TOPIC: Site suitability?

I have a 13.5 acre plot about 10 of it is wooded surrounded by other wooded areas behind the house. I took the pictures starting at the southwest corner of the 10 acres in the back yard. I took them as I walked northeast. The 3rd to last picture is of some misc sprouts I saw coming up and the last two are from the back of my house looking east. The soil has about a foot of black loamy top soal with a tight brown clay under it.
I know the site will have to have a lot of cleanup, dead fall and many small tree's. I am completely new to this and for all I know I may already have some on site. In the spring there are a lot of ground flowers I think they are jack in the box? pink and white almost look like a lilly.
Thanks for any help!
Ray

Koolrayz,
The White and Pink flower plants are Trilium and that's a good sign. You also are referring to a Jack-in-the Pulpit plant I believe and you may have some of those as well. You have a good bit of land. So look for the spots with the biggest trees and the least amount of underbrush. I am sure you have a lot of great spots. Look for spots with about 75 to 85% canopy too. Your woods appears to hae a lot of Maple and Beech trees which is good too. I see the leaves in your pic too and those are all beech leaves.
There is a lot more to view on this forum so put in any topic in the search box and see what you can find to help you out.
Good luck,
Latt

Koolrayz,

I agree with Latt. Just from the pictures, it looks like your site has promise. The only thing I can see is that you may have to clear away some of the smaller stuff depending on how much you want to plant. Latt is right about using this site as a resource. There are some guys on here, and I know I'm leaving a lot of folks out, like TNhunter and Classicfur that have really done their homework. I would read what they have to say. Almost across the board, people who grow ginseng will tell you to get a soil sample done on the areas you want to plant. Those numbers will tell you about the quality of your soil and if you will have to do any additional treatments. Good luck!

Thanks for the fast responses!
I have seen some great posts on the site and am thankful of all of the great information. My site will take a lot of cleanup but I plan on developing it slowly. My thought was to identify a 4 acre block and break it into 8 sections. I could clear and plant 1/2 an acre at a time. On an 8 year rotation I could harvest a 1/2 acre every year. In 8 years I would like to retire, this would make a nice supplimental income. After 8 years I will have three sections producing a very nice seed harvest and could look into developing other areas. My main concern was that my tree cover seems like it might be to sparse. As Latt stated I have many beech, maple, red oak and shaggy bark hickory tree's. I plan on having the soil tested to determine any suppliments that might be needed this summer.

Koolrayz,

Last year was my first year of planting stratified seeds, so my knowledge is limited. In fact, I can't even tell you right now if I was successful or not. What I can say, and what I can't emphasize enough, is to read through the Growing Ginseng section. There are suggestions from incredibly knowledgeable folks that will save you a lot of headaches if you've never grown it before. Things like how many seeds to plant per square foot, what the best method of planting is, and little tips like leaving rows in your patches so you can get around in them (I didn't learn that one until it was too late). I'm looking forward to reading about your experiences.

Looks good to me also. If you dont have Scott Persons book already, you may want to buy a copy. Pretty much everything is covered in his book. Good luck.

Lenno

Koolrayz

Stay away from any grass. Look for the biggest trees.

Guy

Koolrayz

Having land to plant on is a good start. But not all areas of your land may be suitable for growing seng.

You should do your homework. Read as much as you can on growing wild-simulated ginseng. And ask questions.

Here is a few things to read:

sites.google.com/site/drbobsginseng/home/ginseng-culture

docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites...jBjMTNhMGM&pli=1

Growers guide:

www.wildgrown.com/growing_ginseng_instructions.pdf

And like lenno suggested. The best book on growing ginseng by Scott Persons:

www.amazon.com/Growing-Marketing-Goldens...cinals/dp/0914875426

Welcome to the forum!

classicfur

Welcome to the board Koolrayz,

I agree with the others that your site looks promising.

The absolute best indicator would be to find healthy seng growing there already.

Next I would look for Maidenhair fern - in my opinion the best companion plant for seng.

Here is a pic of a bunch of maidenhair fern and if you look just up the hill to the left there are a couple of big old seng plants.



maidenhair fern will only grow where there is increased levels of calcium in the soil and that is something that ginseng needs to grow well and be healthy.

There are lots of other good companion plants, bainberry, cohosh, even mayapple (which should be coming up real soon - it is up here in Middle TN already).

Your site is quite different than mine in one way - here where I live we have all hills and hollows, where your site looks to be quite flat.

Ginseng is succeptable to root rot and if you plant in the low areas where the rain water does not drain off well, you could have problems with that. Considering how flat your place looks there I would focus plantings on areas other than the low spots, any areas that have some slope to them or even on the high spots and avoid the lowest spots.

Do get a soil test and the main things you need to know are the PH (ginseng prefers low ph 5.5 or so would be ideal) and high calcium levels 2000+ pounds per acre, and decent levels on phosporous would be nice too.

Below are links to my youtube channel and to Billy's.

I have a couple vids on planting wild-simulated that you might want to check out and also several on ginseng hunting and Billy has some great vids as well. Check em out.

www.youtube.com/yttnhunter

www.youtube.com/ginsenghunter1

Good Luck !

TNhunter

Have a few shots of the spring groung cover from last spring I wanted to share