TOPIC: Question for you experts

Every place I read about growing ginseng says it wont grow for 50 years or so once you have grown it in an area. Yet when you harvest wild ginseng everything I read says to plant the seeds close to the plant you harvested. In some instances guys plant the seeds right back in the hole they dug for the root. For me this makes no sense. One of the 2 ideas is wrong unless Im missing something

Can you elaborate on the \"won't grow for 50 years\" statement. I've never heard that before from anyone. If soil/environment conditions are right for seng to grow, then it will grow whether there was already a plant growing there or not.

Sure its on several sites here is one that I just pulled up

ediblemadison.com/articles/view/the-yin-of-ginseng/full

Wapsi Willie,

Commercially grown ginseng takes a lot out of the soil, besides all the spray they use, so in other words the ground is so depleted to such an extent it just won't grow there again.

Wild ginseng isn't like that but I would plant the berries a few inches away from where I dug.

Im not an expert but ill answer this the best i know how.

Commercial or intense cultivation usually consists of 7-11 plants per square foot growing together. To the point it is absolutely solid and roots intertwined with each other. We're talking 70-100lbs per acre of seed being planted. Far different than what happens in the wild. Unless planning to plant in that manner you don't have anything to worry about. Even if you plant thickly, unless you intervene, nature is going to thin it down tremendously before it matures.
No one is sure what causes replant failure for certain. Educated guesses have been thrown out such as disease,pathagens or a simbiotic organism which grows in harmony with mature ginseng and in turn over takes younger plants once they are re-introduced and the ginseng can't keep up.

Hillhopper

it will grow how you think they get to be big patches of 3prongs in the wild..it will grow if you plant it at the right time and right place i promise

As Hillhipper said, it's the way you grow it, commercially vs wild sim.