TOPIC: nice day scouting dug omg!!!

I'm calling B.S. on this thread. No one person digs 16 pounds of wild ginseng in one day. Perhaps someones wild sim patch, but still that would be getting after it from sun up til sundown, and lots of 3-4 ounce roots. Been doing this a long time and just know better... .

I was going to keep my trap shut, but sometimes ..

I wont debate this issue. It is my opinion based on my years of experience doing this.

5
Its fine but u call me out n dont think ill defend myself. One thing i said was My partner n i dug this not myself. You may b right this could b some old timers planted bed that died n everyone forgot about. If so it been a long time as the shang wasnt planted In any specal Way but still it could have spred so much that it looks wild. U know nothing about the area arond here 40 yrs ago befour i was still a wet dream In My dads pants My uncle n My friendz father vod bless there souls. Dug trap baskets full In a day at a time.My uncle In one large area dug 45 lbs wet In a week. Ive prayied thst id find something like this forever n did it it wasnt no easy task. You r rite to ur own opinion as is everone else. I have no hard feeling to this 5 n still thx u for ur post.

5prong wrote:

I'm calling B.S. on this thread. No one person digs 16 pounds of wild ginseng in one day. Perhaps someones wild sim patch, but still that would be getting after it from sun up til sundown, and lots of 3-4 ounce roots. Been doing this a long time and just know better... .

I was going to keep my trap shut, but sometimes ..

I wont debate this issue. It is my opinion based on my years of experience doing this.

5prong I myself alone dug 13.4lbs wet in less than 6 hours behind 8 homes. Before the property was broken into lots 30-35 years ago it was woods and the back ravine was never cleared. I go back every 6-8 years and still bring out 5-6lbs for a few hours work every time I work that ravine. So I easily believe that multiple diggers can get that in a day. My son and I regularly bring in 6-8 pounds a day. I have a total of just over 1100 acres of ground that we have permission to hunt on and we broke that down into 6 sections. We only hunt each section every 6 years and always take seed with us and every year the yields are improving. With proper stewardship its not a problem. This year we've dug since Sept. 1st and have enough to make nearly 12lbs dried. That's 7 days of digging. Well time to get ready the son just showed up for todays dig.
CONGRATS Hobler666shang I know you just got love finding those long forgotten & overlooked grounds.
Paul

I have told the story of the big score that me and a friend made when we were 17 years old while walking nearly 14 miles home from an overnight fishing trip. While it has been 43 years ago and we did not have a weigh scale, it is hard to really say how much Ginseng, weight-wise that me and my friend dug out of the one location in 4 or 5 hours so many years ago. However, if I had to guess, I would have to say that it was in excess of 40 pounds. I usually just state when telling the story, that we dug more Ginseng roots than what would fill a bushel basket but in reality, it was more like two bushel baskets and one of the 8 prong roots would not even go into a bushel basket as the entire mass of root was too large to fit. Imagine in your mind, completely filling a 1960's Boy Scout day backpack and completely filling two long-sleeved size 15 1/2 shirts that were buttoned up and the sleeves tied across the neck and torso sections to keep the roots from falling out. We had all of this to carry when we quit digging and walked the rest of the 5 miles home. There was still quite a bit of Ginseng still in the location when we left but went back later to dig. I can tell you this, that when we got home with the roots, my friend's dad helped us assess what we truly had. Besides all of the smaller roots that more than likely weighed between 1/2 ounce to as much as 3 or 4 ounces each, there were several roots that weighed at least a pound each, then 5 or 6 bigger ones that probably weighed between 3 and 5 pounds (these were the 5, 6 and 7 prong roots and even one smaller 8 prong root) and then the biggest 8 prong root which probably weighed between 5 and 6 pounds but I believe was closer to 6 pounds.

I have never seen Ginseng in such quantities since and I am sure that I never will around here, at least on private or public land where Ginseng is legal to dig! However, I believe that there are some really remote and hard to access areas in the Appalachians outside of Tennessee, where some very large patches patches may exist even today and that hobler666shang and his partner may have just found one of these spots! There is a place in North Carolina in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where at one time, one person could have easily dug 20 pounds of Ginseng in a day and do so for probably weeks and still not make a major dent in the populations, if it were legal to dig there. This place was once a large community where the folks that lived there...grew, dug and sold Wild Ginseng through the 1800's until sometime into the 1930's. When the folks were moved out, the big Ginseng crops were left behind and the Rangers had to constantly patrol this location 24 hours a day to keep poachers out. I am not sure but I believe that the Park Service dug up and transplanted much of this Ginseng elsewhere in the National Park because it was too costly to protect due to budget cuts and restraints.


