TOPIC: Techniques for planting and growing wild ginseng

So the method I'm trying seems to be working pretty good for the kind of terrain I have. I know a lot of you guys use fancy mechanical planters. I'd love to do that, but the soil in my area is way too rocky for one of those to work. At least any of the kind I saw. So the wild sim method I came up with is this.

I use a seed spreader like the one you'd use to seed your lawn. I found that the seeds are too big and the dispense rate is too low for it to work properly. So what I did is bulk the seed up with damp perlite. The perlite is as damp as I can make it without causing it to clump. That way it doesn't draw the moisture out of the seed. With the seed spreader set to 2/5ths of an inch opening I found the optimal mixture ratio is 4 parts perlite to 1 part seed by volume. So it's 20% seed by volume. At that mixture and dispense rate you get about 1 seed every 6 inches in a random distribution pattern. Before spreading I use a rake to gently rake back the light dry leaves to one side of the area I want to plant. Then I go back and rake aggressively with the same rake in the other direction to remove a layer of 2 year+ damp leaves. So at this point I have a row with a berm of dry leaves on one side and a berm of damp leaves and soil on the other. I then drive the spreader down the middle dispensing seed and perlite. Because perlite is white I'm quickly able to identify the areas where the seed was spread effectively. Also the two leaf berms keep the thing from throwing the seeds to far afield. Then I rake back the damp berm back over the area I spread the seeds. I spread as evenly as possible until I can not see any more exposed perlite. Then I do the same with the dry leaves. I move on to another area from there and so on till I'm done. Using this method it seems I can plant about 1 pound of seed a day On a craggy (relatively speaking) hillside.

What do people think of the method I came up with? The advantages I see is it can be used in a place where traditional mechanical planters can not be due obstacles like rocks and roots. Since the perlite is white you can quickly see where and how thickly your seeds have been spread. Also while back covering the area it's easier to make sure you're covering all your seeds because the perlite is white and easy to spot while it's not covered. Also the spreader gives the plants a random pattern rather than rows. Disadvantages would be that it's not fast and takes 5 steps to plant a single area. The five steps are 1: Lightly rake, 2: Aggressively rake, 3: spread, 4: rake back damp material, 5: rake back dry material.

I've got some pictures of the planting process. The first picture is the seed mixed with the damp Perlight in the seed spreader. 4 parts perlight to 1 part seed. There's one pound of seed in there.

This is the area I spread the seed before raking it. This is only for about one quarter the seed. I had 1 pound of seed in the spreader.

After raking back the dry leaves.

After raking back the damp 2yo leaves.

After spreading the perlight. For every 4 white dots there is about 1 seed. As you can see it helps a lot to tell how evenly it's spread. Also helps me know when putting the leaves back I've covered the whole area.

After raking back the damp leaves.

After raking back the dry leaves.

Ittiz,
Your planting process looks good and you seemed to have found an ingenuous way of distributing the seed from your planter. That's a positive and the soil looks good. I see lots of limestone rock protruding out of the ground which probably says that your calcium levels should be very good. You seemed to have done a very good job of preping the beds and laying down your seeds so those aspects should work well. The one thing that catches the eye real quickly after you have finished covering everything back over is there are way too many oak leaves on your beds. They will most likely give you some problems in the Spring when the plants start to emerge. The first suggestion that I would make is to mulch the next leaves that you put down and if you are finished for the season I would make sure in the Spring to loosen the ones that you have just finished. It is real difficult for young ginseng to push it's way through heavy oak leaves. They become slimy and stick together early in the season. If you can get your hands on Maple or Poplar from this point on it will make things work much easier. Some of the other guys may have some good ideas for loosening the oak leaves. Good luck in the Spring.
Hugh

Hmm, well I could run the push mower over it in mulch mode. The only popular like trees I have are big tooth aspen. You can see some of their leaves in there. Unfortunately the area they are in isn't good because the biggest one fell this past spring leaving a huge hole in the canopy for light to come through. The next area I plan to plant is mostly white ash and maple.