I posted in another thread how i have some two year old roots that have come up as two prong and then surprisingly, some of those produced a few seeds. Now over the hill from the house on a North facing slope, I have three to four year roots that some are still coming up as sprouts, some (most) are still two prong plants and not producing seed. Others (a few) are three prongs and just producing a few seeds each.
There are just so many variables to consider. First you must consider the genetics of the seed. Most everything we are planting has come out of a ginseng farm where the roots are grown in very soft fertile ground and may have some of the wild bred out of them. Then there is the micro environment right where the seed is planted, and that involves so much. Too much shade, too little shade, not enough calcium in the soil, many other plants competing for the available nutrients in that micro environment. Then the overall environment of the sight. Too many rodents after the roots and countless obsticles for the young plants.
I would think that if you find some plants that are aggressively adaptive to your site and good seed producers, those are the seeds you want to be sure to get back into the ground in that site to carry that particular seed genetics throughout your site. Just my two cents.
