TOPIC: Seeds Ripening yet?

I know it is early, but is anyone getting or seeing any seeds starting to ripen, yet? Mine are filling out, but still green. It won't be long before the red starts to show up.

Not here in Middle Tennessee.

I took the pic below of a small 3 prong in my back yard earlier this week.

As you can see the berries are just starting to fill out.



Now this plant was a smallish 2 prong late last fall when I transplanted it to a small patch up close to my home.

In TN our ginseng harvesting season starts August 15 and for the first week or two most of the plants we find still have green berries. It is normally the very end of August or first of September before the majority of the berries have turned that lovely red color.

TNhunter

Kchacha,

What state are you located in ?

Wondering if you are south or north of me (Middle Tennessee area is where I live).

I took a stroll on my property this morning and found a few 3 prongers and they all looked similar to that picture I shared earlier. One or two were still in the flower stage others had very small berry development.

None were filled out.

Whereever you are - sounds like your Ginseng is a bit ahead of mine development wise.

** Update ** - just figured out I could click on your profile button and see that you are from KY (north of me).

It seems odd to me that being north of me your ginseng would be farther along than mine development wise. My ginseng was up on 4/15/2010 expect yours was up later than that.

I guess it is possible that the more south you are the ginseng may just take it's time a bit more about developing since it has a longer growing season.

TNhunter

here in S. Indiana Ive saw a few with the berries just startin to fill out but I think that its just one more thing that goes to show ya that while ginseng usually has pridictable traits really it can do anything and usually does so you never know what you might encounter

I'm in Central KY. I think my berries are a bit more developed than yours, but it might be a localized site thing. Some wild plants I have been watching look similar in development to your pictures.

Whoever gets the first red berry wins...um...not sure what they win, but I guess they win the first red berry!

I checked on that little 3 prong in my backyard patch again today.

It has been 8 days since that first picture.

Not a lot of change but looks like the berries have filled out a bit more at this point.

We are in a hot-dry spell now - a good rain might speed things up some.

This pic was taken just a few minutes ago.

After seeing your latest photo, I decided to go check one of my patches. Lo and behold, I have berries starting to ripen!! This was taken at 5:30 PM, 06/29/2010!

Hey Kchacha...

Nice cluster of berries !

Is that plant Wild, Wild Simulated, or Woods Grown/cultivated or in artificial shade/cultivated ?

It is rare to see Wild or Wild Simulated with berry clusters that big (around here anyway).

PS - looks like you have 2 seeds in most of those berries. I don't see any heart shaped berries though (which would indicate 3 seeds).

Thanks

TNhunter

It is a wild simulated plant that is 9 or 10 years old. A few other berry clusters are pretty full, but this one was the \"king\" of them all!

I'm up in cenral Ontario, Canada and on july 09,2010 my seed clusters were just starting to ripen like the one in the picture of the big ball of seeds. Now thats odd,1000 miles or so north and the same thing.

Guy