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

1. What year did you start seng hunting ? 1981

2. What is the most you ever dug in a single day (green weight) two days I want to mention one with my brother David 4 lbs 5 oz`s I got 2 lb: 12 oz`s and David got 1 lb: 9 oz`s also one time me and my buddy Lee went and got 4 lb: 11oz`s
we thought we broke 5 pound that day but was a little short Lee dug 2 lb 10 oz`s I got 2 lb`s 1 oz that was the best two days digging wild ginseng me,lee or david could have dug more as a single guy those two days in weight,but we always go with two together and share the area it is safer to us.

3. What kind of digger do you use ? Me and Tn have identical diggers only our handles are a little different long handle old hoes and light in weight and near impossible to find i wish i could get some more of them for my sons.

4. How do you carry your seng while hunting ? I use 1 gallon bags to store the fresh roots in with soil mixed in as I go to preserve them fresh untill I get home I then place them into my carrying pouch like a back pack.

5. Biggest Root you ever found (green weight) ? I have found sevral nice big roots but im sad to say that is one thing im not sure of but in the area of 3 and 4 ounces.

6. Any special tops you have found. Sevral 5-prongs a double toped plant with two sets of limbs instead of one and then the berry pod A triple 4 prong on one root but all 3 had different root curls that went into the same root realy cool,,,but the most awsome top the good Lord ever let me find had 6 prongs around the bottom set and then the main branch exstended up and produced another set of limbs that where smaller than the six main bottom limbs they came out about 3 to 5 inches from the circle and had only one leaflet to each fork that had either 3 or 5 leaves on each leaf steam there was 10 of them and then the main steam came up and produced the berry pod it was the biggest pod that I have ever saw and held 30+ berrys on it when i found it but it had already droped sevral berrys and the plant was about to blow away it was so dead as I found it very late in the season my friend Ron that was with me called it a 16 prong but I say it was a very odd formed giant 6 prong because the 10 single branched 1 leaf steams didnt produce full limbs as a 3 prong 4 prong etc but single forked leaflets,,but the six prongs where unreal in size till this day I still thank God for letting me find that plant it was amazing there is a thread on hear somewhere about it when I found it.

7. What kind of boots do you wear ? Georiga Boots they are very comfortable and water proof but grip the teran very well recently I herd that rocky bought them out got to keep a check on that and i sure hope that they do not change that design on that perticular boot.

8. What do you do for chiggars, ticks, skeeters ? most of the time nothing but I do check myself at the end of the day and use alchol to disinfect any bites if i get a chigger or tic bite the wife has medicine that she puts on that for either bite.

Hunter - VERY nice roots there and I agree with Billy and others - that would be a great place to plant some seed.

Even those really big ones you provide the up close pic of did not look all that old to me 10-12 years at most and just huge and obviously very healthy.

The fact that they were growing in briars may indicate that they were getting a lot of light too, but good light. I would bet they were getting morning light and not evening sun, and the fact that they were that tall would sure indicate that they liked that soil too. Would be interesting to see a soil test from that location.

Hey Guys - if any of you are looking around for some good Snake Boots...

I had a pair that I got from Sportsmans Guide - they were OK but they were not all that comfortable.
They were also hard to get off once you got your socks a little damp with sweat.

I had mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about getting a better, perhaps more expensive pair and she suprised me with some on my birthday or Christmas one (a little while back) and man they are really good boots, comfortable, easy to get on/off, and waterproof.

Cabelas Pinnacle Zippered Snake boots (link below).

They have some awesome tread on them too - work great on those steep hillsides.

Link below...

TNhunter

www.cabelas.com/product/Footwear/Mens-Fo...26780%3Bcat105543180

1:
Around 1978

2:
6lb in one day mostly all in a big patch of 50/60 year old plants

3:
my ginseng digger is homemade out of a wide wood chisel, goldenseal digger is a small mattock

4:
I carry my roots in a compartment of my backpack

5:
not sure 2 or 3 ounces. But I know the biggest I never dug. Theres one growing beside a stream I flyfish in Smokey Mountain National Park that reaches my waist! I visit it when im there just to check in...

6:
a two topped four prong that weighed over two ounces

7:
vasque boots

8:
just use off for bugs. BTW if you ever get chiggers bad spread elmers glue over them kills em and the itch too faster than anything you can buy..

Hi all,


Did my first diggin' about '82 or 83.... didnt dig any more seng for about 25 yrs and have been enjoying it for the past few years.
I dont dig a lot at one time, probably about 1/2 lb would be my biggest one day haul.
My digger is a lightweight maddock just like Billy and Tnhunter have... it belonged to my great granddad and has his initials on it.
I use a drawstring bag to carry my roots in and my largest single root went about 3 oz green. Most memorable top was a 4 prong that had a 3 prong coming up from it (double decker) and then a huge pod of berries on top of that... it stood about waist high.
I wear my worn out tennis shoes, I'm not worried about snakes and the lightweight shoes are less tiresome to wear. I swat skeeters, pick the ticks off and we are blessed to not have chiggers here.

