TOPIC: New grower

Silverwolf2604 a couple of weeks ago you said 1 Million Dollars worth and I responded with this below. Who am I to doubt you. Just be ready for whats to come. I wish you the best and I hope you prove me wrong.

\"Perhaps you already know what I posted below. If so please let us know more about your plans. I am always eager to learn more. But here are my thoughts below:

1 million dollars worth would be awesome. That sure would take a lot of seed and a lot of spraying to get those kind of results. But if you want a high survival rate then this is the only way to go in my opinion. I have not grown this way yet and that is called Woods Grown or Woods Cultivated. Takes a lot of maintenance and spraying.

Now If you plant wild simulated like I do then here is what you will most likely get. Lets say you plant 100 lbs of seed which is a lot. That's 650,000 seeds. After 5 years your roots most likely will be small with little or no root neck. Too small to sell in my opinion in most cases. After 10 years the roots might possibly be ready to dig. If you are lucky you might have 10% of what you planted survive which would be 65,000 plants. Divide 65,000 plants by 250 roots to make a dry lb and that is 260 lbs of dry root. If you were lucky enough to get $1000 a lb per dry roots that would be $260,000 total.
So if you want to make a million dollars growing wild simulated, I would estimate you would have to plant 400 lbs of seed. That would cost you between $40,000 to $60,000.

I have planted a lot of wild simulated seed. I am not sure I will even get 10 % survival rate after year 10. Seems like mother nature and the deer takes it toll on them. I had spots where it was a sea of green with thousands upon thousands of 1 and 2 year old ginseng plants. Now after year 5 there are none, zero, zilch. Very disappointing. Now on the other hand i have spots where there seems to be a lot growing and I have big 4 prongs that are 5 years old. However the soil in the spot is the best I have ever seen in my area. Even though I have big plants everywhere, I bet the survival rate is still lower than 20% after 5 years.

Don't let my post discourage you. Would love to hear more about your plans.\"
Latt

Well put Latt,

I've had my share of failures also. If survival rate was good on wild simulated I guess we would all be rich.
A person needs a lot of acreage and sow it thin and spaced out to keep down disease. But then that opens it up for all the poachers. It's just hard to grow and reap the benefits of your labor.

Latt..

He actually said...

\"fully confident in ten yrs with other sites I've selected...we will harvest 2 million dollars worth of roots\"

I agree with your assessment of the situation... and survival rates on wild sim. I have very similar results here on my place. Some of my plantings (a few) have done well... but a lot of them started out with lots of 3 leafers (5 years ago) but today, there are just a few scraggley 2 prongers left.

3 leafers will sprout and grow nicely just about anywhere that first year or two... but if the location is not ideal, they will sure go down after that. If planted thickly, they will suffer really bad from disease (a lot of that happened to me)...

And I agree completely with you rootman, that your best bet with true wild sim (no spraying) is to plant it thin, and in small patches just here and there. It does well that way without a lot of maintenance and spraying.

Silverwolf... best of luck to you - I hope you do well. Nothing wrong with having faith in yourself or high hopes... but in this case I think yours may be a little unrealistic.

It really takes 3 years or more to see how your plantings are going to work out. When you get to that point you will be able to tell about how they are going to do going forward.

TNhunter

I shall...I have excellent sites...I've put in 12,000 seeds....in 10 diff locations...and yeah 3 million dollars is high hopes...so is winning the lottery...but both are achievable....I have not begun to plant.....and yes a lot will die...deer will eat some...Hell they are it when I hunted with my dad...but I remember gathering 3500 bucks worth without any effort....the biggest th I my here is the logging....luckily my friend has a big plot of land to grow...and another friend is interested prob 2....and I'm humble...I'm a newbie....but I have knowledge like all of you...I'm 43 yrs old...and if need be ill plant till I cannot enter the woods any longer...it's more for my son's then me....and ill teach them.

All the luck in the world to ya, silverwolf. I would be the first to say its a hard road to travel. A lot of things have to be monitored when you have very much. But, I keep planting another 25-30 lb every year so its easy to see where my opinion lays.




Literally. It's a hard road to travel




And I even built that one

Hillhopper

Excellent input for you new guys, here. There is a big knowledge-base on this forum!

Hilltopper,
How do you plant 25-30 pounds? I've planted 1 pound last year and 1 this, and I thought that was hard. Do you have a special way that you plant or do you rake and scatter? I hand plant about 1/2 until I get tired then rake and scatter. I want to plant 3-5 pounds next year since I should have a little better idea which areas are best to plant by looking at my 2 year olds. I have the amount of land and passion to plant a ton but my soil is very poor. I add gypsum to most of the places I plant but I realize I'll never get rich due to the crappy soil.
Another question is how to keep that kind of operation from being poached. I've only told 2 of my closest friends, I want to tell more because I like growing and hunting it but its not big around here and I would like to keep it to stay that way.

Thanks

Forestrygrad,
It doesn't happen quickly. My work allows me late Dec,Jan and Feb off. I have help who is loyally trusted. It still takes a couple weeks to do it by hand from clearing to covering. Planting is just the beginning of the work though. If you don't maintain it you can lose it. As far as poaching goes; have an inaccessible site to the public and resist the urge to speak of it to anyone. Good luck.

Hillhopper

Forestry grad

I admire your determination. Set your mind to it and make it happen. The only advise I can give you is to make sure your \"help\" is trustworthy and don't tell anyone else about your plans. Anyone.

Poachers and theft is the least of anyone's worries when compared to deer, other animals, weather, insects and disease. Over time these will take far more of your ginseng crop from you than poachers. Poachers are certainly a problem to be concerned about for sure.
Latt