TOPIC: Pics from 06/17-18/2011 berries, 3 leafers, wild patch, root harvest

Good Saturday everyone !

I got out yesterday evening and again today and visited all of my seng planting patches and for the most part things are still looking real good (example below).

TNhunter

But now I do have some 3 leafers that are showing signs of being stressed out over the extreme hot/dry weather we had there for 3+ weeks. Some of the beds that are higher on hill some are turning lighter green - quite pale - even saw one 3 leafer that was yellowing some.

Beds down lower on the hill (like that first pic) they are looking much better.

I may need to stick to planting lower on the hillside mostly.

And then I do have some places where some critter has been chomping on my 3 leafers - like the bunch below.



The will just have to be TOUGH ENOUGH to survive I guess.

Yesterday I found one first year sprout that actually has all 5 leaflets.

That bed does have some with the small yellow spots - notice the ones to the right have them the one on the left does not.

It's definately a tough world out there for little sprouts, things eating them, 2 weeks of 95 degree weather and no rain, and fungal attacks. If they do survive they should have some nice stress rings

Now here is a nice little patch of youngans...

I found this patch last fall while hunting seng - it about 100 ft down the hollow from my last planting bed in a area I plan to plant this fall.

Last fall it was just a wad of 3 leafers and small 2 prongs and just down the hill about 2 ft there are two more 2 prongs.

I left them all behind of course, but wondered if there was a mature plant root just under the ground last year that did not send up a top, or perhaps got eaten before fall.

Well I checked it agian this spring and still nothing but little ones there. They did grow some, but no big top up again this year.

You know there had to be one there sometime that seeded that cluster of little ones.



I am going to watch these grow for the next several years and may eventually harvest when some get to be nice 3 prongs. I may also relocate some of the small 2's to a patch I have right beside the house - to thin that bunch out some.

Now here is a pic I took yesterday evening in my seed bed.

This is the best/most developed berry bunch I have now. It's on one of those nice roots I got from Billy. Others are starting to put on berries now too.

Now for the last couple of pics here.

I am running low on my own personal supply of ginseng and decided to harvest one this morning for my own personal consumption.

I also had a second reason for wanting to harest this specific plant. It was a nice 2 prong last year and this year turned into a decent little 3 prong.

I expected that about the time a wild plant turns to a 3 prong it will be 5-7 years old.

I was considering planting on this hillside and using no fertilizer (gypsum) because it does have some maidenhair fern growing on it and other companion plants and it just looks real good.

I wanted to know about what a root would look like and weigh if grown on that hillside for 5-7 years with no gypsum added.

Well here are the results.

I dug up that first year 3 prong and based on root neck scars it sure does look to be in that 5-6 year old range.

Not so good news - the root only weighed 0.1 oz.

It did have a decent/wild look to it. Nice stress rings.



Just not real big.

I am going to make good use of every single part of that plant.

Root, stems, leaves and berry stem.

Here is what the bounty looks like after harvest and dividing out.



That will make me around 12-14 nice cups of seng tea.

I have really got hooked on the stuff - been taking it 2-3 days a week since last fall.

I find it is especially good if you sweeten with a bit of raw honey, and I also put in a tea bag (organic green tea) with 3-4 pieces of ginseng.

I drink the tea and eat the seng at the end.

If you have not tried it - you should some time.

I will fix me up a cup here in a bit and post a pic of it.

Have a Great Day all !

PS - for those who may not know - In Tennessee if you are digging ginseng for your own personal use (not for resale) then the legal harvest season does not apply. It only applies to seng harvested for resale.

TNhunter

And here is how I fix my seng-green-tea.

I usually put 3-4 slices of dry seng in the cup, then a green tea bag (I use a brand from swansonvitamins - organic green tea that is good).

I will then drizzle that with a teaspoon full of raw honey add a bit of fresh lemon jice and let it set a while.

Boil your water, take it off the burner and let it cool just a bit (no longer boiling) then pour it in the cup and let it seep for 3-5 minutes and stir occasionally.

You can't see it in this pic - because it all sank to the bottom - but there is one slice of seng root, one bit of stem, one small leaf and that little berry stem - all in this cup.

I have read that the berry stem has the highest concentration of gensenosides of all parts of the seng plant.

Chilling out now - sipping my green tea with wild seng.

TNhunter



Edit - add later - finished that cup and it was nice.

First time for me eating various other parts of the seng plant.

The root as I expect most of you know has a mild-bitter (sengy) taste to it.

That fresh root slice after being in that hot water for 5 minutes was extremely tender.

The leaf bit I chewed it up and ate it too. It was quite tender and actually had very similar taste as seng root, but sharper/stronger.

The berry stem was very tender, chewed it up ate it too. The flavor was very mild - not sharp like the leaf.

The stem I chewed up and got the juice and perhaps some pulp out of and swallowed that, had a mild taste but did not swallow the rest - too woody.

TNhunter

TNhunter

Nice pics!

I've never seen a five leaf seedling. That's Cool!

I noticed in the first pic, it appears that some of the seeds were planted pretty densely(crowded close together). Maybe 6-12 plants per sq ft? Just my guess.

I know that one of the prime conditions they say that favors Alternaria Blight is over crowding plants. As the plants get bigger, it causes less Air Flow, and plants touching each other causes the disease to spread more easily.

I know from planting 4-5 seeds per sq ft, they seem to have pretty good spacing after I loose a few and as they get older and the tops cover more area.

Just my thought seed spacing.

Thanks,

classicfur

Classicfur,

You are right - I obviously planted some of my spots too thick and had really good germination (that bed is some seed I got from hardwoodginseng - and all of the seed I planted from them, looks like almost every one germinated). I have not done any type of official count and study like you did (read your other post on that) but when I see beds like that - well I don't see any reson to count - it was obviously good enough.

Many other beds I did real good on the spacing but a few places I just got too many seed down per sq ft.

Will pay much better attention to that next year and may have to thin some of these spots out this fall and transplant some roots.

Also I am going to plant some this fall more like wild seng (not in large beds) but just make a hole and plant a seed (may make a seed stick planter) and may also do some of that with a rake - just rake back a 4x4 spot and plant something like 32 seeds (2 per sq ft) then move on several feet and make another like that.

I have a bunch of land to work with and would really like to have some growing just here and there, like wild. It will even be more fun finding them and harvesting when that time comes. Sort of like hunting wild seng.

I am going to walk over my big place here mid summer and flag spots where I find maidenhair fern, bainberry, how peanut (decent stands of companion plants) and do some of that wild like planting in those areas and not worry about adding gypsum. If the companion plants are there and doing well, I am sure the seng will do OK to.

That will also be good for helping control disease, it will also diversify my plantings, and will be much more like what the land can support naturally.

TNhunter