TOPIC: Just Finished My First Planting

Jacquo

I usually start planting the first week of Oct. The leaves are usually just starting to fall at that time. Then within two to three weeks all the leaves are down on the ground. This year I had perfect conditions. 2.5 inches of rain a couple day befor planting and 1 inch of rain four days after planting. Then all the leaves came down quickly.

classicfur

If Classicfur or TNhunter happen to know the answers to these questions, I would certainly be interested in knowing.

I pretty much know where ginseng will grow on my property with about 99% certainty, so I never did a soil test. I have one area in mind that never had any seng growing in it, but it looks like it would be favorable. It's got the right type of trees, it has some ferns and pawpaws growing around, and the hill slopes to the North. My question is, if you do get a soil test done, and it does come back favorable for ginseng, is there an average area that sample covers? For example, if your test says your soil is good, does that mean your soil should be good for 100' around that spot, or does it mean your soil is only good for that one particular spot?

Also, when planting on a hill, my guess is it shouldn't matter, but do the experts say which direction is the best to plant a patch? Should you go up and down the hill or across it? If it doesn't matter which way you plant, then I messed up. I planted one of my patches going up and down the hill. My thinking is I should have planted long ways across the hill. If you can get seng to come up, why not let nature take its course and have the seng drop their berries on their own. I could get the hillside below seeded plus the bottoms.

I'm really curious to hear your guys thoughts. Thanks!

Jacquo

If you have areas that look right for ginseng to grow and you do have ginseng in the near vacinity. Then I would plant in that area that looks good to you. A soil test will confirm whether it is or is'nt proper soil. If it was me I would get a soil test and then you know for sure. Also you would know whether to add gypsum or not.

In Maine where I live, You cannot harvest Wild seng legally.But you can grow it after getting a Ginseng Cultators license. The area I live has no Wild seng, but the head Of the Maine Ag dept. Told me they have documntation that my area used to be loaded with it. So I had soil test done. They looked good except for low calcium. And I corrected that with Gypsum. I now have over 40,000 plants growing in these areas.

As far as how much area a soil test will cover is. I don't know for sure. But when I take a soil test, I take it from an area of about 80'x80'. I will take a small sample from about 10-12 spots within that 80x80' area. I mix all the 10-12 samples in a clean container, then from that container I take the one sample that I will send for soil testing. If you have areas that are, say all spread out on that same side of one hillside and the characteristics are the same as the one area you have a good soil test on. I would feel comfortable treating those spots the same as the first and go ahead and plant.If your ares are on different hills then I would get a soil test on those too.

This is what the expert prefer:
The best way to plant on hillsides is to lay your bed going up and down the hill, not across the hill. Reason being is the rain water will tend to run down the hill until it reaches your bed. If yor bed is across the hill it acts as a dam for the water(moisture) to stop at your plants.

And as far as letting the mature plants seed themselves. It's a slow process compared to planting stratified seeds that may have a high germination rate(up to 90%)

I hope I covered everything you wanted to know.

classicfur

Classicfur, thank you for the information. I really appreciate you sharing a little knowledge with me. I should have known that whatever I thought, the experts would say something different!

As far as the plants seeding the areas on their own. I kind of like that idea. I have more than enough room to plant multiple locations, so I thought plant some for future harvest, and then plant a few patches just to leave alone. One of these days I'll be a little older and a little more broken down, so it would be nice to have easier access patches that I left alone to multiply. I'm only in my late 30's, so there's a lot of years left for those patches to grow.