TOPIC: Fertilizing seedlings

I am planting some ginseng seeds in the woods.I would like them to have a good start.Should I sprinkle the seedbed with fertilizer as I plant the seeds or wait until they come up in the spring.Can fertilizer hurt my new seeds or seedlings?
Thank you

Adding it now would probably best. The added N will go ahead and speed up the decomposition of raw organic material while the temperatures are still warm and you won't run the risk of \"juicing\" or burning your seedlings up. It's easy to accidently add to much fertilizer and by doing it now the effects of that happening will be buffered but the high organic matter content of woodland soil will also hold over the nutrients for next year. Hope this helps.


Hillhopper

Fellows,
I'd like to hear some more input on this. I was under the impression that when you are growing 'wild simulated ginseng\" that it is better to not use any Nitrogen fertilzers because it can make the ginseng look like \"field grown cultivated types\" with rounded carrot shaped roots. I have used Bonemeal, and Gypsum, or lime, but never Nitrogen. Do I need to add this element?
Hugh

It isn't necessery to do so but N is used in the decomp process of foerst material. All plants need it but forest plants have adapted to grow with minimal amounts. It is also the element that can burn a plant up if too much is given. I like to give my plants a little well balanced fertilizer the first year to give them a good start and then leave them alone afterwards. My theory is Ginseng needs to get where its goin that first year asap in case something happens to it like dry weather or anything to make the top go down early. If that happens and it doesn't have enough growth and an established bud for next year, it's done forever. In later years it has a reserve to regrow from. Adding alot of fertilizer every year Im sure would help give a root a cultivated look.

Hillhopper

Hugh and others interested?,

I have personally witnessed a ginseng farmers crop recently. This ginseng farmer hits his 1 year old plants with fertilizer early in the first year then stops and never fertilizes them again. He said it gives them a better chance of making it with the added boost of fertilizer early on.

I have been planting for 6 years now \"Wild Simulated\" style with more effort in the last 3 years. I have planted well over 50 lbs in the last 6 years so I have a little experience. I always went with the rake and scatter method then walked away and let it go to mother nature. If you go this route I am sure you will end up with about 5 to 10% of your seed that makes it to a 10 year old plant. Sure some have done better and will do better than this and some maybe worse.

I have watched my ginseng thin itself out year after year and I have never had disease in my planting beds. Its just what it does naturally and much is possibly lost to Deer, Turkey, Mice, Voles, Moles, Slugs, Drought.

Now here is the kicker. The ginseng farmer I visited sprays a weed killer (Roundup) in the summer on the new planting sites prior to the fall planting. He also adds lime to his soil (Not Gypsum?)and once the ginseng plants emerge he sprays fungicide on them often alternating the type of fungicide spray so the plant and fungi do not build up an immunity.

Contrary to what is perceived to be the most desirable type of care and maintenance using natural sprays verses man made chemicals, his ginseng has well over (I mean well over) a 50% survival rate over a 10 year period. So if he plants a pound of seed with 7,000 seeds he will have a minimum of 3,500 ten year old ginseng plants at harvest time. I will be lucky to have 700 plants from what I am seeing by letting it go to mother nature as I do not spray. I you are getting 20 to 30 % survival rate after 5 years you are doing exceptionally well if just left to mother nature.

Furthermore he is selling his roots and getting wild prices for them.

Yea I know this goes against everything we believe in and discuss often on this message board. But I am totally rethinking my approach to growing ginseng after seeing his operation. He showed me two side by side 2 year old planting areas that is divided by a make shift road for transporting farming equipment. It is running from the bottom of the slope to the top. One side on the left was sprayed with fungicide and the other planting area to the right of the road was not sprayed. Needless to say the sprayed side is a healthy productive disease free sea of green 2 year old plants that look like 4 year old plants. These 2 year old's are all 2 prong plants with 5 leaves per prong. Over 30 % have seed already. Never saw anything like it. The soil looks average to me at best so it has to be the fertilizer early the first year and the fungicide spray. The side not sprayed is void of any ginseng other than an occasional plant here and there every 3 to 4 foot apart.

The left side that is a sea of green remains that way until it is dug 10 years later. It is not thinned out. He plants very thick and the density is mind boggling. I know this does not sound good to most of you and sounds unnatural, costly and time consuming to spray often. He uses 1 quart of fungicide per 100 gallons of water. So the cost is less than expected. I am not sure what a quart of any fungicide would cost but it cannot be all that much.

So there is more than one way to grow \"Wild Simulated\" style. I know it does not sound much like \"Wild Simulated\" to spray.

I guess it just comes down to what % of the seed we plant we expect to survive to harvest time and what we are willing to accept or do to increase the survival rate by spraying.
Thanks and good luck,
Latt

Well,
This really gets my attention and I'm sure it did yours Latt, seeing it firsthand. I think if you have enough space and time, like the person that you mentioned that it might be good to give a new method a small try and see if it works for you. Those percentages that you spoke of sure could make a difference over a ten year period and I know some of the methods that are popular are not set in stone. I just happen to have a new bag of fertilizer and a sprayer for my peaches. This coming year could see some interesting changes.
Hugh

How much should I sprinkle on my seedbed at planting time.As mentioned above my fertilization is going to be a one time deal...Thank you

Bowjo,

Not sure about chemical fertilizers but in Scotts book (Hankins Method) it suggest 5 lbs of gypsum per 100 sq ft of bed.

That works out to 12.5 lbs of gypsum per 5x50 (250 sf) bed.

I don't plan on using chemical fertilizers myself, but if I were to try that I would go easy on it - for example might try 5 pounds chemical fertilizer and 10 lbs of gypsum per 250 sf bed.

Good Luck !

TNhunter

I was going to use the triple 10 fertilizer.I guess I will just sprinkle it very lightly.I don't know anything about using fertilizer...........Joe

OK here is my plan on Fertilizing a patch that I'm planning on.I'm still going the Organic route as soon as the seeds go in I'm going to hit the beds with a little bit of Gypsum,Milorganite and Epsom salt.Then cover with a mix of mulched Oak,Maple,poplar and Buckeye leaves.Even if the Plants don't need it it still won't hurt.I'm raking the ground bare to make it easier to plant.I've had to roll rocks down the mountain for a solid month in order to have enough space to plant.Used to be an old rock quarry.