TOPIC: Season highlights reel for every one

Hey guys. started this thread to hear your guys highlights. Not a contest as nobody is competing with anyone but their own drive to find the roots. Just want to hear the cool things you saw and did this year. I'll start with post 2.

My first year hunting seng partly out of necessity and partly to get back to my own roots by being in the woods. My second time out by myself i found over 1 pound wet including a 3 foot tall 5 prong with a golf ball sized seed pod. Only 7 yrs old with a 1 ounce root. since then i have learned where to look on a hill and how to examine what else is growing in the hollow that might show is seng may be found. i have learned that it sucks to be the second guy in a holler. I have learned that its not worth the time to search a hollow already dug by another hunter hoping he missed some. Move on. I have walked everyday since week ine of season. many days i got nothing but the knowledge that i need to hit that holler earlier in the season to beet another guy there or that seng just dont grow there so skip it. I have learned that tucking in your pants at bottom doesnt stop CHIGGERS. I have learned not everyone stops at property lines. I have had a good time. Highlight. 11 pound dug and sold wet. 1 pound dried and sold today. Biggest top/ 5 prong 3 feet tall. Biggest root/2.1 ounce/3 prong. found 3 double top plants. found a 2 foot tall 2 prong with a one ounce root and a 8 inch tall 4 prong with a ball root. had a deer step over me while i was halfway in a wood pile digging and a coyote run right past my that looked like Cujo.

Large 2.1 ounce root found with very large 3 prong top in an old roadside dump site. I fell on trash coming back down the steep bank and cut my hand open on a botle. War scars. chicks dig scars.
Ok a couple pics and run with it guys.

more misc pics

BlisteredfeetKY,

You have experienced in just one season, what it takes many diggers half a lifetime or more to experience! Congrats on a great first season digging and for having such a great experience at it!

I will make a few comments about your season highlights and hope you don't mind as I believe that they will be educational to you for the future.

The 3 foot tall 5 prong with the 1 ounce root, I can assure you was much older than 7 years old! It may have only had 7 visible scars on the rhizome but that could have been the second, third or even fourth rhizome that the root had to grow due to damage from moles and/or voles. Due to the growing cycles of Ginseng, it takes a root many, many years to grow a 5 prong top even if it never suffers setbacks during it's life (i.e. damage from moles and/or voles; periods of dormancy due to droughts, fires, logging or other; tops being damaged by storm downed trees or being eaten off by animals; etc.). Heck, it could have even been a 6, 7 or 8 prong at one time but due to setbacks which caused periods of dormancy, it was knocked down to only a 5 prong! The same goes with the 2 foot tall 2 prong plant with the 1 ounce root. Surely this plant was once a hardy 3 or 4 prong at one time but again due to setbacks which caused periods of dormancy, it was knocked down to only a 2 prong. I want folks to understand that you can never truly age most 3 or 4 prong plants dug in the wild and especially 5, 6, 7 and 8 prong plants, unless they were grown in a controlled environment and monitored year to year. These are things that you will understand more and more, the more time and years you spend digging Ginseng!


Frank

While I love finding the big ones, and the large pocket full of roots, I would have to say this pic below was definitly the highlight of my season this year. My oldest boy, now only 7, finally convinced his mamma he was big enough to go digging with me this year. On his first trip I took him to a known good area for sang and taught him what to look for, what to dig and what not to dig, and basically everything my grandfather taught me about it some 25+ years ago. I took him just a few days ago on only his 2nd trip digging and not 5 minutes into the woods he spots this good little 3 prong. He continued to find good size plants that whole day, we only came out with around 9 ounces that day but the look on his face after him finding that first one on his own was priceless.

Here was what I thought was interesting. lol

congrats on a gr8 first season. u hav found a 5 prong! do u know how many of us r still looking 4 our first 5? u talking about taking ur son reminds me of going with my late brother-in-law and my son. u can't put a price tag on memories like that. It makes me look 4ward to more trips with my new partner my wife! when i figure how to post pics i will let u c what a knock out my wife is! plus she can find and dig seng by herself! hope everyone has a safe time in the woods.

Hey Blistered, when you get all that cash get you some new boots so your feet will feel better. lol

BlisteredfeetKY wrote:

Hey guys. started this thread to hear your guys highlights. Not a contest as nobody is competing with anyone but their own drive to find the roots. Just want to hear the cool things you saw and did this year. I'll start with post 2.

huntsman53 wrote:

BlisteredfeetKY,

You have experienced in just one season, what it takes many diggers half a lifetime or more to experience! Congrats on a great first season digging and for having such a great experience at it!

I will make a few comments about your season highlights and hope you don't mind as I believe that they will be educational to you for the future.

The 3 foot tall 5 prong with the 1 ounce root, I can assure you was much older than 7 years old! It may have only had 7 visible scars on the rhizome but that could have been the second, third or even fourth rhizome that the root had to grow due to damage from moles and/or voles. Due to the growing cycles of Ginseng, it takes the root many, many years to grow a 5 prong top even if it never suffers setbacks during it's life (i.e. damage from moles and/or voles; periods of dormancy due to droughts, fires, logging or other; tops being damaged by storm downed trees or being eat off by animals; etc.). Heck, it could have even been a 6, 7 or 8 prong at one time but due to setbacks which caused periods of dormancy, it was knocked down to only a 5 prong! The same goes with the 2 foot tall 2 prong plant with the 1 ounce roots. Surely this plants was once a hardy 3 or 4 prong at one time but again due to setbacks which caused periods of dormancy, it was knocked down to only a 2 prong. I want folks to understand that you can never truly age most 3 or 4 prong plants dug in the wild and especially 5, 6, 7 and 8 prong plants, unless they were grown in a controlled environment and monitored year to year. These are things that you will understand more and more, the more time and years you spend digging Ginseng!


Frank

WOW. i never new the rhizone could be damaged and effect the aging. as a matter of a fact at the time i found the 5 prong was on my second ever successful seng hunt. i didnt even know about feeder roots. i wonder if i left some of the root in the ground. thank you for info.

rickyc wrote:

Here was what I thought was interesting. lol

LMAO...That is a special trre for sure.