TOPIC: Seed spacing

This will be my first attempt at planting ginseng in beds in a small wooded area behind my house. I only have 1500sf to plant. What does everyone feel is the proper spacing to plant seeds psf? My first thought was 6 seed psf which maybe heavy but I assumed that germination would thin this out a bit. Any thoughts?

I would plant 1 pound in that spot. 1 pound will be about 4 to 5 seeds per square foot.
Check out TNhunters thread and video called \"Rake and Scatter\" method to get a good idea on how to plant them.
Good luck.
Latt

2ND ON THAT VIDEO....

sengfever,

As Latt mentioned above and what Scott Persons recommends in his book 4-5 seeds per sq ft should work.

He says that if you have a good location and plant at 4-5 per sq ft you should end up with about 1-2 per sq ft at harvest time.

The thicker you plant them the more likely you are to have disease problems so I would not plant them too thick.

I am sure no expert - just started planting wild-simulated myself last fall/winter so I am just trying to go by what is recommended in Scotts book.

Below is a link to his book on barnesandnoble.

search.barnesandnoble.com/Growing-and-Ma.../9780914875420/#TABS

Below is a link to my youtube channel.
I do have a 2 part video showing how I planted my wild-simulated this past fall/winter and a couple more showing the results this spring. Also several more vids on ginseng hunting.

Good Luck !

TNhunter

www.youtube.com/yttnhunter

sengfever

I agree with everyone on the seed spacing of 4-5 per sq ft.

Also, TNhunters video will give you a good idea of how the planting process is performed. But I would not add any Bonemeal to the soil as he recommends in the video. Since the making of TN's video, we have discovered that Bonemeal will raise the soils ph. Which in most cases would not be good.

Good Luck Planting!

classicfur

Thanks for the info! Sounds like 4-5 seeds is the way to go.

Here's another question for you then. I wasen't planning I doing a soil test because I have a good amount of wild ginseng growing not more than a hundred yards from my plot. I feel nature is telling me the soil is condusive but can adding a bag of gypsum make it better?

sengfever,

With (healthy stands) of wild seng growing nearby - I would not bother with a soil test either.

Now if you have wild seng that is just sort of making it, not getting real big and healthy looking (no or very few 4 prongs even in older plants) then you might want to consider a soil test.

My place is like that - seng grows here but a decent 3 prong is about the best you can find and some 3 prongs I have found were 40+ years old and had a 1/4 oz root.

If your wild seng is like that - then you may need to add some calcium to boost your growing potential and cut your time to harvest down.

And if you do find you need to add calcium, use gypsum. It will raise calcium without affecting PH.

Bonemeal (as we have discovered recently) will raise PH.

If you had very low PH (3.5-4.5) it would not hurt to use some bonemeal. Bonemeal is a good source of organic phosphorus and calcium.

Don't think we have found a real good way to add phosphorus without affecting PH (not yet anyway).

My soil is borderline low on phosphorous too (11 ppa) and my calcium runs just under 1500 ppa.

Calcium levels up in the 3000-5000 range would be Ideal.

If under 2000 you really should consider adding gypsum.

PS - I doubt the little bit of bonemeal I added to mine will make much difference in the long term. From now on I plan to only add gypsum, unless I do find some decent way to supplement the phosphorus organically that does not affect PH.

My PH is in the 5.4-5.7 range which is about where it needs to be.

Good Luck !

TNhunter

TNhunter,

I watched your video on youtube. Very informative. How many seeds did you plant in that bed and how many years do you typically wait to harvest your roots.