TOPIC: drying in a dehydrator

has anyone tried this? pros and cons ? thanks for any information

SHROOM
it actually will change the way it looks. A dehydrator does not help with the wrinkles standing out like air drying does. Forced drying of any type changes the look and or flavour: eg. to much heat will cause a darker root and a red ring inside the root,unacceptable.
The rules have been set for thousands of years.

Guy

thanks for the reply ... i saw something the other day here on the net about using one ... just cant find where i was reading about it ... figured this would be a good place to ask ... ive never done it so thats why i asked ... appreciate it

i'v never dried in the dehydrator ,know a fellow who does, as far as i know he's never been docked on price when he sell's ,but i wouldn't recomend it.

I've used a dehydrator to finish drying a few roots, but only after they were already 90% dry. Didn't notice any difference, but I havent ever dried them completely with a dehydrator because I've heard other people warn that it may discolor or change the shape of the roots. I've only done this a couple of times just to get the last few roots dried so that I could sell the whole bunch. p.s. when I did this I used the lowest heat setting on my dehydrator which I believe is 140 degrees.

shroom i sure do not recomend that either,i sure wouldnt dry mine that way...

I asked Bob Beyfuss this question last year and he said that it (something like a Ronco dehydrator) worked well for him and others that he knows. Things usually dry in 3 days. He said that the temperature doesn't reach high enough to burn the inside of ginseng. I have seen Larry harding dry some of his stuff on the Ronco type dehydrator in the warm room where he dries the rest of his sang, but he puts a large space between the heating element and the ginseng tray. I used a Ronco dehydrator last year, and put some \"spacers\" between the heating tray and the bottom ginseng tray, as well as remove the top cover so to keep temp low. It worked well, but I am preferring to slowly dry them now naturally over a month, using...Ronco trays, spread out without heat. The appearance of heat dried vs. room temp dried may be different. I believe there may be more vertical wrinkles in the dehydrator, but that may be an illusion. I think people in Hong Kong may not only prefer a little soil on their sang, they may like that yellow look from drying at a certain (higher) temperature. I don't try to turn up the temperature to get that yellow color as long as I naturally dry them properly. I am the one using this stuff so I am okay with that.

Fellows I checked with an old timer that I know who I thought might have a thought on this and this is what he told me would work well.

He said put the ginseng on the screens then sit them about 18 inches off the floor,take a 30 watt light bulb and sit it under the screen.

This is supposed to work well,he never has led me wrong.

I myself still will not dry it this way all though I would say it works.My seng lays and drys on its own I never try to quick dry or rush mine,butI might if I needed to.

G/L on your drying guys.

i dryed some ginseng last year useing a dehydrator and had no problem selling it the buyer did not even ask anything about it he just looked it over good and paid me.

I would not recommend this. I have dried in a dehydrator before and the dealer recognized it right away. It is certainly a no-no. I didn't get docked to bad on price, but it's better to let it air dry at temperatures under about 95 degrees f.