TOPIC: ginseng and deer

im new to this but my friend owns a 300 acre deer farm with about 200 acres of it is open preserve my question do you think the deer would eat them they have about 5 feeders they keep full of grain and a couple food plots he said i could plant it but i dont wanna do it if the deer gonna eat it all

thanx mike

Hey, Mike
you're right, the deer will eat the berries when the plants start producing seed at about 4 years of age. You have a few options though. you can fence your area off. might be kind of costly to do that. or you can hang cotton balls in the trees that are soaked with coyote urine. the deer will not go around that. you can buy coyote urine online.

i trap so i have plenty of urine

Mike, here is another thought. Deer are basically a bit lazy in somethings -must be learning from humans, but if after you plant, cover the new seedlings with brush. Not enough to smother but, enough to make the deer stick their head in the pile to get to it. If there is food outside the brush pile for the deer to eat, they will most likely not go to the extra trouble to get to the sang. I have seen that work in the wild.

Now the other thing to consider is how many deer are we talking about for the 300 acres? If just a few, probably not a problem but, if there are 25-30 or more, they may eat everything on the place. Look at his woods. If there is not much vegetation below the 4 1/2- 5 foot line, I would not consider planting there as it is way over browsed. If lots of good growth on the forest floor and a nice layered forest look, the deer must be happy with the feeders. Hope this helps.

theres probably 25 or so deer in hunting season not quite so many in the off season they take to the feed they get feed good and there is a few clover plots for them they are used to the being feed he has raised all them from fawns and yes there is plenty of natural veg on the ground i just wasnt sure if the sang would be and attractent for the deer or not

I would say you will still loose some to the deer. I have seen deer nip off the berries, the leaves or both but, if there is other browse and all the others you describe available, I would think they will not eat it all. If the plants get to the age that they are baring berries, and they get nipped off after the berries set, the root should still keep coming back. If they get eaten as a sprout or early in their second year, they may not have the stamina to recover and grow again.

at about what time of the year are the deer likely to eat your plants? I haven't noticed any so far but wondering if they still might.

Just about anytime. It depends on what they are int he mood for -kinda like us in that I guess. I have seen some along a trail they have ignored and some they eat the whole top. Last fall I found a pour prong plant by the berries, and that was all that was left. All four leaves had been eaten off. It was right along a deer trail. I have seen this spring, they are working the tops of some wild sarsaparilla and they are working the jack in the pulpit pretty hard in another area. So far they seem to like the fruit producing part of the jack and not the other stem with the leaves. I have CRS and cannot think of the proper name right now.

Dieselrider can you help with the name of abook that has color pictures of plants such as jack-n-the-pulpit stuff like this and other ole time mtn. plants and their medical properties if any?And the name of the best ginsang book that you know of? I have seen one mentioned before on this page but cant remember the name or find it when I think about trying to get it.I don't claim to be the brightest light in the sky when it comes to internettng, emailing posting. In fact this sight is the first that I,ve tried.As you can tell I can't type, spell real well either.I am much happier in the woods playing in the dirt than using a computer. I hope this gets to where someone can read this and reply . It takes a long time to type with one finger!! Thanks again for all the help!!!!!!

There is a really good book on ginseng called growing and marketing ginseng...by Scott persons. It also has information on other plants.You can get a copy by going to hardings ginseng web page.