TOPIC: opening day...

turkey hunting was no good,they would gobble on the roost,as soon as their feet hit the ground they shut up..crappie bit good got 88 in two trips...

Chief... you are wearing out the crappie.

I went Monday morning but it was pretty cold and the river still up and running.. only caught one good smallie, and ate him yesterday (or her)... roe and liver and all.

I love crappie.... eating wise they are sure hard to beat...

I think I am hooked on fishing for smallies for the fight they put up... and the fact that I catch them in a absolutely beautiful river, where i hardly ever see anyone else. I like that.

TNHunter

Hey guys, the past few days I've been counting the results of last fall's plantings, I don't have the results deciphered yet but hope to share them soon. Not that the data will be exciting or anything.

While in the woods I've been looking around my honey-holes and have found approximately ten 2 and 3 prongs that I had not noticed last year. Most are several yards away, kind of like stand-alone plants.

While out looking this evening I heard a call from my wife. I responded "up here" and was surprised she worked her way up toward me (she's not much of an outdoors person). When she got in sight, I called out again, "up here" and she said, "I got you". I looked back to the slope I was searching and saw a previously undiscovered 2-prong. I showed it to her and we continued on looking. I found another one or two and we moved to a different, steeper slope.

I led her to a couple I'd found the other day and with a tip or two, let her find them. She kept saying she wanted to find one on her own. We're traversing this slope, her about 20 yards above me and she says that she thinks she's found one, then she says two. I walk up to her and see the two 3-prongs she's found and I also see a 2-prong several inches from them. I ask her if there are any others nearby and after a moment or two she sees the 2-prong.

Last year she said while searching with me that it all just looks green to her.

She's happy that she finally found one on her own as we keep looking and I say, "$@*^&%# addicting, isn't it"? lol

I still have not found a 4-prong! I wonder if they're rare or if the ginseng on my property just hasn't been here long enough.

Almost forgot, on one of my plots I planted last fall I have three 2-prongs right next to one another. Out of roughly 3600 seeds planted I've found a total of four first year 2-prongs, three of which are right next to each other and I've posted the pic. This seems like one heck of a coincidence and I wonder if I just happened to plant among them? Seems unlikely though.

Hope you're all well.

Woodsrunner... those 2 prongs are most likely as you thought... already there... wild ones.

I have seen first year seng come up with 3 leaves (99% of the time)... and every once in a while with 4 leaves and on a couple rare occasions had some new ones come up with 5 leaves. Never seen one come up as a 2 prong though.

I guess it might be possible, but I have never seen it.

Sounds like your wife is about to get hooked on seng hunting to me

Deer and I expect other critters like to eat seng tops... so it is not unusual at all to look a place over good in the fall and find no sign of geneng... but the next spring there be several tops in that area. When late summer and fall is extra hot/dry the deer seem to really browse hard on seng tops.

The first year I bought my Garmen GPS... I went scouting in June and marked the location of several nice seng plants... when I hunted that location on opening day of season... all of those tops had been browsed... just nipped off just above the ground.
With m GPS I was still able to locate most of them though. I tell you it not easy at all to spot them just by a old stem sticking up a inch above the leaves. My GPS did put me right on them, and i was able to find them though.

I have tomatoes and sweet corn (ambrosia), cukes, zukes, cantelop, peppers, watermelons, planted mostly in my flat garden now.. and dang if it's not threatening to get bad cold again. I hate that... supposed to be warm by May... but I have one or two days with lows in the upper 30's predicted in the 7 day forecast. Hope it does not actually get that cold here.

Sweet corn (ambrosia which is a "se" variety)... does not like cold dirt when germinating. I planted it Saturday... I have seen it come up in 5 days (when getting in the 80's)... but it will be much slower with this cool weather.

My loganberry is just covered in half inch sized green berries now... can't wait for those to start getting ripe. They are definately ahead of my tame blackberries by 2-3 weeks or so.

TNHunter

You're probably right TN, those three 2-prongs were there and I didn't see them last year.

Two of my honey holes I feel real safe about and have started placing survey flags above them hoping that if a deer is browsing, it doesn't want to get poked. We;ll see how that works out. My other honey hole is too close to my property line so I won't do that there.

I've posted a photo of my wife's find. The two prong almost looks like a three in the pic but that's a different plant there.

