TOPIC: Help ID - Fresh Live 'Ginseng' Roots & propagation questions

Hello, I found these roots at an incredible price from a local. He said he got them from a California supplier. Somehow, in an odd sort of hurry, I forgot to ask what species they supposedly are.

From there, I'm a horticulturalist and would like to grow some of these to get seeds etc. Also very interested in attempts at root divisions, but can't seem to find any info online of much use. The first lot I planted them in cocopeat. I'm getting the feeling that without certain bits still attached there's no way to even regrow these? On the one pictured the leaves are already regrowing on one of the tips after only a week. But inspecting the smaller ones so far the top bits are rotting (they were completely covered with the substrate all week).

Any help and/or insights would be greatly appreciated!

(these bits are what are planted below)

With only the information in those pictures, I'm guessing they are a very low quality cultivated American ginseng. Root divisions are not the preferred way to propagate ginseng. Most of those crowns look like they are rotted. The pictures in the peat show them WAY too wet and they should be planted horizontally up to a 45 degree angle with the crowns a couple inches under the surface.

I can't express how low the quality of those roots appear to be.

They appear to be very young, and very quickly grown roots, probably grown with fertilizers.

I appreciate your honest inputs. Could you please give me a ball park estimate on what these might be worth, say per ounce?

If good quality woods grown ginseng roots that are 10+ years old are worth $500 per pound (call it $32 per ounce), than I would estimate roots that look like what are shown above to \"maybe\" be worth about 1/10th that, if you could even find a dealer willing to buy them. Many buyers will throw out roots that resemble this, as there is no market for them.

Agreed with the assessments above... Also, I do not know of California growers...