TOPIC: Almost 2 foot deep root pic

Rained bout all day but we prob dug 2 1/2lb She had a husband and 3 nice 4 prong children. Several grandkids which are still there!

Rickyc,
Great looking root and a fine job of digging. It's probably good that it was raining some if you had to go that deep. I thought I counted 29 scars, but it's hard to tell from just looking at the picture. Glad that you had such a good day in the rain.
Hugh

Nice one there Ricky..

Can you get a count on the flats on the root neck ?

I found one a couple years ago that was at the bottom of a limestone bluff, at a place where rock chips and leaf litter would fall/roll/slide down the hill and accumulate.

I think when a seng plant is living in a place like that they have to grow a extra long neck just to keep the bud up close enough to the surface to sprout each spring.

It looks like the flats on your root neck are spaced out quite a bit. I bet it was living in a place where the soil was accumulating faster than normal.

It's not easy to dig one and get it all out when they are that deep. Good Job !

TNhunter

Hugh is very close. I found these very late in the evening and in the heat of the moment I was saying omg this thing must be a 100 yrs. old. All I knew at the time was it just kept going and going. Once I did get to look at it I was alittle dissapointed that they were spaced so far. sad. Told my buddy I'll prob be here till dark gettin these out and it was dang close. Had to head down the mountain as soon as I got done. Check this out, I found a bunch that had green berries on it! A few still had some red on them too.

Didnt get so lucky with this one. And I hate MOLES

mmm

rickyc wrote:

Hugh is very close. I found these very late in the evening and in the heat of the moment I was saying omg this thing must be a 100 yrs. old. All I knew at the time was it just kept going and going. Once I did get to look at it I was alittle dissapointed that they were spaced so far. sad. Told my buddy I'll prob be here till dark gettin these out and it was dang close. Had to head down the mountain as soon as I got done. Check this out, I found a bunch that had green berries on it! A few still had some red on them too.

rickyc,

You should never be disappointed, even a little bit, once you have counted the growth rings or scars on such a nice old root! Just because there are 29, 30 or other, doesn't give the true age of the root. The 29, 30 or other growth rings or scars may only show how many times the root has produced a budding plant without suffering from some major form of calamity or another. Also, they do not show how many years and times in between that the root may still have had to lay dormant due to suffering even minor calamities during the counted growth ring or scar period. How many root stems and their' growth rings or scars have been gnawed off by rodents or plainly died due to other damage or disease?? We don't know, nor can we tell the true age of the root unless it was tended by someone year after year after year from a seedling until harvesting! Also, although I am not that knowledgeable of how a Ginseng root reacts compared to other trees, bushes, plants and their' roots but I do know that most trees, bushes, plants and their' roots react to damaged or lost limbs, stems or fibers by growing new ones in close proximity to the lost one. Just see the results to most if not all due to normal yearly pruning or aesthetic pruning. As with the leafing and/or flowering portion of most trees, bushes or plants react with new growth, many of their' roots react in the same manner!

Just a thought but one that should make one feel pride instead of disappointment when they harvest such a nice old Ginseng root!


Frank

I agree with you Frank. Just in the heat of the moment and dark comimg fast and going deeper and deeper only seeing a curl I thought it was going to have many more visible scars. Oh I'm very happy to find such a family of seng!! Thanks Man

Congrats on them old long neck roots

SengNveins

Very nice old long necked ginseng! Congrats