TOPIC: Anyone see the prices for Ginseng Seed and Rootlets on eBay? You got to be kidding me!

Latt,

I see where you are coming from. My boy just got his first truck! Man, those were the days.

I just got back home a couple of hours ago from having my tax papers done and my cpa said her son was going into the ginseng business because he had seen a show on tv and there was good money in it. Whew! man o man! The woods will be full of people.

This is only my third year of planting, so nothing is big enough to dig. Unfortunately I think this year I may dig every native plant three prong and up off my property. I can't guard them 24/7. This will basically eliminate any native seed production except for my small seed producing beds , if they escape poaching. Thankfully I got in two years of planting every native seed I could find. How many years do you think it will take before the effects of this TV show will wear off?

I think it depends on \"Season 2\" and how the show is done. Hopefully they capture how hard it is to find along with the time it takes to find a lot of mature roots. I have heard that some government entities have talked with the shows producers about the way the show follows thieves around while digging whatever they see. It makes it look easy and like the only place to dig is on the other side of the fence. Maybe I'm too paranoid about my own patches, but my son says all the kids in his HS are talking about scouring the woods because of watching the show. I still think some of them will find a big patch that someone has been stewarding for years and dig it out. Especilly the people that have no respect for the woods. That will be like an old coon hound catching its first coon. They will live for the excitement all while going on land they don't have permission on.

If you watch the trend of History Channel TV shows, the pilot season is usually the most \"realistic\". All there shows tend to get stupider and more fake as the seasons progress, until the point where it is blatently obvious that every single scene is completely scripted. I have a bad feeling about the show, I think it will have 12-18 episodes of season 2, then season 3, 4, 5 before it finally wears out it's welcome and goes away. But the damage will have been done, and the lingering effects will last for 10+ years.

Now add in the scenario where some lesser TV channels will decide to make an even stupider and crazy copycat show, and then we're all in a downward spiral. I'm seriously considering fencing in my property with 10 foot fence, and razor wire top on it.

Things like that show is why I don't talk about where I'm located and if any of you know please don't mention it on here. I'm lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) that ginseng where I live is virtually extinct. Unless you're an old timer most people around here don't have a clue about it or what it is. If they saw it in the woods they'd probably think it was wild sarsaparilla. However with the economy as it is I don't want people sniffing around for it. I already caught someone illegally harvesting timber on my property. He actually destroyed a couple of my ginseng test patches without even knowing what it was.