TOPIC: Red Berries... Plant 'em or Pick and Stratify?

We've always picked our red berries and then stratified them in wet sand for the next the year. Could/should we just be planting them? We end up planting the stratified seed back on the same property anyway.

Any pros or cons?

Thanks,
Shadow Man

Shadow Man,
I think each and every place is going to have it's own particular problems and you can probably identify with your own where you are growing seng.
Some places are going to have Squirrels and Chipmunks. They are notorious about smelling out fresh berries that have been planted and they will dig them up as fast as you can put them in the ground. Other places will be bothered by turkeys scratching. They can also smell the fresh berries as well as just plain old scratching all season. It's a little more work to place them in stratification, but they are at least protected for a part of the time they are in the ground. Another problem can be drying out in dry weather if you just plant them straight into the ground. In the mountains, it should be no problem, but at lower , warmer elevations it can cost you heavily in dry years. You can give part of them a test and that way you know which might work best for you. Good luck.

Hugh

Great advice Hugh. I agree 100%. Good luck Shadow Man.
Latt

Welcome to this forum, Shadowman!

I would add this: there may be laws in your state that apply to planting the berries. You can research this easily, from your state's depart ment of Ag. There is a section on this website that has state regulations on it, however the best source for this is your states Ag website. That's where the most up to date info will be.

It would not be a bad idea to do both each year. Plant some as red berries, and pick and stratify the rest.

I think Scott even mentions that in his book.

If the stratification process is a success, then planting good stratified seed is probably the best bet... but there is always a chance of complete failure with the stratification process (disease in the batch)... where you could end up with zip for the year (or for that batch anyway).

So far all I have done is plant the red berries.

Good Luck !

TNhunter

I think if something you've done has worked in the past keep doing it.
I have my first stratified seed this year and will plant them somewhere that I can count germination accurately. I did the same with the other half of the whole berries, laid them out with even spacing so I can count them next spring. I'll compare the two methods next spring and report back.

I will say that I've had mostly success planting berries but some planted berry plots have disappeared.

Method three: Bob Beyfuss said you can eat the berry spit out the seed and plant it,
it'll give you energy and tastes like soap...He wasn't kidding about the soap part

Thanks for the great advice everyone. I hadn't thought of eating and spitting… might pass on that one!

We'll probably continue stratifying just to give the seed a fighting chance. Lots of squirrels, rabbits, coons, turkeys, etc. on our land.

We're growing in South Dakota, so it's definitely low elevation! Went through a really bad drought a couple years back and we still don't know how severe a blow that dealt our planted seeds and young plants. Our oldest plants have been doing well and producing plenty of seed for a few years now.

Our soil was heavily compacted by overgrazing long ago. Hard rains and heavy snow burdens probably don't help to mellow the ground, either. We don't have the deep forest humus that we see is prevalent in the eastern mountains and suspect it may cause a lot of hardship for our plants.

Still, we're keeping the faith and putting seed and roots in the ground and hoping that Nature has mercy on us.

It's my dream to walk up on a big, mature 'sang in a few years and know that I didn't plant it there and that somehow, it grew completely wild in that place.

Shadow Man

Shadow Man,
You say \"you are growing in South Dakota\". That is interesting. I don't believe that I have ever heard of anyone growing ginseng in South Dakota. It would be great to see some pictures of the type of surroundings that you are having to deal with in that part of the country. I really did not know there was woodland other than patches of Aspens in that state. I think it might benefit you to rake up fallen leaves and scatter them over the places that you have ginseng growing to add some winter protection and mulch for holding moisture. If you would look closely at some of the pictures that I've placed on the board of plants or berries you will see where I've done the same thing because it gets dry here as well. They make good food for the ginseng plants. Good luck up there.

Hugh

Sorry for the slow replies. Got a deadline here at work and I'm in Hawaii right now so the time zone change is probably 6 or 7 hours different from most of you. \"Sang, by the way, won't grow here. No dormancy. Soil would be awesome though, I think.

Our South Dakota property is in the breaks of the Missouri River. We have 100-year-old burr oak trees (white oaks) and mixed hardwoods on the sidehills and creek bottoms. Our biggest \"plague\" is that eastern red cedar has moved in and is choking off the upper rim of the creek bottoms and invading the grasslands and totally changing the habitat and hurting a lot of the prairie species… it's a long story. Basically, the land we own is too rough to farm and has been historically used for cattle grazing.

The previous owner badly abused the land through overgrazing. My mom has done an outstanding job of caring for the property since she bought it and we've made it into a wildlife mecca. But even Mecca has to pay its way. Hence, the ginseng. BTW Mom was awarded Tree Farmer of the Year for the state of South Dakota last month. Proof of her stewardship.

Please excuse the content of the pictures I am posting. These are to show the understory of the habitat where we are planting 'sang. The pictures of the dead deer were taken only 80 yards or so uphill of our best and oldest 'sang plot.

Shadow Man

Another pic.