TOPIC: 2019 season just around the corner

Hey guys we’re only a week away from opening day of the season. Major concern up my way is that we have had no rain and many days in the mid 90’s this summer... lol a of trees around here are already dropping lots of leaves. Gives me real concerns that this years season could really end up being a short one. The ground up this way is really hard and seeing lots of bare spots with the weeds dying off early... I’ve even seen several patches of black cohosh turning yellow already. This normally doesn’t happen until mid october. I’m thinking about not selling any green sang this year due to a short digging season and holding on to selling every thing to the dry market.. On a better note. Yellow root prices around here have really taken off.. $45-$48 pound for good yellowroot and $12 pound for the plants...

It's been wet here in West Tenn. From what I've seen plants look good and healthy

We have had a lot of rain this year for most of the year... more than usual.

we had a short hot dry spell early summer... then more good rain thru June, July and early August... The last couple of weeks we have had some very hot mid 90's and dry spells... but then the last day or two got more good rain.

I checked out my seed producing Saturday before last, and collected 120 berries and planted them, the majority of my seed bed tops were green at that point... but it was in that very hot dry spell then. Today I checked my seed bed and about half of those old root tops are yellow now.

Seng that is somewhat high on the hill (like my seed bed) just does not do well when you hit those mid 90's for a week or two with little to no rain.

I expect most of the wild seng around here should be doing fine...

I did visit my wild sim patches on that saturday and found a few berries, but not many. It seemed like a good growing season and some of them did grow well this year, but many of them (larger more mature plants 6-7-8 year old), had flower spikes, but no berries. Like they just did not set, or get pollinated. Berry collection from my wild sim plants is going to be short this year for sure.

From my seed bed, it looks like I may get somewhere around 350-400 berries.

Best of luck to all of you that will be digging this year. Hope you find plenty.

TNHunter

I’ve reading a few things on the internet and the consensus from most of them is that it is going to be a rough season. Especially for the dry market. Seems like the tariffs on China have begun to significantly slow down there economy and in turn slow down the ginseng sales. Some reports are saying that they have only been able to sell about 50% of what they purchased last season but who know these seem to be the same rumors that diggers here every year. The fresh market appears that it is going to be much stronger with most states seeing $130-$160 a pound for fresh well dug sang. I think I’m gonna dig what I can a hang onto it until at least late November and if the prices aren’t good then certify it and hang on to it. Good luck this year fellows and hopes that we see decent prices similar to last year.