TOPIC: First seed developing and question on when to water ?

I am very glad to be here in this forum for Ginseng and Herbs. I am really inspired to plant such herb in my home, but unfortunately I don't have enough space in my home to plant the herbs. Can I plant such herbs in New Pro Containers ? It would be really interesting to know about it.

Grasshopper Damage.

Grasshoppers can consume large amounts of green foliage. And in the ginseng world is considered a pest.

Grasshopper feeding on ginseng:

www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdoc...00-1.pdf?OpenElement

How much damage can grasshoppers do:

ipm.ncsu.edu/AG271/forages/grasshoppers.html

I think that if grasshoppers get into a seedling bed, they could do some serious damage.

classicfur

Hakku

Welcome to the forum!

I am not familiar with the New Pro Containers. You can grow ginseng in containers with the proper conditions, like soil and light.

If you search on this forum for growing in containers or pots you may find some info.

classicfur

Well yesterday evening around 4:00 I decided to go ahead and give them a little water.

My son was out in the back yard playing on a slip-n-slide and when he was done I just moved the hose over and hooked it up to my irrigation system. I flushed out the lower line to make sure there was no stale water in there, then hooked it up to the irrigation system.

I adjusted the water pressure until the water was just seeping out the soaker hoases (if you give too much pressure soaker hoses will actually squirt some water up on the leaves) so I adjusted it until that was not happening but water was flowing out well. I let it run for 30 minutes - looked like they got a good watering.

With all of those berries just about to develop - I did not want them to be getting stressed out too much.

On the yellow spots - I think first I may snip of the infected leaves and then just see if they continue to show up after that. Will check on them again a few days after our next good rain and see if more are showing up.

I may go ahead and order a couple of organic fungicide products from Johnny's - and spray the locations where I have found the yellow spots and see if that helps.

They have a hand full of OG or Organic options.

The second one mentions Alternaria in the short list on the label.



www.johnnyseeds.com/p-8538-greencure-fol...fungicide-8-oz-.aspx

www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7725-actinovate-og-2-oz-.aspx


Classicfur - I will keep an eye on the grasshopper critters too.

PS - one good thing to mention that you will appreciate - absolutely no snail damage this year - never even saw any in or around my seng beds.

TNhunter

TNhunter

Thats good, no slugs.

My slug season is over until Oct. And no Grasshoppers!

classicfur

TNhunter

Here's some from A.R. Hardings book, pg 106,107

\"Upon the general appearance of so destructive a disease, one of the first questions of the growers was \"where did it come from?\" Believing that it was a natural enemy of the wild plant.....

....This I believe answers the question of the source of the disease. Introduced into the gardens on wild plants brought from the woods, it has spread rapidly under conditions most favorable to it's developement.....\"

If you read the whole thing. It sounds like alternaria can be easliy brought into your planting area by transplanting wild plants into beds.

Then he goes on to talk about how destructive the disease is. And the reproduction of the spores.

It sounds like transplanting diseased wild plants into your growing area can make your whole growing area, a mine field ready to explode with the disease.
I guess we worry about diseased seeds contaminating our beds, but I never thought about diseasded wild plants being the problem.

classicfur

Classicfur,

I have never seen any real grasshopper damage to plants in the woods around here - don't think I have anything to worry about there.

After seeing your pic's of slugs I was worried this spring about that, but checked my beds several times and never found any sign of slugs.

On the disease issue.

I think it would be a little un-realistic to expect to grow a completely disease free cultivated crop (from seed or root transplants) in an area where I have confirmed evidencd (posted 3 photos) of plants growing naturally in the wild with yellow spots.

With age and with organic gardening practices in my veggie garden, I have leaned not to FREAK about too much going on with plants.

Not to the point that I start doing something un-natural (like spraying poisons) to correct it.

It is by far best to let your environment support what it will naturally than to try and force it to do something else by using chemicals, or other un-natural methods.

The seng that I do manage to grow here, will be a product that I will eat myself or let my kids eat, and will not have any issues about selling it to someone for them or their kids to eat.

It will not have poisions sprayed on it.

Absolutely sure of that.

Best of Luck to you all !

TNhunter

TNhunter

I just thought it was interesting what A.R. Harding had to say about wild plants having the disease and being brought into the growers garden.

But comparing my veggie garden to my seng garden that is worth thousands of dollars is a poor comparison. I don't freak out about disease in my veggie garden either. My veggies mean nothing to me when I compare it to my ginseng. Then again I have seven years worth of growing seng.

When you hear stories of entire beds being wiped out by alternaria, it's of good cause for freaking out.

From Persons book, pg 116 refering to alternaria.

\"In the right conditions, left unchecked, Alternaria blight can spread rapidly, infecting an entire hillside of beds within a few weeks.......but once Alternaria is established in an area, it usually stays around-existing on dead plant material during the winter. when conditions are right during the next growing season, it will attack the ginseng again......\"

With a story like that. I would not just stand back and wait to see what the disease does. I have too much at stake.

I do agree that chemicals are not the best answer. But niether is the the idea of just letting nature deal with it and doing nothing.

I would much rather loose the few plants that the slugs kill, than to possibly loose thousands to alternaria. And fortunately I have not been faced with that situation.

There is plenty of natural treatments that can be used for Alternaria blight. One being Azoxystrobin(made from mushrooms). It's a good fungi to treat a bad fungi.

I have Azoxystrobin on hand just for treating Alternaria blight. So I'm ready if and when it ever attacks. So far I have been blessed with healthy plants.

I wish you luck in controling the disease.

classicfur

Classicfur,

Here is another quote from Scotts book...

He used to pluck some weeds from his beds once in a while, but basically, Oscar just sat back and let his sang grow naturally. He wanted to avoid the pollution and expense of synthetic chemical fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides. He told me that his best beds produced about 30 lbs of roots (dried weight) per 1000 sq ft and he got premium woods-cultivated prices for his roots.

==

Now if Oscar had of freaked and sprayed chemicals - he may have suppressed that disease more and been a bit more successful but again that comes at a cost.

Worrying and fretting over something, extra expense of the equipment and chemicals, and also exposing yourself to that same chemical while spraying.

Ever wonder why when you were a kid - hardly ever heard of anyone with cancer, and now days - almost every family you know has someone with that awful experince of cancer.

Yep - a bit of disease on your plants now and then is not ideal, but you may well still be very successful without spraying chemicals - Oscar was.

And any profit you have planned from ginseng sales - would sure be reduced to absolute insignificance later on if you ended up with cancer.

I read something the other day that said that 90% of chemical fungicides are on the EPA's list of know cancer causing substances - they are even worse than pesticides and herbicides.

I have two friends at Church who in the past 2 years fell subject to NHL, surgery, chemo, radiation, etc - both had years of exposure to herbicides via farming or one was actually a football coach and sprayed the field a few times each year.

Spooky stuff - Yikes !

Be Careful if you do go that route.

TNhunter

TNhunter

Like I said, All my plants are healthy and disease free. So I have nothing to freak out over, yet. And if I did spray it would not be a chemical.

But think about this. Over 80% of the ginseng that shipped to china has been shade grown seng. And I bet that 99% of that has been sprayed with chemicals. And the chinese life span is higher than ours. ???

classicfur