TOPIC: weird 4 prong hollow

Hello hunters, Im from central Ky just east of lexington. Today i took a brand new hunter out and gpt himm started. hardest part about showing a new guy how to find seng is getting them to ove faster. getting them to believe that they havnt missed any seng leaves next to that log they been staring at for 30 mins. he did very well after i put him close to a few and have him find them.

Anyways about the 4 prong hollow. Its all wrong to me. I sent noob guy down creek and i took top and made it to fence...400 yards and no hit. this was a perfect hollow so i doubled back midway down into hollow and found a ground running 3 prong. so i know usually if they is one, there is more. looked around and they started popping all 4 prongs. all only 1 foot tall from ground to top. half where green half where golden. very nice roots on all but just very small on the top. also they are all in wrong places. not close to logs or rocks or breaks in the ground. most are in the or very close to the mid line animal trail. so far i have found 15 4 prongs in the hollow. some are ver short or sitting on the floor.

What i mean by the placement being weird is that they are strung out down the length of the holler not one say in a vertical line or none are above or below others as if to seed from the one above. also some info on holler. 10 yrs ago it had cattle in it. i spent way too much time making sure i got all the 4 prongs. Running out of daylight i finished scouting holler to property line via flash light. i have 20 more 4 prongs to dig tomorrow. most a total stemm length a 12 inches or so with very small leaves big roots thank god.

sorry guys dont know why post made copies.

Sounds like someone may have came in there within the past few years and dug low on the hill and never went up more than 10-20 yards, thus missing the bigger ones half way up the hill.

Either that or someone planted them, or those were dormant the year all the lower on the hill sang was dug. Could be a number of things but I'm gonna go with my first thought on this one.

gijoey1980 somewhat hit on what I was going to write! The reason you that you may not be finding anything above or below the general line that you found the 4 prongs on, is probably due to: 1) It being the off year in their' cycle as not all Ginseng comes up every year and I have heard of and believe that some of the old sengers are correct, that some seng only comes up every third year. I have actually been on ridges and in hollows and found Ginseng there that was not there the two previous years I looked and I am not talking about flat tops or 2 prongs but 3 and 4 prongs. 2) Since this is either your' land or you have permission to hunt it, I doubt that it was planted by someone. It was more than likely brought in by seeds by deer, turkey and grouse and that is why you are seeing it along the game trails. I have hunted Ginseng in a lot of places from flat lands to small ridges and hills to steep ridges and even bluffs but have generally always found more Ginseng growing along game trails.

I bet that if you go back to that hollow next year, that you will be pleasantly surprised and find more Ginseng not only along the game trail but probably above and below it. Now the big question is, if deer, turkey and grouse are the propagaters of the Ginseng along the trail, did the seeds all come from this hollow. I would say no and that you need to follow that game trail both directions and you will probably find the source eventually. I have found Ginseng on game trails on some ridges and followed the game trail up across the top of the ridge and actually found Ginseng growing on the top of the ridge and then down the other side.

Good luck!


Frank



Frank

Down here in Southern Middle TN - you hardly ever find much seng unless the hillside is facing north-east or north.

Occasionally on really steep hills, or around the bottom of blufs you will find it on hillsides facing due east, but most normal slope east facing hillsides will have none.

Hillsides that face more due north, the seng will range from the hollow bottom to way up on the hillside - sometimes nearly all the way to the top.

The more east (the north-east) facing hillside swings... the narrower the band you will find seng in (usually limited to the bottom 1/4 or 1/8 of the hill side).

TNhunter

Mystery solved guys and thank you for answering. next day i went back as that night i only had an hour of daylight. found well over 300 empty holes. plants they left where in view of the farm house. changing my name from blisteredfeet to NieveNoob. My first year hunting seng and i have learned so much. I live in central Ky just where the hills start east of Lexington. Not as many hollers for the hunters. I was very upset as i actually asked and received permission for this place. They did do a very good job of leaving small 3 prongs and seeding. I was only few days behind them as i could still see their knee marks where they knelt to dig. Lesson learned.