TOPIC: seed bed dirt

rootman...

I did have 44 in there originally but transplanted some at the top of the bed to another location.

They were not doing well... a little too high and dry I guess. I moved them on down the hill some and they are doing better there.

I am like you... the darned critters get a lot of those berries. The first fall I had a few red berries one weekend and then checked them the next and they had all been eaten. You have to watch them close and pick every few days when they start turning red, or mice, birds, etc.. will sure get them. I am lucky if I get 400 off them.

Mtgoat.. On that rock chip filled soil... around here we do not have mountains, but around creek and river bluffs and in some especially rockey hollows there is this flakey rock chip filled soil. Chips off limestone out croppings and I always find big healthy ginseng in soil like that. I got that 6 gal of rock chip filled soil out of a hollow named rockey hollow - and a few years ago I dug 3 lbs 1.5 oz of seng out of that rockey hollow. That is the best I have ever done so far on a single hunt.

Below is a pic of a nice 4 I found this fall... and check out the soil it was growing in...

Below is a pic of the root after I dug it up.

You can see that rock chip filled soil well in this one.

TNhunter

Okay thanks. ...that's sure is kool. You say you don't have mountains. .what elevations are you most successful in your plantings. I'm not trying to high jack the thread. .just trying to learn. ..thanks again.

Here where i live (southern middle TN)... our elevation ranges from around 650' to 1100'.

Hills and Hollows only here... No Mountains.

Wild Seng is usually found below 800'... and seems to do best in the 700-750' range.

Most of my wild sim plantings are in that 700-800' range... with just a few planted higher.

No doubt all that changes with Mountains... but around here it is rare to find seng up above the 800' range.

TNhunter

Interesting. I would have aspected to see it in mountain ranges of 1000ft,2000ft+. Guess not. I'll keep that in mind so that I don't go walking too high for it.

VAhunter...

I wanted to make it clear that the elevation limitations that I see here in southern middle TN do not apply to Mountain areas at all. It seems to be unique to my area where we do not have Mountains. Nothing but hills and hollows in the 650'-1100' range.

Below is a vid of a friend Billy Taylor harvesting a nice 4 prong and showing how to properly dig and plant the berries. He is in the Mountains and in the video he says they are \"two miles high\". So no doubt it grows much higher in the Mountains with no problems.



TNhunter

Ohhh. Ok. Sounds good. Thanks for the vid link!

TNhunter

Your garden centers don't sell garden gypsum? And as for seed loving critters, in my veggie garden to keep those critters out I use Uncle Ian's mole, gopher deer, rabbit, and squirrel repellent. It is easy enough to make yourself. It is just a mixture of red pepper, and dried blood. Which is probably blood meal. I get mine from Home Depot.

Naycat

Naycat...

Sorry but just now noticed your question.

I have a farmers co-op that I get Gypsum from. It is not here in my county, but over in the next county.

I have a local garden center that I can get Bone Meal, Blood Meal, GreenSand from.

A combination of those (and my own home grown compost) is all I ever user for fertilizer (on my Garden)... or Ginseng.

TNhunter

Thank you for the in depth description and photos tn. They helped a lot:)