Randy

I'm really not 100% sure about the answers to a lot of these questions, but will give as accurate an answer as I can. I started digging around 1987 or 88. The largest one day haul for me was right around 2 pounds (give or take a couple of ounces). The largest root I've ever dug was the 2.2 ounce root I dug with our friend Billy last fall. Besides that one the largest ones I've dug in Ohio have been right around an ounce and a half. I have and use several types of diggers. I have a long handle digger similar to what Billy and TnHunter use, I also have a short handled version of that. I usually carry one of those two diggers, and almost always have a large screwdriver that I carry with me.
The most special tops I've ever found have been a couple of 5 prong plants. I also found a huge, and I mean HUGE 4 prong plant that was nearly 3 feet tall with 7 or 8 leaves on each prong a few years ago, but somebody poached it before season and I never got to see the root off of that one:( I often times wear a backpack with a hydration pack, or a bottle or two of gatorade, I keep a few survival items in there also. I usually put my roots in a gallon ziplock bag and carry in my backpack. I do have a pair of Rocky snake boots that I wear at times, but oftentimes I just wear a pair of hiking boots. I use Repel for mosquitoes, but have never had a problem with chiggers. The ticks I just pick off at the end of the day, but the Repel seems to keep them to a minimum too. I think I've covered all the questions even if I didn't get the order right.

I will do my best as well to answer these questions.
1. What year did you start seng hunting ? (1976 I believe)
2. What is the most you ever dug in a single day (green weight) ? (Enough to cover 1/4 of a ping pong table. Not sure how much that was thou lb wise.)
3. What kind of digger do you use ? (I use a large screw driver but it takes a while at times.)
4. How do you carry your seng roots while hunting ? (I too put them in a large Ziplock bag)
5. Biggest Root you ever found (green weight) ? (Never weighed the big ones back in the 70's but the biggest lately was 3 years ago. I have posted it on Wildgrown.com somewhere. Think it was over 2 oz)
6. Any special tops you have found. (Back in the 70's in \"the spot\" that I dug in for 2 seasons the tops were so big the plants laid on the ground. I am sure some had to be 5 prongs but I didn't pay attention back then. I know some tops were as large as a trashcan lid thou.)
7. What kind of boots do you wear ? (Sometimes hunting boots sometimes tennis shoes. Just depends on the lay of the land and the distance I am going to walk and whether I am in the mood to walk with wet shoes all day)
8. What do you do for chiggars, ticks, skeeters ? (I use a good bug spray for mosquitoes and just pick any ticks off at the end of the day that I miss while hunting. Not many chiggars either)

Found a pic of the root I was talking about. It was a decent root.Hit the link below and then scroll up.

www.wildgrown.com/index.php/Ginseng-Foru...-this-year.html#7873

Latt

8.
I usually just keep scratching 'til the itch finally goes away!

Hey all been a while...Everyone get pumped up for digging? Heck ya! I can't wait, going to start where i stopped last year and get right into the big hogs!

1. What year did you start seng hunting ? 1996

2. What is the most you ever dug in a single day (green weight) ? 18.75 lbs digging sunup to sundown, crawling from one plant to next. private property that had never been dug on according to owner, land has been in his family since 1890's. Also have had multiple days with 5+ lb hauls, have also had days where i didn't dig one root!

3. What kind of digger do you use ? custom made 2 foot straight shaft steel with 8\" blade. sometimes i use an all metal 4 foot mini yoho shovel

4. How do you carry your seng roots while hunting ? multiple upland game bags that attach to belt and cargo pockets on pants when bags get full

5. Biggest Root you ever found (green weight) ? half pound, have seen a 14 oz dug my my friend.

6. Any special tops you have found. 5 prong, double berry tassle

7. What kind of boots do you wear ? danner gtx

8. What do you do for chiggars, ticks, skeeters ? wtf is a chiggar? ticks aren't too bad up here in the fall...skeeters get the marlboro smoke screen.

Yes I know you don't believe I dug 18.75 lbs in one day, but I have no reason to lie about it, and no reason to care if you don't belive me. Here is a pic of the 18.75 lb haul. you can look at my post history and see some freak daddy hogs from last year also. it's gonna be a great year up here, lots of great weather all year and some big healthy plants have already been scouted.

Nice haul there. What state do you live in ManRoot?

CarlM wrote:

Nice haul there. What state do you live in ManRoot?

Minnesota. I live in the SE part of the state.