TOPIC: Seed Beds

How many of you have a seed bed? How many plants is typical in one? Do you need to spread them out quite a bit to avoid disease and such?

Id like to gather up some wild seed producing plants into a smaller area and protect them. Of the 50 or so 3 prog plants I found this year only 5 did not get eaten by deer (yet). Ill be making a lot more deer sausage this year! Id like to plant an area with 100% wild seeds but wont be able to achieve that any time soon with so few berries.

Thanks for any advice,

John B

I have a seed producing bed.

I started off with 44 roots in it, these were all wild roots from my area, for the most part larger roots from plants producing berries.

With the exception of a few roots that I purchased from Billy Taylor to help mix things up a bit and improve my gene pool some. I think I put 39 nice mature middle TN roots in the bed and got 5 from Billy - these were from south eastern KY.

Below is a post that includes lots of details.

www.wildgrown.com/index.php/Ginseng-Foru...3-seed-bed-dirt.html

One advantage to putting them all together like I did is you can put a fence around them, and keep the deer and turkeys from eating your tops and berries.
I have had this bed since 2010 best I remember, and I have never had a top eaten from it or turkeys in there scratching around. You can also put out poison for the seed eaters once your berries start filling out. If you don't they will sure get every one of them.

I have a 4\" diameter drain pipe around 3' long staked down to the side of my seed bed, and I fill it with decon rat poison pellets when my berries start filling out.
That does the trick. I am not real sure what eats them, but expect it is a combination of field mice and chip munks.

TNhunter

Thx TN. Exactly the info I was looking for.

This berry went from green to red overnight. Am I ok to plant it or does it take a few days to be ready?

Thx again for any replies.

John B

I would think you would be Ok to plant it if it is red.

Some plants produce berries very early, and I have seen a youtube video by Forrest farming that the guy said that he has some that produce red berries very early and when he plants those, they often come up the next spring (without requiring the normal stratification period).

I have also seen data (several years ago) that said that something like 50% of green berries planted after Aug 15, would germinate.

You are about a month ahead of that now.. but your berry is red.

I don't have any red berries yet, but do have some filled out green berries now. Most of my plants are still in the late bloom stage just before filling out green berries, but I do have a few with some full green berries now.

TNhunter

Below is that youtube vid from forest farming... talking about the early red berry planting and sprouting with out stratification period.



TNHunter

Thanks again TN.

Ill be sure to keep any early berries separate from the rest and keep track of them.
I'd love to have that early sprouting strain. I remember someone on here does have it but cant remember who it was.

John B