TOPIC: Patches look pretty good.

I just have to say that I give thanks to God for his graciousness in my endeavor!! I won't preach at anyone a'tall; and that is all....

Here's a photo taken from very close by last Sat. evening! Enjoy!!

Nice looking patches there Whit and that little 3 pronger is looking good.

I have a few patches that have done really well, and others that have not done so well.

The ones that have done well for me are patches that I planted in and very near where I found wild ginseng growing.

Areas that looked OK, but had no ginseng (but had other companion plants) are not doing so good. I have some 4 year old stuff there that is still small 2 prongers... I don't expect them to ever do much based on progress at year 4 now.

I think if you get to year 3 or 4 and have a lot of nice little 3 prongers then you are doing OK.

Hope yours keep right on making good progress and best of luck to you !

TNhunter

Whitjr,
Everything is looking good. That hard work seems to be paying off. The thing that I see coming up for this Fall is the thinning out of those patches. You don't have to do it all in one season, and getting those beds thinned down will save you some money on planting as well. Try to get started as soon as you see your plants going down and make a season or two out of it in case you are making some mistakes on the transplanting. They will transplant more successfully as 2 or 3 year olds. Get in there in early Fall and mark the ones that you want to remove. Have a large plastic shallow tub or pan that is partially full of fresh moist peat or top soil. Dig the root and place it in the peat. Collect about 30- 40 roots and go plant them about 10-12 inches apart in rows. Repeat this several times throughout the day and you will make some progress. Marking the ones to remove before hand, will save you a lot of time. Good luck.

Hugh

Thanks for the comments, guys.

I do plan on thinning the patches this fall. I'm going to mark the areas tha need to be transplanted.... And begin this august, early sept. I hope to transplant quite a few from patch two, as that patch - from top to bottom- is very thick.

Having said that, there is at least a 20% loss of plants over last year. I understand why some people plant heavy... If I have another 20% loss in there! I'm not likely to transplant too much from it. I do have some areas in patch one that are thick as well, so am going to start there. I am planning on using a flower bulb tool to remove the plant. This bulb tool will allow me to get that plant/root all at once, and the surrounding soil as well. Should simplify things a bit that way.

Whitjr,
One of the comments that you made about your patches was that \"you felt like you had lost at least 20% of your seedlings from last season until this present one\". You may need to really consider doing some preventative spraying at the right time of the year until you are sure that you have this problem under control. I don't remember exactly what you have said about spraying your crop, but if you continue to take those kinds of losses, and if it is from diseases that are in the soil, you will be out of business in 5 years. One of the best and easiest sprays that you can do is a dormant spray of Liquid Copper a couple of weeks before growth starts. If you can see any plants going down, get pictures of them and maybe someone on here can identify the problem and tell you what might help. Sometimes, just a year or two of dormant sprays can alleviate those problems and you won't be touching your plants. I just hate to see someone put all the money and time into a project like this and let disease that could have been prevented ruin their future. You can bet that all of that work that you have poured into clearing that property has stirred up some fungus diseases that affect ginseng. Good luck with your patches.

Hugh

Nice Whit!!!

Looking good whit!

Hillhopper

Hugh-

Thanks for your comments. From what I've read, I should expect some loss of seedlings, especially from 1st year to the next. To be specific, the only patch that sustained that loss was patch two.

I'm more worried about getting Ca levels up, than some small loss of plants. I'm working on that this year in earnest.

Awesome pics Whit, I enjoy looking at them.