TOPIC: drying in a dehydrator

Patience is a virtue. Take a few extra days and do it right. I've read tales of old-timers sticking roots in a car for a day or so to get the outside dry yet retain the water weight, but that's willful misconduct in my book.

Always put yourself on the other end; would you buy what you are selling? If not, then don't do it.

I forgot all about this post but sitting here not able to go out and chase turkeys, and the morels are all but done here. So I was scanning around and figured I'd add this. I mentioned this to one of my buyers while selling roots last season and he told me he does it all the time, and told me I would be good to go using a dehydrator as far as he was concerned.

ive never had an issue using a dehydrator.never had a red ring nor did my root look any different.

irm drying so in a dehydrator now just aabout 3 lbs of green on low heat @ 95 deg let u all how it turns out the seng dealer in lake city Tn drys hes green with on just a test let u know in 48 hrs....

Came across this and thought it might be helpful to some of you... clark.wsu.edu/horticulture/Ginseng/Chpt16/dryroot.html

Hope we'll all be able to get good dry ginseng. These ginseng usually has grown for over ten years before being discovered and dug out...I think you should not rush the drying process to save a couple of days and ruin the ginseng.

Note also that fine rootlets are never discarded...even for cultivated ginseng.

In Scotts book he talks about drying roots in a drying room with lots of shelved screens in place and in that room he has a wood stove out in the middle of the room and the screens are around the edge of the room.

He said that when he brings fresh washed roots into the room he will build a fire and heat the room up to around 90 degrees but that is the MAX he will let it get to. If it starts getting hotter than that he opens windows to cool is off.

He said that initial 90 degree period only last 12 hours and then he trys to maintain a temp of around 70 degrees in the room.

He did say that on cool damp mornings he would fire up the stove again and heat it back up for a few hours to help combat the moisture in the air.

His room was probably not like what we have today in a modern home - basically air tight, insulated well, HVAC system air space with basically no moisture issues.

I don't use any heat when drying mine - just let them air dry in HVAC system air space 72/73 degrees and they dry perfectly, nice color, nice shape, the wrinkles you want.

If I needed to dry some faster for some reason - I would consider buying a little space heater, and possibly a de-humidifier and a fan and include those in my drying room but I would keep the heater out away from the seng so that it was not blasting heat directly on the seng - but just warming up that room a bit (say up in the 80-85 degree range). A little extra heat and air circulation from the fan and a de-humidifier and you would have some ideal drying conditions.

TNhunter

I heard about a guy locally who had about $10-$12,000 worth and he tried to dry it in the microwave! Needless to say he went home from the dealer empty-handed

Here are the tips I've gathered this year:

NO microwaving
NO drying in the oven
Ifffy on the dehydrator and will change the color of the root. Some are ok, others on the fence, and others say a big fat no!

Most I've spoken with agree on drying inside vs outside (car window).

Ginseng isn't a plant/root in any manner that gets in a hurry and shouldn't be rushed. Air drying, evenly spaced on racks is preferred. Some larger handlers of root say they have special drying racks - almost like screens on restaurant racks for good airflow in a humdity controlled room, never over 100 degrees.

I have heard a lot about dehumidifiers in said rooms. I can personally attest to how well those can work in a very saturated bookshelf due to basement flooding and saving all of our books with NO damage. I'm inclined to think this method is ok, for now.