TOPIC: Dormant plants

I have a miz of about everything in my seed bed and I had more ramps to plant this year so I picked a spot that none of the sang come up in last year or so far this year. I assumed that there was to much sunlight hitting the spot. While I was digging I unearthed several sang roots that were very healthy looking but, had no indications of coming up yet again this year. I knew that sang sometimes goes dormant but, for how long?? If it goes dormant will it put on a growth ring without a stem bud??

I dont think it will add bud scars while dormant. It can go multiple years dormant in my opinion. I also know that it is possible for a ginseng plant to remain a \"3 leafer\" notice i did not say 3 prong, \"3 leafer\" for up to 6 years. I was doing some weeding and accidentially pulled one up. sorry the picure is fuzzy.

I agree with K-duce. They wont add growth scars without putting up a top.

If you see older 3-leafers in your plantings, what do you think the reasons for that are?

Soil? Deer predation? too much light? No enough rain?

also, how old do you think the plant in your photo is?

Whitjr,
I was able to count 6 bud scars, notches in the neck. I am certain i planted that area in 2006. For a couple of years i had assumed that my original plants had dropped some seed, they are growing within several inches of alot of 3 prong plants. The location is on a eastern ridge of a hillside, It is most likely a combination of poor soil and a lack of rain. The ground in that area is hard without much depth of leaf litter.There are very few companion plants in this area, it was kind of a bare spot in the woods like the kind of spot i tell people to avoid planting. Keep in mind that i have planted acres in a continous patch, i am growing wild simulated and did not do a soil analysis, nor do i add ammendments to the soil. I have hit bad spots but for the most part the rest of my plantings are going well. This is just an example of some of the challenges associated with growing ginseng. I will probably end up moving these plants into a bed that has a rich soil mix and monitoring them to see how many seasons it will take the 6yr old 3 leafers to become 4 prongs. I am guessing that if i move them this year, they will be 4 prongs by spring of 2016.

K-duce, I don't mean to offend you, but based on my experience I dont think that anyone can turn a 6 year old 3 leafer into a 4-prong plant in 3-4 years. I'd love for you to prove me wrong, but it seems to me that the first several years of growth set the stage for what a ginseng plant will become. tranplanting is hard on plants to begin with. I imagine that you would have better results ammending the soil where it is currently growing than to try tranplanting to another area... Just my opinion based on my experiences with this plant....

5prong,
im not offended at all, i need to thin out this area anyway, i don't intend to start ammending my soil, not that there is anything wrong with that method, its just not something that i want to do. i have one area that is about 30ft by 40ft that has a lot of 3 leafers that by all accounts should be at least 3 prongs based on all of the \"experts\" handbooks and rehashed garbage floating around on the internet about the \"green gold\". Very few of those people come here to this forum to contribute anything. When they do show up they only want to sell a new book or offer seed for $265 dollars a pound, I would gladly take any advice you have over them any day. Since the ginseng is already at least 6 yrs old, it should be putting up a mature 3 prong plant, My thinking is if i dig it this fall it will already have nexts years prong information figured out so i doubt that it jump to 3 prong next year, but because of its age starting in the spring of 2015 it will be a 3prong and by the spring of 2016 it should be a 4 prong, I may very well be wrong. but i think it is something worth trying, just for curiositys sake.

I dont know if transplanting/ moving these roots will be the same, but I have noticed plants growing much bigger after an area was logged. The roots have small neck scars at the bottom and get noticably fatter toward the top.

From my experience, I think you are both right.

I have seen 40+ year old 2-prong wild plants.

I've also seen plants in beds which were \"organically fertilized\" *cough cough* go from 3 leafers and small 2-prongs (should have been 3 years old) to 3-prongs with seeds in a year or two.

Commercially, we see 3 leafers go to generally 2-prongs with some 3s the second year, to large 3-prongs with some 4s in the third year, and to 4-prongs the fourth year. Most if not all commercial seed typically comes from third year gardens.

I personally think it is the specific conditions in which a particular plant finds itself which decides what is going to happen next. As K-duce points out, this year determines what the plant will do next year. I've has large 4s go back to 2s and 3s, but only after the second year after transplanting. The first year they came up as I found them, large fours. But after being put in the new conditions, they adjusted and dropped back to 2s and 3s.

I also think 5-prong is right in that sometimes the plants just don't have it in them. I've transplanted wild plants and had them do much better, but more often they do worse than they were prior to the transplant for a couple years at least.

Interesting subject that has held my attention for a few years now. I might have mentioned this before, but I have a place where I go very often on my land, and animals cannot get there. From 2005 till 2012 there is an area here that had no ginseng, before that I don't know. Last year a four prong plant appeared.This year appeared again, four prong. I know for sure it was not there for at least seven years. Was it resting?