TOPIC: Soil Amendments for Best Possible Seed Producing Bed

Here is a up close shot of the seed bed soil now.

I saved some of the larger flat rock pieces and will put them on top of the bed (just slightly uphill) from where I plant some of those nice wild roots.

That should help with moisture retention and continuous feeds of minerals (hopefully including calcium) over the long term.



I am also going to put some gypsum board pieces on top to do the same as the flat rock pieces.

So - so sum it up so far.

I have added:

1/2 lb Epsom Salt
2 lbs of Bone Meal (6/9/0)
5 lbs Gypsum
30 Gal of Rocky soil.

I have not added the Bacto Potting soil mix yet, but have the day off tomorrow (yep going seng hunting again) and will try to get that and get it worked into the soil. It is a dark, rich, composted peat moss mix that should work well for adding organic matter. I will at at least 2 - 40 lb bags of that and work it in the top 2-3 inches of the soil.

I have 12 nice 3 prong roots in the fridge right now from a couple recent hunts (including some nice ones from yesterday).
I may get them planted tomorrow evening or at least here in the next couple days.

TNhunter

You put a lot of time and effort into your growing project. Good work. One item I would mention about Ginseng growing too close together, other than disease. In Marathon co. Wi. they will not plant Ginseng where it has been growing before. Years ago the thought was it took something out of the soil, but it acts like a black walnut tree, it supposedly puts out a toxin of some sort that knocks out the competition. I have not heard anything about this lately, so maybe new information is out there. I have avoided planting to close together to avoid disease, but maybe someone can shed information on this.

Here is some info on Planting too closely and replanting in the same soil. From Scott Persons book.

\"...planting as thickly as possible, creates a dense, humid stagnant-air environment, which is ideal for the introduction of fungal disease. closer spacing not only reduces ventilation, creating higher humidity in which fungus diseases prosper, but close proximity also facilitates the spread of disease. Disease can spread over the surface of the soil from stem to stem, through the soil by root contact, between foliage when infected leaves touch or fall on healthy leaves.....


As far as replanting. I will get back to you on that.

I beleive that TNhunter mentioned that he would be spacing out his roots.

borrowed time

Replanting in an area where cultivated seng has been growing before is usually unsuccessful. For reasons unknown, they tend to be more susceptable to disease. Although I have heard stories of success, especially in areas where there was no problems with disease in the previouse crop of seng.

classicfur, so the general theory is disease takes over when crowded. I can subscribe to that assumption, but the one item that I cannot let go of is for years I find one very large plant, and no small ones around. Now, you can find smaller ones grouped together but few really old plants. I guess that makes me go with the plant getting rid of weaker ones, maybe i'm wrong, but this would be the first time.

borrowed time

So are you saying that a ginseng plant as it grows larger has the ability to kill off the weaker ginseng plants growing next to it?

If so, how do you explain thousands of mature ginseng plants growing all cramped together like they do on Artificial shade Ginseng farms?

classicfur

You have to remember, those cultivated plants are harvested at three to five years of age. Not enough time to get dominate like a wild plant would at 25 years old and up. My opinion, of course.

Hey Guys,

The Bed is 4x12' and looking at it on paper looks like I could get 11 rows (across the bed) with the rows spaced out 1' apart.

In each row I was considering planting 3 or 4 roots (max)

If I did 4 per row that would be 44 plants total in a 48 sq ft bed.

That sure sounds reasonable to me and spaced out enough that hopefully diseases will not be a problem.

If 44 plants produce 20 berries each (20x44) = 880 berries, 1760 seeds.

If they do well and eventually end up producing more berries.

30 berries each = 2640 seeds

40 berries each = 3520 seeds

That will be nice.

PS - I collected some nice roots today for planting in the seed bed and captured video and am working on a youtube vid now. Will get that finished soon as I can and let you all know.

TNhunter

TNhunter

Sounds like your counting your chicken before they hatch.

Well I do the same with My seng I've planted. If I have 35,000 plants growing and By harvest time I lose 10,000, that leaves me 25,000 roots divided by x amount of roots per pound times x dollars per pound equals a BIG SMILE!

I do like counting my chickens before they hatch.

It,s Fun!

classicfur