TOPIC: scotts book hawkins vs. sowing

I am interested to know if I only want to plant a reasonable size patch of ginseng for me anyway about a tenth of an acre would the hawkins method of planting be the best bet? I would also like to see if I plant under walnuts and maples if I would need to get my soil tested.

Any help would be appreciated

Rechin friend,

The first planting I did last fall was done Hankins Method.

I did a 5' x 100\" bed and man I tell you it took me a long time and worked my tail good.

I was sure beat when I got that done.

Raking the leaves off and on was no more work than rake and scatter method, but digging those 1\" deep furrows in rocky root filled woods floor was a LOT of work.

It did work very well though. I had excellent germination and very good survival rates even though our July and August this year had almost no rain at all (probably less than 1/4\").

After doing that first planting using Hankins Method - I did some using rake and scatter and then later on tried a modified version of rake and scatter that I call (double-rake) and scatter.

I found that it works nicely too. Much better than single rake and scatter (on survival rates in heat/dry) and it less work than Hankins method (but still gets them under the soil nicely).

With the double rake and scatter method you first rake back the very top layer of leaves (just the part that is fresh and not de-composed much). You rake back about a 4 or 5' strip and just pile those leaves up along the edge.

Then you rake over it again, this time bearing down hard and getting all of that leaf compost and some of the top soil and you pull that over and pile it up along the edge of your leaf pile.

Then you put down your seed, gypsum (if needed) and then you rake that leaf compost and top soil back on top of the seeds, then rake the leaves back on top.

Once all that is done you walk the bed over real good stepping on every spot to mash all of that topsoil, leaf compost and leaves down on top of the seed.

The beds that I planted using single rake and scatter, germinated very good, but they did not survive into July and August this year.

The beds that I planted with double rake and scatter had excellent germination and did survive until August this year.

www.youtube.com/yttnhunter

I have a 2 part video on my youtube channel that shows the double rake and scatter method being used.

Good Luck !

TNhunter

Thaks alot I think ill try your way I appreciate the knowledge.

I would avoid planting under walnut trees. These trees excrete a tannin that is the tree's inhibitor to other competing plants. If you look around, you'll see that even lawn grass has a hard time under walnuts, especially black walnut.

Maples don't appear to be nearly as hard on other nearby plants.

TNhunter,

Do you think the plants from the double rake and scatter will come back next year? Because this is how i planted most of mine and they all went down around august too. i wanna plant more this year but plan on using another method if the oness from the double rake and scatter arent gonna come back in the spring

whitjr, I have read that walnut trees doesnt effect ginseng the same as it does other plants. My dominant tree species is walnut where I grow my ginseng and I havnt had any problems.

BOYHUD,

I only planted a couple of beds using single rake and scatter method.

I planted one large bed using Hankins method.

The rest I used double rake and scatter.

First of June when I checked my seedlings they were all looking good at that point.

I did not check them again until first of August and at that point the two beds where I did single rake and scatter the seedlings were gone - none left showing at all.

I am not sure if they will come back next year or not. They may - I think it depends on if they developed next years bud spur before they expired. Not absolutely sure about that though.

The first week in August there were several survivers in both my Hankins planted bed and in my double rake and scatter planted beds.

I do expect them to come back next year. Hope so anyway.

I think someone reported that they checked some in the month of July and found that next years bud spur was already developed at that point. I hope those in my single rake and scatter beds did develop bud spurs before they passed on - but since I did not check them between first week in June and first week in August - I really don't know exactly when they did expire.

Good Luck to you !

TNhunter