TOPIC: Planted Seed/Rootlets Survivability Rate vs. Wild

So yesterday I went out checking my seng for berries and just overall health and survivor percentages. Over the years I have heard that some years it just don't come up but that it doesn't necessarily mean it has died, it just went dormant for a year or sometimes more. I think we may have that with our plants as well and we just assume they died. After all, the seed don't know if God and nature planted it or if we did.


I noticed a lot of my plants that I planted as 1 year old rootlets came up good this year and I also took close note of what came up in the wild patches in my woods. Yesterday I saw about half of them one-year rootlets are already gone/dropped. So I meandered my way to a couple of the wild patches and about half of them were gone from what was there earlier in this grow season. So I think we might rest our minds knowing that we are on the right (or at least the same one that nature is on) track and shouldn't fret the loss of some mid season or even those who don't come up to see us at all on certain seasons. I feel it is all good and if we are in line with nature and The Good Lord's plantings than so be it.


Now this is fully unrelated to losing way more than nature loses and in saying this I am referring to my 99.5% loss of 900+ 3 year old rootlets that I lost. That is pretty clearly a total disaster, and a blessing by getting the education at the same time.


God bless and may He bless your seng venture.

Jimsenger...

You are right about experiencing loss when it comes to growing ginseng... it just happens.

You might as well plan on it. It is going to happen.

Even with wild plants... what you see early in the season will not be there later in the summer because deer really do eat the tops a lot.

A few years back I hunted Morels (Late April) up a little hollow on some land I owned, and found 20+ nice 3 prong ginseng plants. When seng season opened I went back to that hollow and only found 5-6 of those still had a top up.

Yesterday on my place when I got to one of my best beds (lots of nice big 6 year old 3 prongs)... I found that the large majority of them had been mowed down by deer.

They did leave this one for me. Thank God at least I did get to plant those berries.



Now I am looking forward to some grilled back strap this fall... pay back time

TNHunter

I recall talking to \"An Expert\" in the ginseng community and he told me that in his opinion Deer destroy more ginseng than Poachers.
I have seen my beds in the spring look great only to find less than half left in the fall after the deer took their toll on them all summer.
Latt

I have a dear track through one of my beds that is pretty active. For 15 years they have left the ginseng alone. Go figure, I guess deer down south may not have a taste for it. On the other hand I have seen rabbits eat it.

Do y'all think the deer \"kill\" the seng, or will it come up in time?

If deer eat 2 year old seng tops or older typically it will come back up. Now on the other hand if deer eat new seng that comes up in the first year it goes like this. If a deer eats it early in the summer before the root develops a growth bud for next year than it's likely it wont ever come up. If the deer eats it later on in the summer/fall and the root had a chance to develop a growth bud then it will likely come up the following year.
Good luck,
Latt

Thank you Latt. I remember reading that previously in these forums, now that you put that so clear. So really, the deer may save a lot of seng from being dug, furthering it's existence, in an area that gets obliterated by greedy diggers or poachers.

jinsemger66,
Hum, never really thought of it that way jimsenger. Kind of makes sense if you look at it from that angle. Deer eating seng and keeping it from being found and dug. Sure would be an interesting theory and I wonder if the ginseng experts have ever pondered this?
Interesting,
Latt

Same thing I was thinking about the deer actually helping in a way far as poachers go . Only bad part is if they destroy the berries . But some lost seed is better than no plants at all because someone spotted em.

Same thing I was thinking about the deer actually helping in a way far as poachers go . Only bad part is if they destroy the berries . But some lost seed is better than no plants at all because someone spotted em.