TOPIC: opening day...

Sorry to change the subject Tennessee but I got to ask if you’ve had any experience with a frost hurting your ginseng beds? I’ve had several nice looking plants coming on the last week and a half then we got hit with a few nights in a row of temperatures below 30. It appears to me that I’ve lost some plants but not really sure.

Jim...

I have not experienced frost damage to larger plants (my wild sim, older than 1 year, or my seed bed plants).

But I have had on multiple occasions some first year 3 leafers to get frosted bad and top die completely.. I assume that was the end for that 3 leafer... don't think they could come back the next spring considering they really have no root to draw from.

Here at my place, the stratified seed that I planted (which came from a more northern source)... I always had some 3 leafers that came up quite early (mid march)... Earliest pic I have of a 3 leafer was dated 3/18... and that early her in southern middle TN, we often have pretty hard frost after that... and when we did get down in the 28-30 degree range after I had some of those early 3 leafers up... they got zapped.

But after that first year, they never seem to come up so early. I think they perhaps adjust some to being here after going thru a season.

Most of my wild sim, and seed bed plants start coming up first week in April... and some don't come up until Mid or even later April.

I have been lucky to not have temps in that 30 or below range, after early April, since I have been planting wild sim, or since 2010 when I started my seed producing bed.

Now i remember the year 2007... (before I started my seed bed or wild sim).. we had a hard frost (best I remember 25 degrees) late in April.

It wiped the tops on most near all the wild seng... there was hardly any to be found that year, and the price went sky high that fall, because the supply was so short. Seng was selling in the 800-1000 dollar range.

In the year 2007 I had not hunted seng all that much in a few years (busy with family and work and all that).. but all the talk of 1000 dollar seng prices got me back into it starting in 2008 and after...

I bet that brought a lot of older seng hunters back out to the sport again. It did me.

TNHunter

them are nice plants tn.

I was looking around and found this question and answer. Any thoughts, knowledge or experience with this?

Question: Can I grow ginseng on my own property?

Answer: Yes. A determination must be done before planting any ginseng on your property. The determination is to make sure there is no wild ginseng in the area you are wanting to plant. Determinations are done between April 15 and June 15 of each year. For more information and to request a form for a determination to be done please contact (removed). After the determination has been done, you can become a ginseng grower and a permit will be issued.

woodsrunner.... some States highly regulate everything... even ginseng and go way overboard on everything...

Some, like mine TN... are not nearly as restrictive.

For example... one December I was scouting a place to plant some wild simulated... and found a old log where a Dillo or Fox or skunk (some digging critter) had been digging all around the log... and it had actually uprooted a ginseng root (small to med size) and it was just laying out on to of the ground.

It was still fresh enough, had not spoiled... so I picked it up and put it in my pocket... to slice up and make some fresh seng tea from.

I reported here what I had found that day, considering myself to be lucky... and Classicifur (from up north in Maine) was threatening to call the game warden on me. What I had done was highly illegal in his state... how dare I pick up a root that some other critter had dug up... and it was just laying right there on top of the ground... don't think it had a chance to survive...

But anyway in Main or NY... that might be highly illegal ??? regulation crazy places do exist...

I checked the TN ginseng laws... and the TN Ginseng Regulations only apply to ginseng that is harvested for sale.

If you are harvesting ginseng for your own personal consumption, the Ginseng Season restrictions and other restrictions do not apply at all.

Now that is common sense regulations vs regulation crazy.

If you question and answer... apply for the state you live in... sounds like they lean to the regulation crazy side to me.

I can recommend TN as a fine state to live in, and grow and hunt ginseng in.

TNHunter

got 47 crappie Friday,been raining ever since...

TN, that excerpt I posted regarding a "determination" kind of irked me. I read that after a long day and a few beers. I checked again on this website the state laws of where I live and no mention of a determination before planting is mentioned. But knowing "ignorance" to some obscure law is not a valid defense, I wonder now if I've already said too much here.

Truth is, at my age, I'll never profit from this venture but it's just fun to get out and look and see "things", monitor activities, and discover. I'm learning about various native and invasive plants and starting to recognize their habitats as well. This forum is the only place I've felt secure enough to share things (because I know of at least one poacher in my county). Now that I know I've "missed something" I wonder if big brother reads this forum. I know from experience that someone working behind a desk has plenty of time to troll the internet.

The guy you mention from Maine sounds like a real jerk. But maybe he's just miserable.

Chief: congrats on the crappie and it's cool to finally put a face with you.

thanks runner,thats my fishing buddy in the pic. iam a lot better looking than him lol....

Chief: haha, sorry man.

TN, I did a little more research on my state but I don't know how it shapes up against other states in regards to regulatory restrictions. I do have a better understanding of what can get me in trouble though.

I guess the "determination" I mentioned is required to ensure seeds from "elsewhere" are not planted within wild patches as it might "weaken" the wild plants. That's over my head. I assume the wild plants I've found are in fact wild but how can one know for sure? Maybe a previous owner of my property planted them, who can tell.

I'm not comfortable having someone from the DNR come to my property and nose around and determine no ginseng is present and "permit" me to plant seeds in a particular area to be quite honest with you. Not only do I not trust them, but if that person mentions my place in conversation and it's passed through the grapevine, eventually a potential poacher might get the info and location... Maybe I'm paranoid but someone here mentioned other posters moving on due to such concerns.

I was running last summer on some state forest service roads and came upon a pretty large area that had been clear cut. Now, if my state is so concerned about the future of ginseng and the growing and harvesting from folks like you and me, I wonder if they scouted the slopes for ginseng and harvested the plants and/or berries prior to destroying them with the timber harvest.

I would like to ask them this question but don't want to draw attention my way.

The question I have for folks who harvest and sell, is there a form you must complete with questions like, "where did you dig" your roots from? I read where my state has recently required that sellers need an ID to sell roots. When I recycle aluminum cans, they record my ID and license plate number, it appears ginseng has gone the same route.

Talk about sucking the fun out of a relaxing hobby! I plan to plant my veggie garden this weekend, maybe I should search state laws for planting beans, corn, tomatoes and such. Wouldn't want to plant them too close to a tree, creek, or invasive species that a govt. entity introduced for some stupid reason.

Feels good to vent sometimes. lol

Those are some nice crappie Chief... if the meat supply chain does fail... you could survive off crappie for a few months anyway...

I have some Bass in the freezer and hope to put more in there after this weekend and holiday... sure hope to get some fishing done.

My tomato plants have been planted for a few weeks now... looking good 18" tall or so, big and stout, blooms on already. My ambrosia sweet corn is about 6-7 inch tall now... had to replant cukes, squash, peppers, melons... but they are up now or just breaking thru.

My LoganBerry is my first to fruit this year, ate the first one today and have a few more getting that deep red color now... soon there will be hundreds of those to eat. Loving that.

I planted 9 fruit trees this spring and a bunch of berry bushes, currents, jostaberry, blackberry, raspberry, mulberry, autumn olive... and some of those got zapped pretty bad with our April 15 frost... complete leaf loss... but all have come back and leafed out again... except one little mulberry. I hope it pulls thru, but so far only sending up green from below the graft...which is not good.

I need to get out and visit my wild sim and take some pics... may get to that this weekend.

TNHunter