TOPIC: First time ever digging ginseng

Good evening guys and ladies,
I have grown and planted ginseng for many years and this happened to be my first year to ever dig any. I have done a lot of scouting trips this Summer to prepare for my first ever attempt at digging and it happened that my wife and I were drawn to be eligible for the permits that the National Forest Service was offering this season. We have hunted since Monday and taken a few each day, but today turned out to be the best one we have had so far. I thought that you might like to see the pictures that I took and especially the size of one of the plants that we found. It was the biggest one that I have ever seen in the mountains. Just click on the pictures and they will enlarge. I hope you enjoy our little outing.
Hugh

http://www.smokymountainflyguide.com/Choosing%20places%20to%20grow%20ginseng.htm

The one she is holding up, looks like it may be 2ft tall from root to branch. That is definitly one of the largest I have seen. Congrats on a great find.

Hugh I know now who you was referring to hunting with you congrats on the nice roots

Nice plants n roots hugh

Plant top and height is tall and huge. Congrats,
Latt

Hugh - nice TALL one there and looks like you have some great seng hunting partners.

Here in my area our elevation ranges from around 600' to 1000' and it is quite rare to find seng above the 750' mark in most hollows.

And you guys are finding it at 4000'. No doubt the Mountains change the game some.

Good Luck on meeting that quota.

TNhunter

Fellows,
Thanks for taking a look at our little endeavor and thanks for the comments. We're really enjoying getting out in the mountains and searching for this beautiful plant. We sure tried to put back all of the ripe berries that we could find. Hopefully there will be 3 times as many new plants coming up, as what we dug, in a couple of years.

TN: I live at a pretty low elevation similar to where you live, but ginseng seems to do better in our area at a little higher elevation. I think there are more hollows and ridges with Northeast slopes and I'm sure there is more rainfall as you get into the mountains. It really seems to make a difference at cooler, higher altitudes. Many people who follow ginseng in East Tennessee think that the higher altitudes are comparable to growing conditions in New York and Vermont. This has been a particularly good season because of all the rain that we got throughout the summer. I look forward to my first sales.
Hugh

Congrats Hugh, and nice job digging!

Nice Hugh, great way to start a digging career. I know you have a lot of scouting time invested, great work and keep it up.

Looking forward to Saturday Hugh !!! Whoop Whoop !!!

Billy.