TOPIC: Old small roots

Hi guys,
I've found small plants before but never in the abundance I did last weekend.
I found a small patch of fairly nice 3 prong plants, but the roots were very discouraging. There were probably 20 plants in the bunch that were 20 - 26 years old judging from the neck scars but it would take a handful of them to make an ounce. I know everyone finds small ones but I was wondering if anyone had opinions on why so many together? The soil was rich and not far from these I found some nice ones. Growing conditions? soil lacking something? Genetic? They were growing in an area that had several fallen trees opening up the canopy a bit so plenty but not too much sun, nice companion plants...

I'm just curious what anyone elses' thought are...



trying to post a pic, hope it works. the plant in the pic shows 26 neck scars.

Thanks
Randy

Wow, that is tiny for being so old!

Perhaps they had too much shade early in their lives before those trees fell. Lack of sunlight will make them small. Also lack of proper nutrients could cause that.

Thanks for sharing that.

classicfur

RSkid wrote:

Hi guys,
I've found small plants before but never in the abundance I did last weekend.
I found a small patch of fairly nice 3 prong plants, but the roots were very discouraging. There were probably 20 plants in the bunch that were 20 - 26 years old judging from the neck scars but it would take a handful of them to make an ounce. I know everyone finds small ones but I was wondering if anyone had opinions on why so many together? The soil was rich and not far from these I found some nice ones. Growing conditions? soil lacking something? Genetic? They were growing in an area that had several fallen trees opening up the canopy a bit so plenty but not too much sun, nice companion plants...

I'm just curious what anyone elses' thought are...

trying to post a pic, hope it works. the plant in the pic shows 26 neck scars.

Thanks
Randy

I think that you have it right.It has got to be something in the soil,thats lacking,,,or genetics,,but I agree that is seriously small for the scares.Intersting for sure to me...

i found some like that earlier this year. it was the absolute biggest patch of seng ive ever seen or heard of in my life. it obviously had never been harvested before prolly because of the same reason i didnt harvest them. the roots were extremely tiny. all the plants were pretty much legal to dig. almost all 3 prongs with 5 leaves per prong, but the roots were to tiny to bother, i knew a dealer wouldnt want a whole bunch of roots like that so i didnt harvest them. but i highly doubt they will ever get bigger seeing as they were all tiny. another interesting thing is they were dying out like a couple days after season started. i would be willing to say they were easy 200 to 300 plants all on one hill side. it was like a bunch of miniature seng

Hey I have also seen this in my neck of the woods their is one place i go to every couple of years or so and it does the same thing. The whole holler is like this. I even dig the two prongs in this area because i know it is old mature seng. Before everyone jumps on to me the only reason i do this is because i know the area and what it produces. Just like the other evening me and terry hit this holler hadn't been their in about three years and i fount a real big two prong and i dug it and it had 28 neck scars on it and the root wasn't no bigger than a couple inches long. The timber in this area is also what you would look for and also it has plenty of companion plants around so it has everything it needs to grow except for what it needs to produce good quality roots. I just believe it is like billy said something in the ground it is lacking.

Thanks for replying guys, glad it's not just me finding the dinky ones LOL

One other thing that may have a bearing on it, this was growing at about 2800 ft altitude. I've noticed that I find bigger roots down below 2500 ft. These were growing in a deep, steep hollow, had several hemlock trees in there too but not right over the seng...

Randy

Hmmm maybe these are dwarf ginseng...I think they are similar to the dry versions I see at medical halls, ginseng market...like little tops.

Thanks Kman, I've heard of dwarf ginseng but have never seen any that I know of. These plants had normal tops comparable to other plants I've found.

I left a lot of plants in that hollow, I may experiment next year and move some seeds or sprouts to another area that has produced larger plants, my fear there is that if its something genetic then I could wind up crossing the big plants with these..... ?

Randy

Check out the small roots on this sight, especially lot #1 and #3

www.catskillginseng.com/

To bad they dont give the exact reason for them being small. They say that they are valuable.

classicfur

Most likely differences...

1.. Calcium level in soil
2.. Sunlight conditions

All of the big ball roots below and to left of that 20 dollar bill were dug on a east facing bluff (good morning sun) and the soil was just full of lime stone rock pieces (no doubt very high calcium levels). They were all between 6 & 8 years old.

The 4 (much smaller) long necked roots (averaged 22 years old) to the right were dug within 1/4 mile of where those big ball roots were dug. But they were on north facing hillsides in deep shade heavy timber and mostly clay looking soil (no rock, low calcium).

Like that article that classicfur linked to said \"It is not age that makes a ginseng root big\" - It is the growing conditions.

TNhunter