TOPIC: Seed Bed Pics - update as of 05/04/2011

Hey Guys,

I went over to my seed producing bed just now and took a look and a few pictures.

I put 44 roots in that bed and 42 of them are up this year.

Looks like the other two are just not going to show this year - perhaps they will next year.

Most of the tops are filled out nicely now so here is a update showing what they look like as of 05/04/2011.

There are 34 - 3 prongs and 8 - 4 prongs showing up this year.

TNhunter

One of the roots that I got from Billy has some odd leaf formation going on.

It looks like they did not fully develop or just stayed crunched up - sort of deformed looking.

Not sure what is up with that - perhaps it just did not like the move from the Ky Mountains to Middle Tennseese.

Or could just be a bit of transplant shock.

Anyway hope that is nothing serious and it gets better next year.

Here is what it looks like.

Even though the leaves are odd looking it is a big stout plant and has a very nice berry stem developing already.

By far the largest berry stem of all of them.

It is about 1.5\" long already.

TNhunter

I've seen that before from a damaged bud, does'nt take much to do that.
The garden looks great.
Here in Canada nothing is up yet, two more weeks probably.

guy

TNhunter

Nice turnout!

My first thought from seeing the deformed plant, was frost damage. Several years ago I had seedlings that were hit with a late frost. The leaves were deformed like yours and they all recovered the next spring.

Here's some things I found in my ginsengs books about that.

John Epler jr./ All About Ginseng:
\"Sometimes transplanted and older plants will have a wrinkled look to them. They may have a very short stem and the leaflets are extremely malformed. Left alone, they will produce some seed and conclude a normal growing season. This condition happens most often to the earliest plants to emerge in the spring. I believe it is caused by frost. At any rate, the same plants are tall and healthy the following season.\"

Kim Pritts/ Ginseng:
\"Frost' heat' and drought can damage ginseng plants in ways similar to some diseases. Frost damage can result in twisted, misshapened plants, but plants hurt by frost usually survive with no ill effect to the root.\"

Or like Guy mentioned. Possible bud damage. Either in transporting the roots or frost damage.

I don't think it's a disease of any sorts.

classicfur

TNhunter

Here is a photo of frost damaged ginseng.

www.flickr.com/photos/kwixted0/2063232561/

classicfur

Classicfur,

It does look a little like the frost damage example but I sort of doubt that is the problem.

All 5 of those KY Mountain roots I got from Billy were later in tops emerging than the seng roots from my area. They were basically the last to emerge and we have not had any frost since (several weeks) before they started emerging.

My local roots sent up tops 2-3 weeks before the KY Mountain roots sent up tops, and none of my local root tops look like that.

Must have been something else that caused the leaf issue.

It is really amazing that that many of those roots survived and did well enough to send up tops this year. They were dug up out of the ground, kept in a bag for several hours, then planted again in a new area.

In the case of Billy's roots he had to temporarily plant them and store them for a week or two that way until he could ship me all 5 at one time.

And all of Billy's roots survived all of that and sent up tops this year.

I am very pleased with the results and hopefully the leaf issue will go away next spring. The roots will not be disturbed this year and will have some time to get used to their new location.

PS - when I made that raised bed last fall - I added 30 gal of mineral rich rocky soil, and bone meal and gypsum. Then early this spring (Feb) I put more gypsum and bone meal on top.

The bed also has strips of dry wall board (gypsum) placed on it above and below each strip where the roots are planted for slow release over time.

Hopefully they will be happy with their new location.

TNhunter

TNhunter

It looked just like the deformed leaves on the frost damaged seedlings I had a few years back. But I understand that you probably don't get heavy late frosts like we do.

It must be damage to the bud from all the handling. Being dug up, buried in some soil, dug up and put in a box and all the jiggling around while in transit and then buried again.

That's a lot for a tender ginseng bud to go through.

You've done good, for that many to come up lookin healthy.

classicfur

Great looking beds!

LIkewise, here. I took wildgrown up on their 10lbs of 2YO roots last fall, and they have done great. Wish I'd gotten 20 pounds... that has to be the motto of sang farmers in the spring: I wish I had planted more. Of course, transplaing that many roots (over 1000) took a while... and the dry fall followed by a quick freeze left me with maybe a 2 week window to get 'em all transplanted, after sitting in the fridge almost a month due to the drought. Considering that impediment, I'm delighted with the results.

So far, it's about evenly divided between 2 and 3 prong, and one four prong. Varying degrees of size, some small, some huge. Some deformed leaves, but the plants don't seem to be decaying. Some in the last round of planting are taking their sweet time coming up, I'm still finding a few new ones.

Quite a contrast from last year when I put out 100 3YO roots in the spring, and three came up.