BTW, I'm finding tons of jacks now that I can recognize them. I think I have yellow root as well but I haven't figured out how ti ID it yet.

We had frost last night, I had my veggie plants in my shop, I think we're suppose to get it again in the next few nights.

crazy weather,iam in for a hard freeze tonight,got 43 crappie Wed.

They were calling for upper 30's here (37 39) but per my back porch thermometer... 42.2 was our low.

But I had some cantaloupe, watermelon and pepper plants up... that sure did not like the temp... wilted up bad. will have to replant.

I think it must get colder out in my fields, garden, orchard... than it does on my back porch (which is for the most part sheltered from the wind)... and any cold air that may be rising up out of the hollows...

I did have ambrosia sweet corn planted (last Saturday)... and it was not up yet on the two cold nights... but has since come up and is looking good (got good germination rate even though cooler than ideal soil temps)... we did have some good sunshine to warm up the soil even on those cold mornings... and that had to help... got a good stand of corn on the way.

I have other hills of cantaloupe, cukes, zukes that I planted last Saturday and so for none are up yet. The last half of this week is is supposed to warm up nicely, so that should help.

All this talk of Global Warming... I think this spring we have had Global Cooling instead.

I think there are going to be lots of States this year, with shortages of home grown peaches, apples, etc...

All my peaches are gone now... and I looked my apple tree over good and found 1 apple left on it. Pitiful.

Loganberry and Blackberry's are looking GOOD though. Good to have a few things sill coming on.

Chief congrats on the fishing success. It is about time for me to go again.

Usually by Mid May they are starting to hit top water baits here... but so far this May has been more like late March, early April.

I checked my seed bed a few days ago and they were all looking good.

TNHunter

Below my seed producing bed plants... from May 8th.

TNHunter

Your seed bed looks amazing TN. Did you plant it differently than your other spots or just don't dig the roots and only harvest the berries?

The three 2-prongs I found among first years that we discussed above have been eaten. Two of the stems are still there.

Yesterday evening (Mother's Day) I discovered more ginseng on my property. I counted 58 plants before needing to head down to the house. I went back up there today with survey flags and placed a flag for each plant, I ran out of flags at 120 plants. I'll go back up tomorrow and finish counting using flags from the first ones counted. Then I'll remove all flags. I think there are roughly 20 more plants, we'll see.

I'd estimate that 10-15% are three leafers while the rest are 2-3 prongs. I found two 4-prongs (my first ever) Sunday evening but didn't see them today. I did find a stem or two, maybe they were eaten or I'll find them again tomorrow. I've posted photos of them.

This is pretty darn exciting for me as these plants out number my other three locations combined

Initially, I wondered how I missed these last year when I searched my property but today I recalled the route I walked while searching this area. It is very rocky with quite a few downed trees from wind and I think I just gave up a few yards short and headed back to my ATV trail because it was such a pain to walk through there

Seems like most of the plants are in clusters of 5-10 plants.

This finding is due to a Woodland turtle study I'm participating in, I found a turtle and needed to retrieve my camera from my ATV so I alternated my route and stumbled upon plant after plant. Better to be lucky sometimes than smart.

The weather here is still March-like as well.

Good to hear you're still out fishing there Chief.

woodsrunner...

It took some searching but I found the original post here on wildgrown on my seed producing bed... lots of discussion, planning, getting it done, etc... That was a while back... 2010 best I remember.

www.wildgrown.com/index.php/forum/6-grow...ing-bed?limitstart=0

I put lots of thought and planning, research into that seed bed and got it ready late summer... and that fall, while harvesting wild seng... I kept 39 nice 4 and 3 prong plant roots and planted them in that bed. I purchased another 5 very nice roots from Billy Taylor... this was mountain seng, from south east KY state... it has much longer berry stems than my local plants... and I put them in there for diversity...

so I had a total of 44 roots in their originally... and I remember the first spring after planting.. I think 42 or 43 of them sent up tops.

They don't all send up a top every year... some old roots will just not send up a top occasionally... sometimes for a year or two or more... but then the next spring they will send up a top.

Anyway... I found that old post and put a link to it above... it looks like the old original pictures may not show up... but you can read all the conversations if you want.

TNHunter