TOPIC: Tennessee 2011 Hunting Season

I got out before daylight this morning and dug one of the more easily accessible patches before work. Boy, I tell ya what, it sure felt good to sink that digger in the ground and get the rust knocked off. I didn't have a lot of time this mornin but I managed 18 roots at 4 1/4 ounces. Lookin forward to this evenin already. Good luck everybody.

Hillhopper

nice, i went out this mornin and took a buddy with me that has never been he found 20 or so 3 prongs. we got to the house and he said everytime he closed his eyes he saw ginseng. thats why i love being in the woods and sharing it with friends and family. i found a few mature 4 prongs this morn, i found 7.3 ounces and 4 lbs of yellow root

I had the day off from work but decided not to go seng hunting because I have just found none the past two weeks with red berries. I found 30 or so Saturday and all had green berries.

It was not easy but I decided to wait until next Saturday to start seng hunting. Shoud be more red berries by then.

I did get out though and waded about 2 miles of creek. It was a bueatiful morning, cool and low humidity, felt nice and fall like. I caught 7-8 blackperch (rock bass) and this one nice smallie.

I had another good smallie on the line, but man those things hit like a freight train and never give up. I fought him a couple minutes and had him right up to the bank and he jumped one more time and spit my lure out.

I use ultra-light rod/reel and 6 lb test. When you get a 2-3 pound small mouth on the line you got yourself a fight for sure.

Oh well not going seng hunting was helped some by catching a few fish in the creek - this one and a few blackperch will be for dinner tonight !

Glad you guys had some luck - I will be joining you at digging soon.

TNhunter

Tn

Looks like fun....Ultra lites and bass...

Glad you got some digging in.....Almost like x-mas morning...

Congrats Hillhoper and Barnette nothing like that first day out in the woods it want start untill Sept:1st here now

Tnhunter congrats on a great morning out at the stream.

I have a few spots just over the Ky/Tn line from me that I hunt but decided to wait a litttle later on those spots as the berries are still pretty green there also.

G/L everyone this season.

Congrats guys, my season starts saturday, can't wait. I've got to work too, maybe I'll go out to a place close by and dig a few before work.

Went out this morning for a few hours and results were mixed. Been watching a few places for a while and here everything higher on the hill is yellow and dieing out with green berries. Everything further down the hill and in less sunlight is starting to produce red berries. I dug a big four that was about dead turned out to be about 20 years old and a few bigger 3's, all of which were on the top of the hill and looked like they would be dead by the weekend.

I have always lived and dug in middle/east TN but moved out here this year and this will be my first year digging in west TN, just west of the TN river. I must say, what I have seen so far the roots here are about half the size of what they would be in east TN. It's odd but for example, one 3 I dug today was about 12-14 years old and the root was barely even 1/4 ounce. From my expierence in eastern parts of TN, a plant that old would have a root between 1/2 and 3/4 ounce on average. Any one else on here ever dug in western TN before? Just curious if this is what I should expect with each plant.

gijoey1980,

My grandpa lived and dug ginseng close to Parsons in West Tn and he left his root bag about half full before he died. When I looked at them I noticed that even the roots around 20 years old were small and couldn't have weighed hardly nothing. I've dug one or two from his patch he set out to show some family how to dig and whatnot and these were set out around 1990 but still had little weight to them. So it could be like that around all the southern parts of West Tn.

Gijoey and Boyhud,

I have never dug any seng west of the TN River but have got over into some Counties just east of the river and had good luck - found some nice tall seng with good roots on it.

I bet if you checked the soil there where you are finding those small 3 prongs with small roots you would find a low calcium situation.

Most of my place here that I live on 30 acres is like that. It is rare to find a 4 prong in the regular woods here, but you do find a few decent 3's and a 4 just every now and then. I find a lot of 3 prongs that are 8-10\" tall and 25-30 years old or older.

When I checked the soil where I was planting last fall it came back around 1450 ppa on calcium and 11 on phosphorous. Seng will grow there, there is wild here, but it is smallish 3 prongs mostly even when up in age.

I bet you would find a similar situation with your soil over there across the river where you are finding small seng, small roots.

If you know of any hollows where there is rock up and exposed or river blufs where that bluff faces north or north east - check around the bottom of them - I found some really good seng last year around blufs like that.

Good Luck !

TNhunter

I hit the woods before daylight this mornin to squeeze in some more digging before work. I had really good luck considering the amount of time i was in the woods.


I dug 10 1/2 oz green in a fairly short amount of time. The root directly above the dollar bill is pretty nice, it's seed stem was about 3\" long like some of that Kentucky Seng iv seen but that characteristic isn't common around here.
Good Luck All


Hillhopper