Went out yesterday and planted some seed in an area and then walked on up the hollow to an area that I knew held some ginseng. I was down low next to the creek and found several yellow ones and just a couple still green.
Decided that I would head out to my old honey hole today. I was really trying to stay out til next fall, but finally gave into that itch that has been eating at me for the last month. I knew going in this morning that many would already be down and the steady rain that I woke up to was putting them down quickly. I didn't cover the entire area and only spent a couple of hours back there. Only found one green one. Everything else was yellow or had already dropped its leaves. pulled out 20 roots for a grand total of 6.3 ounces, but am transplanting all of them to my seed producing area tomorrow.
My goal at the begining of the digging season was to transplant 40 4-prong plants to this area. I honestly don't know whether or not I achieved this or not. I lost track as I transplanted some as I found them along with numerous 3-prong plants. I Know I transplanted well over 100 plants, but don't know how many were 4-prongs. Anyways, I'm posting a pick of a yellow plant I found yesterday and a couple of some of the nicer roots I found today. I'm hanging the digger up for the year too. I generally call it quits for the year as soon as I start finding just stems and I found quite a few like that today. Supposed to get more rain tomorrow and that should pretty much flatten anything that survived todays rain. And already am anticipating next spring when they start popping up all over again.