up this early but just a few are.

That brings me to another question for you shroomers.

Do you think that Morrells will be up earlier this year too ?

I have never hunted them but plan to this spring.

I have a couple bales of straw down by my seed bed that have been sitting there since last fall and I noticed this morning that one of them has a bunch of shrooms of some kind sprouting out all over the top of it. I don't know much about shrooms, but have studied the morrell and they are not morrells.

That is making me wonder if morrells may be up now or soon ?

Also - you guys that do hunt morrells do they grow in about the same type areas where you find seng ? Are they found more on a north facing hillside, or does it matter which way the hillside faces for morrells ?

I have 3 days off work this week and may just get out and tromp around and see if I can find a few.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

TNhunter

TN,
They do grow in the same areas as sang. They like acidic soil. If you have dying Elms and live ash and shaggy bark hickory you should find morels. I look on the west and southern facing slopes early and then move to the north and eastern slopes later in the morel season. Blacks come up first then the Half-Frees or Dog Peckers as many call them second and then the morels. But they all over lap too. I have found blacks, dog peckers and morels all in the same day.
Chances are the the mushrooms growing on your straw are one of the little brown mushroom (LBM's) species. It could be any one of the hunderds upon hundreds of different types that fall under the LBM's. So it would be difficult to ID.
Good luck,
Latt

I had to take a stroll today and check things out. I was right not to get my hopes up. The woods here are still pretty much dead. There is the slightest touch of green in places, but you have to look incredibly hard to see it. I am glad that I got back around to my beds after a long time away because I was able to clear the sticks that had fallen in them. Also, saw some deer tracks and a few droppings in my beds, plus I could tell some critters had dug in a few places and got some seeds.

It's a beautiful sight, those sprouts! congrats!

Did you plant those last fall?

I looked over the weekend at mine and not one was up yet.

Sigh, I'm a little upset with some of ya'll. You got me all excited. Just like Jacquo, I walked every patch over the weekend hoping to see something. Not a damn thing here in West Virginia. Good hike on a pretty day though so I can't be too upset.

TNhunter

I think it's normal to see a small amount of new seedlings emerge before the older plants. But in general I believe that you will see your Seed Bed Roots will emerge before the bulk of your 20,000+ new seedlings emerge.

Atleast that is what I have experienced over the years in the North.

www.wildgrown.com/index.php/Ginseng-Arti...gence-in-Spring.html

Good to hear that some are seeing plants pop up!

classicfur

Hillhopper, Latt

I know that Slugs are the biggest threat to my seng beds here in Maine.

When I first started planting seng in Maine, the slugs were out of control. They would be on top of the mulch as well as under the mulch. The biggest problem for seedling is that slugs would attack the seedling as it started growing out of the seed. They would destroy the seedling so it would never make it above the mulch. So your waiting for the seedlings to emerge and the slugs are eating them up, out of your visual sight and they fail to emerge.

I now treat beds with Deadline M-Ps for a whole year before I plant that bed. Then when I plant the bed with seeds, 95% of the population of slugs have been killed off.

I now have very little problem with slugs. So I just spread a light application of Deadline as a security measure.

Slugs can do very heavy damage in a short amount of time, especially to seedlings. You need to take action ASAP.

But I would say that growers in the North have more problems with slug than growers in the south.

classicfur