TOPIC: Crickets chirping... chirping... chirping....

Guess that everyone is busy... or sleepin...

Anyway, I thought I'd add to the forum a bit. So here goes...

Those of us that attended the recent Symposium in December, in Ashville...

Have you done much with the wealth of info that was available there? I wrote a bunch of notes, and have yet to get everything assimilated. I've got some Goldenseal ordered from one of the vendors, from that event.

I have been in contact with a couple of y'all, and feel the better for it.

I'm still trying to figure out how exactly we growers can be the price setters. This was a topic there. One of the ways I think we can be price setters is to keep really great notes about how we are growing our sang. I heard recently that if we can prove that we are growing wild-sim and growing organically, then we can ask for a better price when it's sale time.

Been thinking about adjunct sang products. Like sang beer, or sang butter. I can't be real sure how that would work.. however I've always wanted to make beer , and never have. Perhaps I can make a few batches, get the technique dowm, then add some 'sang and tray again...

Just waiting here Whit. Nothin growing yet. Your seng ought to be sprouting anytime now if it hasn't already. I'm looking foreward to it, but prabably have a few more weeks before they start. Slow time of year for the ginseng growers.

I will probably put down some deadline for slug control here in a couple of weeks though. I will probably top dress with a litte gypsum too.

I really havent put a lot of thought into marketing yet. It doesn't seem all that difficult to sell ginseng.... LOL

I've always advised prospective growers to spend a couple of years hunting wild ginseng. This will teach a person many things about this plant that are difficult to pick up from books. If a person is growing wild sim by the purest definition then prices matching wild should be expected. I don't think any type of grower will ever exceed the price of wild ginseng unless they have a special type of product. It seems like you have already begun to explore this area at least in thought... I wish you well with this. It seems like you are very dedicated in your endeavor.

I just want to have some to dig in the future It is more about the challenge of getting it to grow to me than it is about future profit. I am looking foreward to see what this spring brings. The area that the majority of my plantings are located is being timbered this spring, so that will be interesting in itself. It will be select cutting, so I don't believe that it will be wiped out. Truthfully I am mostly concerned with loggers digging while they are there, or slipping back in at a later date. Most of the ginseng is young and small, but I do have a couple of seed bed areas that have some very nice mature plant in them..... I guess time will tell.....

I do have ginsneng planted in other locations as well, so it's not as if I've got all my eggs in one basket

Still waiting here in TN also. I spread slug and snail bait the first of this week. Heaviest on this year's new half acre, the older plantings aren't inhabited with very many due to previous treatments.

As far as Ginseng sales go....I feel if a man doesn't advertise he is growing it then no one will know and it will bring wild price. I think all a guy needs to do to put himself in a spot to be questioned is throw him up a website selling rootlets and seed with a catchy name for his operation and his photo. This I plan not to do.

Hillhopper

I sold 3 lbs of wild simulated to a big buyer a couple of years ago. I told him I had been growing it and that the age was anywhere from 12 to 16 years old at that time. He stated that it looked as good or better than any seng he had bought. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck I guess it is a duck. He paid me for wild!

rootman

This weekend I hapoe to have a good business meeting with my crew. Like you guys have said, there's not too much to do in the beds right now.

We already top dressed the beds with gypsum and the Nutri-grow solution in Feb. it's snowed on that x3 since we did kit.... And I think this should have ground it down in there nicely.

If you don't mind sharing, what kind of business decisions are you running into? What kind of challenges and advantages has working in a group presented?

Va Fidldler- been off forum for about a week, just now getting around to reading your question. I was not trying to avoid it, just been outside and not inside.

Group dynamics are always a a challenge. Politeness is paramount, in order to get the truest sense of partnership. There are always disagreements, and solving these are in the interests of the endgame. Once you engage in a partnership, then sometimes the clear picture of the endgame is obscured.

More on this later.

I had to do this pesky thing called work [for a bit].... Now back to your question.

We are evaluatinghow to approach patch three. It's a valid question as to which way to go. Since the woods we have to work with aren't typical woods... And there is a whole group of work to make them plantable, careful analysis of past efforts is important.

I am very thankful for free soils analysis provided to NC state residents!

I'm also grateful for the sort of partner I have in this!