TOPIC: Growing Goldenseal For Extra Income

Checked on the wild goldenseal patches today. They have been hit hard by the drought. Plant tops are small and the berries are smaller than last year. Last year every plant had berries. This year only 1 out of 5 plants had berries. However I was still able to pick about 500 berries. So that should give me about 20 seeds per berry x 500 berries for 10,000 seeds. Last year the berries had about 35 seeds per berry. Still worth the 3 hours it took to pick them.
Latt

Here is a close up. Plants are small as well as the berries.
Latt

Latt I know where a wild patch of goldenseal is that is unbelievable in size and has been growing for many years no doubght,if i get up that way this season i will drop by there and take a couple photos to show you,it is amazing i think you would enjoy looking at those plants...

Billy.

Billy I would enjoy seeing those pics. If you all had rain down there I bet your plants will look a lot better than up here. I think you all are about 2 weeks ahead of us down there. But the drought caused the seeds to ripen early here. So if you got rain in June and July I bet your seeds are ripe about now.
The seeds are very valuable.
Look forward to those pics.

Here are the pics from today of some berries laying on a screen. I rinse them then put them in a bucket of water to let the pulp ferment off.
Latt

Well its been a while and the goldenseal berry pulp fermented off and I have the clean black goldenseal seeds now. I have about 4 oz here. So this is approximately 5,000 seeds. I have a couple links below that show the value of the seed and additional info.
Latt



www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=489

www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/wildplant/..._costs_revenues.aspx

If one chooses to establish goldenseal from seed, then a different set of cost assumptions apply. Plantings from seed will require at least 5 years of growth to yield a marketable root. If one chooses to start from seed, two seeds per square foot might be planted for a requirement of 800 seeds per bed (2 seeds by 400 square feet). This assumes an average germination rate of 45 percent (0 to 90 percent has been observed) so that approximately one out of every two seeds might be expected to germinate and become established. Eight-hundred seeds per bed multiplied by nine beds suggest a total requirement of 7,200 seeds for a 1/10-acre plot. One-hundred grams of seed (1 pound = 454 grams) of goldenseal seed contains an average of 5,000 seeds and costs approximately $340. One-hundred fifty grams (~ 7,500 seeds) at a cost of $510 would be needed to adequately plant all nine beds at a rate of two seeds per square foot.

Anybody want some of these seeds to get their goldenseal bed started? These are not stratified yet. However, if kept in the refrigerator until this Oct and planted this Oct like ginseng seed, they will come up in the spring of 2013.
Latt