TOPIC: Transplanting Roots

Well I've looked all over this site to try and find out about this, but I haven't had much luck. So does anyone on here know if you can dig up a seng plant and move it to another spot?

I was thinking about doing this to a few plants just so i can start a small seed bed. If I can, then can I dig them up sometime in the spring or summer and plant then somewhere or do I need to wait till all the berries rippen or what?

It's best to wait until late summer or early fall to transplant. Usually the plant will always wilt and lose it's top early in the year if it's tried but by waiting till September then it has put on it's bud for the next year.If tried to early and it fails, more than likely the plant will lay dormant the following year to reform a growth bud for the next, which will result in you not seeing this plant for most likely another 22 months. I have transplanted roots in May and June without them wilting but you must be very careful to keep plenty of original dirt around the roots and plant them asap. Putting them in a bag and carrying the root and top only doesn't seem to work and the effort of doing alot of roots the correct way is a big hassle. I recommend scouting areas and taking note where they are to come back later in the year.

Hillhopper

I have used the same method that Hillhopper has described and I agree, fall is best. Just as importantly you are not legally allowed to dig ginseng out of season. So it would be best to wait until September for many reasons. Make sure you bury the root as deep as it was when you dug it when you transplant it to a new location. It is important to pack the dirt around the root once transplanted and I like to water them in if the soil is dry as it often is in September. So take a bottle with water in it and creek water is great for refills if you are doing enough transplanting. Another thing is to make sure the root is not cramped in the whole that you dig for transplanting.
Good luck and if done correctly you will get them to survive the transplanting 95 % of the time. Just do not break off the growth bud.
Latt
Thanks,
LAtt

BOYHUD,

A couple of years ago late in the seng season - about the first week in October I hunted a spot here on my place that had an abundance of 2 prongs and I wanted to try a spot out close to my home that looked like it would grow seng (had some maiden hair fern and bainberry growing there but no seng).

As I was harvesting seng that evening I collected 10 of those nice little 2 prong roots (I put them in a bag filled with moist woods topsoil and was very careful with them) and transplanted them up there by the house.

Last spring 9 of them came up - I am hoping the other one will come up this spring.

When I planted them in the ground I just used my old seng digger and opened up a decent sized hole and laid the root in about as deep as they were when I dug em up. I compressed the soil down around them and just let them be.
Be very careful not to damage the bud for next years top when handling and planting.

A few of those little 2 prongs I transplanted actually came up as little 3 prongs. Here is a pic of one of them from last June.



PS - when I established my seed bed this fall, I collected 39 nice wild roots from decent 3 and 4 prongs and put them in my seed bed. I collected those from 3-4 different areas of the county here to increasae the cross polination and hopefully give better genetics in the seed I produce. I also bought 5 nice big mountain roots from Billy and put them in there - so I have a total of 44 nice roots in that bed.

Can't wait to see those coming up this spring !

TNhunter

Ok, well I'll take yall's advice cuz the ones I'm wanting to move are wild plants and I'de rather not wind up killing them. Ok well, I say they're wild just because no one that we know of has been ginsengin on our land before, but who knows.

I dug some roots last oct. and kept them in a ziplock bag with moistened bark and put them in the refridgerator for a month and gave them to my buddy. He forgot to plant them and it got too cold so he planted them this early march and they all(7) came up. But would not recomend moving them while green unless it was early and you kept a bunch of soil with them.

Update on my seed producing bed.

I transplanted 39 wild roots (nice 3 & 4 prong) and got 5 nice seng roots from Billy and planted them in a cultivated/raised bed in the woods here close to my house.

44 roots total.

42 of them are up now - 2 I can not see any sign of yet and expect those two will just be dormant this year and hopefully come up next year.

I harvested the roots late fall (last 3-4 seng hunting trips I went on last year) and planted ASAP after returning home.

TNhunter