TOPIC: Planting Root Neck

Hey fellas, I know we have discussed this before but below is a pic of a root neck I saved off of a wild plant last year. I took the root neck off the root and planted it last fall. Used the actual root for my own consumption.
The root neck produced a nice size 3 prong with a small wad of berries. It did fine growing. I dug it up yesterday in my hosta bed to see what the root neck did to produce such a nice 3 prong. At the base of the root neck you can see a NEW small root sticking out. It survived even in drought conditions.
You can see the new growth bud on the top too.
Guess I will probably do this in the future on any plants I want to use for personal consumption. That way I can still watch the plant survive, produce berries and still have its root to chew on.
Latt

Nicely done!

Awesome Latt, if everyone would do this it could be a big help to the wild population.

Hillhopper

the guy that got me started, about 30-40 years ago, in ginseng said to do this and i have seen it work ,the buyers didnt care about the necks, i still do this sometimes if it has a long neck ill take some off if it has hair roots i know it will grow another plant and more seed for the area

I\"ve heard of doing this long ago. However, today, for market and legal reasons, we need to leave the necks on the roots we sell.

Latt, I'll be interested in seeing what that top is next year. From what I can tell (after transplanting many wild roots into beds) that first year's growth is going to be determined by the conditions where the plant came from, and therefore expected to be the following year. The whole top is contained in the bud which will grow the next spring.

So, in my experience, nice huge four prong plants may come back as fours the first year after transplanting, but the next year the bud forms based on those conditions. I\"ve seen fours produce fours the first year after transplant only to drop back to twos the year after that.

Darn BCastle, I ate the darn thing. Didn't think about what would happen next year with it.
I might try it again with another root this fall and let it go for a while.
Latt

We have discussed this my friend and I am glad to see you post a pick of what we said would be and what would come to pass a old timer learned me this trick years ago and it does work very well,and when your going to use the root for personal consumption there is no worry of what the market is because it is not for sale and it will produce berrys on and on and when enough time go`s by the water root that now takes the place of the original root will again become a lalarger root,,,,,,well done


Latt wrote:

Hey fellas, I know we have discussed this before but below is a pic of a root neck I saved off of a wild plant last year. I took the root neck off the root and planted it last fall. Used the actual root for my own consumption.
The root neck produced a nice size 3 prong with a small wad of berries. It did fine growing. I dug it up yesterday in my hosta bed to see what the root neck did to produce such a nice 3 prong. At the base of the root neck you can see a NEW small root sticking out. It survived even in drought conditions.
You can see the new growth bud on the top too.
Guess I will probably do this in the future on any plants I want to use for personal consumption. That way I can still watch the plant survive, produce berries and still have its root to chew on.
Latt

Thanks for the feedback fellas!
Latt

As you have shown Latt this definitely works.. I've dug a few like this over the years. I've also planted a couple back, and surprisingly the top doesn't seem to regress much. From what I've experienced, the top may be a little smaller in a couple of years, but the number of prongs stay the same. I think this is a good thing to do if you are going to use the plant for personal consumption, but BCastle. is correct when it comes to roots that are going to be sold. Buyers don't want a bunch of roots without necks. I may get the best of both worlds and try planting a few necks in a seed bed and keep the rest for my personal consumption .

P.s. - the key to this working is that the rhyzome must have at least one small hair root growing from it. I don't think that just planting a rhyzome without any fiber root will be very successful.

I always wondered if that would really work and have not tried it myself - did not really trust it.

Would be nice to see what happens the following year. It might adjust down to a smaller top but hey at least it is still there and living and would eventually grow into a nice root and top again.

I eat several roots over a year span and like to keep small roots that have long necks.... but the neck is my least favorite part of the root. I like the root hairs best, then next the larger part of the root (in slices).

This year when I find those smaller 20+ year old roots, I am going to break that neck off and re-plant it and keep the rest of the root for eating.

I will try to do that with a few here on my place and follow up on the rootneck & top development over the next several year.

Good ideal Latt - glad you tested that out and shared the results.

TNhunter