TOPIC: Wild ginseng harvest laws in different states.

This subject may have already been covered in the forum but there is quite a bit of difference in each state.

I just don't think 5 years bud scars is old enough, and I believe if a 3 prong plant 5 leaves to the prong plus berry bearing size is definately older than 5 years. Whew what a tongue twister!

What age do you think WILD ginseng should be?

rootman

I think it should be 5 years minimum and a three prong berry producing plant. I would like to see ginseng buyers dink the price down on anyone selling roots that only achieve this minimum.

Lets face it fellas, 95 % of the time we know what size and age the root is going to be, give or take a few years when the plants tops are not that big. I know most good ginseng hunters just pass on these plants to let them mature.
Latt

In my opinion most of the ginseng in the area where i live is still too small to dig, wild ginseng that is mature at 5 years old is more like the exception, not the rule. I know the laws are trying to help sustain the ginseng for future generations, but i seldom see any 5yr old wild ginseng with a full seed head. most of the time it will have 3 to 5 berries. If you dig ginseng at its minimum age, then dont complain if someone offers you a minimum price,

K_duce wrote:

If you dig ginseng at its minimum age, then dont complain if someone offers you a minimum price,

I couldn't agree more...

K_duce wrote:

In my opinion most of the ginseng in the area where i live is still too small to dig, wild ginseng that is mature at 5 years old is more like the exception, not the rule. I know the laws are trying to help sustain the ginseng for future generations, but i seldom see any 5yr old wild ginseng with a full seed head. most of the time it will have 3 to 5 berries. If you dig ginseng at its minimum age, then dont complain if someone offers you a minimum price,

I agree. I think this is true for wild ginseng about anywhere. Yes there are exceptions to the rule, but in general most wild ginseng plants aren't going to have full berry pods until they are well over ten years old. In my area a lot of 20 year old plants still don't have really full berry pods.
I'm not sure what the law should be, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it was ten years (that is until I was to dig a 1 1/2 ounce 8 year old root:) ) This may be hard for dealers though when someone mixes in some younger roots with a large quantity of older stuff. But I guess some guys do that now so maybe no big deal.Just thought an eight year old would be harder to spot than a three year old.

I agree fellas. I wish it was 10 years old as the minimum. But that would certainly throw a twist in the whole process. I think the 5 year old minimum with some berry production and being a 3 prong is about the only way to make it simple for everyone to understand. Hopefully most will pass on a small plant (even thou it's legal) and wait to let it grow another 4 or 5 years before harvesting.

I typically do not dig anything unless I presume it to have a reasonable size root.

In the fall I plant the red ripe berries off the smaller plants that I leave behind. Then I pinch off the plant top to keep others from finding and digging it. This is a great way to keep others from digging immature plants.
Latt

I do the same thing Latt.

I don't think we need to change the law reference age of the plant, I just think we need to have better education of the diggers who dig the small stuff. The first line of education is from the dealers who buy the stuff. We need to start hitting the diggers harder for bringing us small ginseng. Maybe up to the point of refusing to buy it all together.

I personally would be in favor of a digger permit. Nothing to make money on, but to guarantee that every digger understands that there are standards which should be followed in the digging of wild ginseng. Maybe this is a short online read/quiz thing on the laws and best practices and the permit is automatically issued for the year.

I think that it's helpful to have the laws from other states posted on this website. If any of us are aware of revisions to the laws for our respective states, we should submit them to MIke Lee, owner of this site. he's the one that can revise what's there. For example, NC had a big revision to it's laws this year in Jan; I forwarded a copy to Mike at that time.

However, I don't really think that we growers/sellers/purchasers have a real voice in changing the laws within our state's Dept of Agri's... do you?

Whitjr wrote:

I think that it's helpful to have the laws from other states posted on this website. If any of us are aware of revisions to the laws for our respective states, we should submit them to MIke Lee, owner of this site. he's the one that can revise what's there. For example, NC had a big revision to it's laws this year in Jan; I forwarded a copy to Mike at that time.

However, I don't really think that we growers/sellers/purchasers have a real voice in changing the laws within our state's Dept of Agri's... do you?

Yes, but I wished those listings here linked back to the respective state's current information. I know that all the information here on KY is incomplete or out of date.

I think it's great Mike offers us a place here to chat about ginseng, though! Thanks again Mike!

As for having a voice in changing, you can be part of the process or not. If you aren't having due diligence of informing your state's officials, then you can't complain when they don't do what the industry needs. Officials aren't the end all be all. They are human and can't know everything about your industry as well as you. That's why you have to let them know what's going on the ground.

If the Kentucky folks feel that haven't had their voices heard, then they just didn't speak up. The industry drove the changes made so that there would be a future program.

Apparently I posted twice. Sorry about that!