TOPIC: Wild Ginseng Question

I can't thank the two of you enough.. I'm totally excited to dig into this information (especially the fern video, we have tons of ferns growing wild). I caught on pretty quick to keep a low profile on the seng. There are a lot of crooked people and I have a tough time trusting others so finding the links on protecting land will interest me as well.

Do you guys also hunt mushrooms? I'm guessing I wouldn't see seng that early. I'm thinking mid-summer (greenish yellow flowers) to late summer or fall(red berries) would be the best time for a first timer. You think?

I watched the videos, what a great resource, my confidence levels are rising, lol. I can remember nibbling mountainberry tea leaves and stripping those leaves and twirling those seng stalks when I was little (unless it was another 'pronged' plant I guess). I was especially glad to see the video where you done an actual dig. You dug out and around and my thought was to dig from the stalk down and out. I'm loving this!!

I noticed in one video you (TnHunter) had several bloodroots in your hand. Are those collectible too? I thought the sappy stuff from them was harmful to skin.

Watching the videos really revved me up because I know I've seen this stuff. Hopefully I can post pics of a FAT collection this fall!!

Airhead,

Yes on bloodroot - you can harvest it, dry it and sell it but the price has been so low lately it is hardly worth the time to mess with. Year before last I harvested some here and there while hunting seng (if it was easy to get to and not much out of my way) and ended up with about a 1/2 pound dry and got almost nothing for it.

I did not dig any blood root last year, except that one I dug to show in that pic.

I have heard that blood root juice can be used on skin cancers, but not sure about that.

On the best time to hunt seng, no doubt later in the fall is best time (around here mid sept the berries are nice and red) but later in fall the leaves turn yellow (late sept, first half of october). They sure are a lot easier to spot when they have yellow leaves and if/also red berries.

TNhunter

Airhead,

On your questions on how to dig a ginseng root...

Some folks prefer a small tool like a flat head screwdriver and they dig real slow and careful slowly revealing the root and all root haris possible - the goal is of course to take out the root and keep all of the root hairs attached (or as many as possible) and no root damage.

I have dug with small tools like flathead screwdriver and other smaller short handle digging tools but the first time I tried my larger hoe type tool with long handle I soon preferred it greatly over small tools.

It not only serves as a great digging tool, but the 36\" hickory handle serves also as a walking stick, snake tamer, weed beater, etc. I can hold that long handle and reach up a steep hill and hook it around a tree or root or slam that hoe head in the ground and it sure helps with getting up and around on those really steep places.

When digging with a larger tool what I have found to work nicely is this.

Take a look at the seng top and see how wide it is.

Then start by breaking up the soil in a circle out around where the stem goes in the ground that is about as wide as the plant top.

Just work up the ground good and then go in with your hands and fingers and extract the root.

I hardly ever damage a root that way and can extract most roots in 30 seconds or less.

You want to be sure and avoid digging agressivly/wildly inside of that plant top circle width - if you do you are sure likely to chop off a root fork or root hairs and well that just sort of makes the root look bad.

If you do save some of your own seng for personal consumption - if you do damage one - you can just keep it for your stash.

Buyers definately prefer to have whole/complete roots with all root branches/forks and haris as possible.

Good Luck !

TNhunter