TOPIC: WoodsGrown vs WildSimulated pictures

I have to agree with Brad here, theres a lot of diggers that take stratified seeds to the woods with them when they are hunting wild ginseng and plant extra seeds in the same areas they are digging wild ginseng. I am sure this has been going on for many many years, so how do we know we are actually digging wild roots? I would bet that most of us has dug some roots that were planted from stratified seeds and didnt know the difference.

lenno wrote:

I have to agree with Brad here, theres a lot of diggers that take stratified seeds to the woods with them when they are hunting wild ginseng and plant extra seeds in the same areas they are digging wild ginseng. I am sure this has been going on for many many years, so how do we know we are actually digging wild roots? I would bet that most of us has dug some roots that were planted from stratified seeds and didnt know the difference.

lenno,

I agree with both you and Brad here! I also believe that over a period of many years, simulated wildgrown/woodsgrown plants (from seeds to rootlings) that were planted in areas where there is a population of true Wild Ginseng, eventually cross-pollinate and eventually share some of the same DNA and same traits.


Frank

Brad,
thats not what the term \"natural state\" means but good try.
As for the organic seal, thats based on the last time you used a non organic product to improve or sustain growth not whether or not it is of wild or cultivated stock.
I have found many plots of ginseng growing in the bush over the years and sometimes it takes a keen eye to find the differences between a wild or man made planting. But for your case the neat straight lines of old ginseng plants formed from your ECF easyplanter would be my first clue, then the fact that they are all the same age would be another clue that this is not a naturally occuring plot. I would not know if cultivated seed was used but you should tell the buyer that you are unsure of the origin but know they were planted by man.

Guy

Frank,
thats why this practice is not a good one. The wild will lose their diversity to grow in that region.

guy

I guess the question once again is what is truly Wild Ginseng?
What we call wild ginseng today is often referred to as \"Presumably Wild\" by many of the folks renown as ginseng experts. These folks say what we consider wild ginseng was planted or is the offspring of ginseng planted from purchased seed generations upon generations ago.
So the whole thing is as clear as mud in my opinion.
I for one am in favor of ginseng seed getting planted to help alleviate the pressure of the possible \"Over Harvesting\" and the \"Reduction of Habitat\" that has and will continue to put pressure on \"Presumably Wild\" ginseng.
Latt

Latt wrote:

I guess the question once again is what is truly Wild Ginseng?
What we call wild ginseng today is often referred to as \"Presumably Wild\" by many of the folks renown as ginseng experts. These folks say what we consider wild ginseng was planted or is the offspring of ginseng planted from purchased seed generations upon generations ago.
So the whole thing is as clear as mud in my opinion.
I for one am in favor of ginseng seed getting planted to help alleviate the pressure of the possible \"Over Harvesting\" and the \"Reduction of Habitat\" that has and will continue to put pressure on \"Presumably Wild\" ginseng.
Latt

Latt,

You are totally on! Our ancestors decimated the Wild Ginseng population long before we came along and began cultivating Ginseng in the 1800's to continue selling to the Chinese. No one knows what the true population is of the original Wild North American Ginseng plants that exist today and never will! As the old Cultivators of Ginseng died off and some of the land reclaimed by nature, many of the left over cultivated plants blended in with the true Wild Ginseng. Due to cross-pollination and evolving to their' wild environemnts, most of these plants have evolved into the Wild Ginseng plants that we know today. Yes, true Wild North American Ginseng plants probably still exist today but they are few and far between and very few folks in this day and age have actually dug a true Wild North American Ginseng Root. I am sure that I have but that was 42 years ago when I dug several 8 prongs as well a 5, 6 and 7 prongs but how many plants do you see today that are that old, very, very few!!?? But even then, these could have cross-pollinated with cultivated Ginseng from seeds that got relocated by birds and other wildlife and their' offspring were hybrids.


Frank

wow i just wrote a 3 paragraph essay on this post, then i hit the delete button.......I almost got suckered into this debate, whew.....

I think \"wild\" and \"native\" should be differentiated here... I can cultivate native plants and seed and them not be wild, or on the flip side, cultivated plants and seed can be left to their own devices and become wild. Genetic lineage has no precedence on the way a living thing is termed in the way it has lived its life.

Take a common house cat for example, if you were to turn it loose in the woods and it not interact with man for say, five years. What would happen? It would become wild as any other animal. Is it native? No.
Another example, Wild Mustangs. They are exemplary and iconic of a wild animal in the U.S. Are they native? No, they're from Spain.

I do believe in conserving the native genetics of an area. I wished I could have started out with completely native seedstock but I couldn't. All native plants in the area I grow I transplate to a different farm miles away. Id like to think that one day I will only plant native seed. That will be years down the road and in a different area after the land is used up where I'm planting now.

I have many native plants which were formerly wild that have been under cultivation ever since I found them, I don't consider those wild. I have seed from a different area which were formerly cultivated but have been left alone for many years and have (in my eyes) become wild. I have seed that have been planted from another area which were formerly cultivated and have been managed for disease so I guess they're woods grown or wild simulated. I also found some seed I tried to plant and a mouse moved them all to one spot, he forgot where he put them apparently and they come up..... Somebody, please tell me what I'm supposed to call those because surely there is a term. I do believe this subject has been a bit over thought.

Not to step on any toes here but, some folk might not have such a strong stance on this issue and chastise others over it if Canada had a legal digging season and didn't force them to classify those root as cultivated.

Hillhopper

Hillhopper- I was thinking about the cat analogy, however it doesen't take even five years for cats to revert to wildness.... the mustang analogy is equally valid.

Our modern times and the life we all lead within them have us do and judge things that we wish, sometimes, were different.

I will follow K_Duce's example. LOL