TOPIC: anybody..

getting excited for the upcoming season.some of you don't have long to wait.me here I cant start till the 2nd Sat. in sept..

I sure am Chief. It's pretty much all I think about. Lol
I went out scouting Sunday and found only one 3 prong. The place looked great but nothing there. I'm planning on going back in there this fall and put down some seed.
I did find a bunch of Chanterelles though. Lol

nice find on the Chanterelles ...ours should be coming up in the next couple weeks..every time it rains in july ours come up...

Hello Chieftain, Ubtrapper.

I have a plan this year. I will deploy rat poison the last two weeks of July in some of my best locations. These places always get hit hard by mice because the little bastards have become habituated to feasting on ginseng seeds. They begin munching about two weeks before seeds are ripe. If my plan works it will be berry bonanza this Fall.

Go to hardware store. Buy anti-coagulant rat poison. Hide under rocks where foxes, raccoons, opossum cannot easily get to them.

sounds like a plan archon,i don't have a rodent problem..but the deer here are hard on the plants...did some animal damage control trapping this week..just when you think you've seen it all something suprises you..went my buddies pond.he had broken duck eggs ,a couple of ducks with their heads gone..i gave him the list[mink ,coon, skunk, weasel. possum ect.ect]of suspects ..I set 3 live traps down by the water where the last two attacks took place.he called me yesterday morning and told me I had to come over and get the critter out of the trap it was pissed and he didn't want to mess with it..i get over there and low and behold in my trap is a six pound snapping turtle...thats a first for me turtle in a live trap..bet there wasnt a quarter inch clearance between his shell and the cage on each side..

We use to have rattlesnakes in the old days. I think these snakes used to live in ginseng habitat. They would have kept the rodents in check. Now the snakes are gone and things are not as they should be.

Those mice could be spreading those seeds around for you?

Mice do not spread ginseng seeds. Only birds do that.

I'm sorry Archon. I have to disagree with you I believe Chipmunks n other rodents r big spreaders also. Many times I've seen small piles of shang seeds on dead logs. I know all of us find plants near or beside dead logs. They eat alot but also burry many they forget about too.

Here in New Hampshire all large populations of ginseng are stripped by mice every single year. Probably because of a lack of diversity in the vegetation. Farther South the increase in plant diversity may provide protection for the ginseng. Meaning that with more food sources the mice do not focus exclusively on ginseng.

Leatherwood shrubs also get hit hard. Only takes four days for mice to eat every single leatherwood seed. All that remains is a tiny pile of seed casings.