Jeff
There are three types of ginseng growing methods, clones will be the fourth type of growing method.
Field grown: obvious. Woods grown: means where the ground has been worked as a minimum, up to a field grown under natural canopy. Wild Simulated: means seeds where scattered and left to grow as mother nature intended.
To tell the differents between a wild plant that has been transplanted and given fertilizers - The neck will be relatively the same size every year and then increase in diameter after the fertilizers. You should also be able to see robust growth on the root with less rings. On a lot of wild plants you will get off shoot roots from the neck, this is rare in any type of cultivated root.
Woods grown: by definition means with cultivation and fertilizers under a natural canopy. These have less root rings and have few root nodes,as compared to wildof the same age. Woods neck diameter is bigger and they have bigger scars. They are half way between wild and field cultivated. There is usually less dirt and or a different type of dirt less organic or fibrous more sandy.
I have seen and found large fat wild plants that have found the perfect soil and climate. The necks are all the same size, after the first few years of development and later in life they will develop double heads or triple even, depending on the growing conditions.
Guy
