TOPIC: Most you ever dug ? Largest Root ? (a poll) to get the Seng Factor going...

Hey Guys...

Won't be long now - we will all be out there doing what we love again.

Thought it might be interesting to talk about some specific things that we will all probably find interesting.

Sort of a poll on a few key topics - Ginseng related.

We might all learn from each other on some of these topics.


1. What year did you start seng hunting ?
2. What is the most you ever dug in a single day (green weight) ?
3. What kind of digger do you use ?
4. How do you carry your seng roots while hunting ?
5. Biggest Root you ever found (green weight) ?
6. Any special tops you have found.
7. What kind of boots do you wear ?
8. What do you do for chiggars, ticks, skeeters ?


I will start us off.

1. What year did you start seng hunting ? 1976
2. What is the most you ever dug in a single day (green weight) ? 3 lbs, 1.5 oz
3. What kind of digger do you use ? long handle hoe type digger
4. How do you carry your seng while hunting ? home made seng bag (made from blue jean leg).
5. Biggest Root you ever found (green weight) ? 2.5 oz
6. Any special tops you have found. not really special but I did find one root that had 3, 3 prong tops once.
7. What kind of boots do you wear ? Cabels Snake Boots.
8. What do you do for chiggars, ticks, skeeters ? 40% deet repel, and a little permanone (spray).

TNhunter

ok here we go:started hunting off and on in 1972 most dug in a day 13.5 lb. in 4hrs no really no bs.
short handle pick type, i have a belt with5 compartments or bags ? biggest root 6.5 oz wet with 3 4prong tops on 1 root. I have found 2 5prong plants , i wear army boots with snake chaps.
For ticks and such i use repel 40% deet and permithin tick spray made by repel best that i have found. triton

Good idea TN!
1)about 10 years ago
2)I forget exactly but about 2.5 lbs, but it was only 12 roots!
3) short handle hoe and a screw driver
4)5.8oz
5)nothing out of the ordinary
6)regular hiking boots - no snakes to worry about up here
7)Permethrin for tics, as much deet as possible for skeeters, but they usually aren't bad up here in the mountains

1) In 1981. My cousin took me. Went some as a teenager. Didn't really get back in to it until 2007.
2) 28 oz.
3) Homemade mattock my uncle made out of truck spring.
4) Back in the day it was the cutoff jeans with a couple of shoestrings for the sling. Now it is a mossy oak hunting bag picked up at walmart for $20.
5) About 2 oz
6) I never have found any special tops. I went with a couple of my uncle's once when I was younger and one uncle found a stalk that was I'm guessing 4ft tall. I am 6'3 and the darn thing nearly came up to my chest.
7) Snake boots from Cabela's. Snake chaps as well.
8) Just Off repellent, hat, and long sleeve shirt/gloves.

triton wrote:

most dug in a day 13.5 lb. in 4hrs no really no bs. triton

I'm hard pressed to digest this one. No disrespect. I honestly mean that. But unless you have pictures of the plants standing in the woods, it's going to be a tough sell. Just by watching my uncles and getting the feel of the people on here. If you dig 3lbs in a day that is absolutely outstanding. Unless you ran upon a patch that someone was cultivating. Then they'd be pretty darn mad when they found out.

TN, I'll kind have to estimate on everything because it's been awhile.

1. started around 1962 or 63
2. most green in one day 2.5 to 3 lbs.
3. most of the time I use a cloth carpenters apron or just wear cargo pants, now if I'm saving the tops also I'll take a sachel
4. I dig with a small long handle mattock or a hoe like yours and Billy's
5. Largest root and oddest plant 5 prong that double decked with another whirl of leaves and another cluster of berries. Around 8 oz. green
6. I wear lace up 10 inch hiking boots and strap the top laces around my pant legs to keep ticks from crawling up my legs.
7. Deep woods off 40% deet

rootman

rootman,

On the ticks - I always wear my snake boots, and two pair of long tube type cotton socks (not too thick).

I pull the first sock up high, then put on my jeans, and fold the bottom of the jeans around and put on the next sock and pull it up over the folded jean bottom. Then put my boots on.

That sort of seals up the bottom so that ticks can't just crawl up your pants legs. It will also help with yellow jackets if you happen to step on or close to a nest. They are bad about going up your pants leg to get you.

I spray the top of my snake boots and bottm of my jeans (where they go into the boot) good with 40% deet, and a little permanone.

I also tuck my shirt tail in and spray the same around the belt line.

Hardly ever get a tick, or chiggar while seng hunting if you prep like that.

Down here in the south, the ticks and chiggars will eat you alive if you don't do someting. Seed ticks are the worst, sometimes they pile on by the 100's.

Maya - 2.5 lbs or so in 12 roots (WOW !). I remember seeing some of your pics of huge long roots. Now if you could just find hundreds of roots like that you would be fixed up for sure.

Around here we are lucky to find one over 1 oz and those are few and far between. We do have a lot of seng, just not a lot of big seng.

Triton - 13.5 lbs in 4 hours - Yikes !

I remember the day that me and my partner dug 6 lbs 3 oz in one trip. We started around 8 am, and quit around 1:30 (around 5.5 hours) and together had 6 lbs 3 oz. That is by far the most I have ever dug in one day.

The ground was hard and rocky and it had not rained in a while and the digging was hard. We went for 2-3 hours that day digging seng without ever really looking for another plant. While you were digging one, you could spot 2-3-4 more.

I had blisters on both hands from working my long handle hoe that day.

TNhunter

CarlM, If you walked off in a woods about a 100ft off the road and saw 3 big patches of 4 prongs with other 3's and 4's scattered around in less than a acre of woods and all the roots were 40 to fifty yrs old could you dig 13.5 lb. if it was a cultivated patch somebody done a hell of a job...
I have dug 6lb several times on a all day hunt and use to try and dig 3lbs.every time i went , but now im getting older and the hills are getting steeper startin to slow down now.lol
Here is a tip for the younger diggers ,alway keep an eye out when you leave the road you never know what you are walking buy.
I found almost6lb. next to a road that i had walked through probally 4 or 5 times...lol digest that!!!lol.
respectedly
triton

Triton,

You hit the mother lode. Too bad you didn't have a camera for that. That would be one for the ages!!!! My uncle always looks around the roads. He never has had quite the luck you have had. Keep putting the hoe in the ground!!!!

I would love to see 13.5lbs too!!! I always have something to take pics with and something for size comparison. Pics tell a thousand words...