Frank

Perhaps it's just a typo, but it says right here \"my partner dug 16 lbs of wet shang\". Ive been in patches where you dont have to look for the next plant to dig because it is thick, but I also know that it takes time to get it out of the ground cause those old roots bury themselves deep and love to twist around under, and between tree roots, rocks and etc. I will say that I can believe that a single person could possibly dig up to about eight pounds in an eight hour if in a thick patch, but this is about the max. .
...and that person would be one tired pup at the end of the day..

Like I said, not trying to start a debate. Just stating what I believe, and basing that on what I have seen and done. Perhaps I just havent stumbled upon the valley of the 5 pound ginseng plants yet


Hobler666shang wrote:

Started wgere we found the shang plants then went in deeper omg. It was nob after nob full of shang berry pods as far as u could see. I didnt get any pics as it was raining n im sorry this was once in a life time thing. My partner dug 16 lbs of wet shang I had to put alot if it in my back pack. Alot of 15 ta 20 yr old roots. Heres some of my better stuff as alot is just normal.

wish I had my new digger.

5prong wrote:

Perhaps it's just a typo, but it says right here \"my partner dug 16 lbs of wet shang\". Ive been in patches where you dont have to look for the next plant to dig because it is thick, but I also know that it takes time to get it out of the ground cause those old roots bury themselves deep and love to twist around under, and between tree roots, rocks and etc. I will say that I can believe that a single person could possibly dig up to about eight pounds in an eight hour if in a thick patch, but this is about the max. .
...and that person would be one tired pup at the end of the day..

Like I said, not trying to start a debate. Just stating what I believe, and basing that on what I have seen and done. Perhaps I just havent stumbled upon the valley of the 5 pound ginseng plants yet

5prong,

You are not even considering and nor do you really understand the difference between your Ohio soils and the black mountain soils lof the Appalachians when you make such a statement! Yes, there are times that Ginseng roots in the Appalachians are deeply rooted and sometimes grow up rocks and large tree roots making them harder to harvest. However, there are a lot of roots that are rooted only 2 to 4 inches down and sometimes 6 inches down in black mountain soil which is fairly loose and loamy. When you are in a patch of big 3 and 4 prongs with no smaller plants under or very close to them, you can dig around and in the whole patch and pretty much extricate all of the plants at the same time.

I do not know whether the quote \"Perhaps I just havent stumbled upon the valley of the 5 pound ginseng plants yet \" was meant for me or not and really don't care! I also don't really care if you believe what I wrote but I know what happened and I have about 10 witnesses that would testify to the story and facts I wrote! At one time, there was about 10 more witnesses but they have long since passed on.


Frank

Frank,

I would love to find a patch like that. I have found a few 5 prongs and one that weighed 13 oz. , but nothing like you found. Wish ginseng was still that plentiful and big, like how you described in your story.Wow!!!

lenno wrote:

Frank,

I would love to find a patch like that. I have found a few 5 prongs and one that weighed 13 oz. , but nothing like you found. Wish ginseng was still that plentiful and big, like how you described in your story.Wow!!!

lenno,

There probably still are patches and Ginseng like that but most reside in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and maybe a few other National Parks within the Appalachians! If I get the sector in the National Forest that I can purchase the permit for, I believe that there may be some verly old seng somewhere in this location. After hiking across the width of a shallow hollow on the side of a very large mountain ridge while scouting, I found a big 4 prong and some smaller plants less than a 1/3rd of the way up the hollow when I was hiking back out. About 40 yards below that, was another big 4 prong and some smaller plants and about 40 yards below that, the biggest 4 prong of all three. If had not been too tired to make the trek, I would have turned around, taken the same line that the 4 prongs were on and climbed to the top of the mountain to see if I could locate any very old and big Ginseng. I have included a couple of pics from my scouting trip of the biggest 4 prong that I found that day and it probably stood 30 inches high or possibly more.


Frank

P.S. I forgot to mention that it was on this very same mountain but about a 1/2 mile away from this spot (yeah, it is a big mountain), that in 1997, I found a 6 prong that stood close to 3 feet tall. I was Ginseng hunting with a friend and I hollered at him to come and look at the plant (he thought I had found a Rattlesnake). He was new to Ginseng hunting and I had him look around to see if he could spot the plant but he could not. I then showed him the 6 prong and stated \"that I wanted him to see it because he may never see another one in his lifetime\".


Pic #1

Pic #2

5
That is a typo I never proof read n should have n will do so from now on sorry.
Frank n Paul thxs
Everyone that was the greayest day ever n will b with me for the rest of my life other than the birth of my children