TOPIC: First year plants?

With my wild simulated, Can any of you tell me what to expect to do for first year plants? Will they need fungus spray in their 1st year. I have read on here of buying Manzate or Captan, are these a good idea?

WildCrafter

Hopefully you won't need to spray anything.

I have been growing Wild Simulated fo seven years now(50,000 plants), and have not seen a big problem with disease in first year plants.

One spring I did lose about 3000 seedlings to a pre emergence \"Damping Off\" disease that killed the seedlings before they emerged through the leaf mulch. This is usually caused by a disease that's already in the soil.

The biggest cause of disease is not having good water drainage in your soil. Soil being too wet. usually from: planting on flat ground instead of on a hillside, too soggy, poor soil quality and planting plants too close to each other.

For first year seedligs it helps to rake off excess mulch before seedlings emerge. You should have only 1 inch of mulch covering. And if the leaves are matted down to the soil, they need to be fluffed up so the little seedlings can find their way through.

Fungicides are most effective in preventing disease before it happens. Least effective after the disease has already established it's self on the plants.

Their are two types of fungicides. Man made chemicals and natural organic fungicides that are made from natural things found in soil, such as Azoxystrobin and Trichoderma.

This year I will be applying natural Trichoderma Plant Helper to all my seedlings before they emerge, to protect them from \"Damping off disease\" and other diseases.

Here are two good pages that lists all the diseases and the appropiate fungicides to use.

www.ipmcenters.org/pmsp/pdf/MI-WI-GinsengPMSP.pdf

www.agf.gov.bc.ca/speccrop/ginseng/prodguide/14_diseases.pdf

Here is the Plant Helper page for Trichoderma:

www.ampacbiotech.net/Articles%20&%20Pubs/trich.html

I have heard that some spray funcides after every rain during the spring time. I have not found that to be necessary.

Hope you find this helpful.

classicfur

A few days ago I called and talked to Larry Harding before placing a seed order and he really likes to talk ginseng and shared a lot with me on the phone.

He said that he sprays Captan just prior to seedlings emerging and continues to spray his 1 and 2 year old plants with (a protectant) after heavy rains in the spring which he said is when disease problems usually show up.

I am not to keen on spraying anything on my ginseng but would look for a organic solution of somekind if I do have problems.

Almost all of my plantings are on hillsides with a fairly good pitch so the drainage should very good. I hope that helps to minimize disease issues.

TNhunter

Hey Classicfur - - -

OK - I checked out the plant helper and have to admit I was impressed with the study on ginseng treated with it and the fact that it is an all natural organic product.

Which product to you use - Liquid or Flowable ?

How much does it cost ?

How much would a person need to treat - say an area planted with 5 lbs of stratified seed ?

I have had some problems with fireblight in my orchard the past couple years and it sounds like that helper might be a good organic way to help with that too.

Thanks

TNhunter

TN,
Not to jump in here, but I ordered the Flowable kind and the lady named Kelly there was very helpful. I believe the Flowable takes 1-lb per acre. You just mix it with water and put it in a clean hand held or back pack pump sprayer. It mixes really well and does not clot up at all. I have mixed a small batch for my ginseng seeds and the 15 rootlets and put it on my indoor house plants too. The indoor house plants already look healthier and I had only put it on them about 3 weeks ago.

Thanks to Classicfur again for suggesting this to us. I am looking forward to spraying all my new and old ginseng beds with it. I know it will help and sure can't hurt.

Kelly's business email address at plant helper is below and I am sure she will not mind me posting a business email address.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Good luck,
Latt

TNhunter

Like Latt says, 1 lb(Flowable) per 100 gallons of water for 1 acre.

I'll break it down further. 1/8 of a lb of Plant Helper mixed in 12.5 ga of water will treat 5,445 sq ft of ground or plants. That should be enough to treat areas planted with about 3.5 lbs of seed. That is, if you have planted 4-5 seeds per sq ft.

Here is the Flowable product label. Click on it to enlarge.

www.ampacbiotech.net/products/Labels/Flowable%20Label.jpg

One 1/8 lb container costs $14.99 and shipping is about $3.50 They sell it in larger sizes, but I don't know the prices. Best to contact Kelly at Apac for prices.

This product is all new to me, so starting this year, we will see how well it works. Some of the seeds I planted this last fall are very close to an area that I had Damping Off problems in the past. This product should protect the seedlings from Damping Off and other diseases.

It's a bummer to see no seedlings in a bed that should have thousands.

I hope it works as well as I think it will.


Latt,

I also have treated my house plants with the sample of Granular Plant Helper I'm trying out. It's a time released granular form of Plant Helper that you sprinkle around the plant. I applied it a couple of weeks ago and have not noticed any change except with one plant that acted like it wanted to die, and since adding the P/H, it has sprung back to life.

I hope this stuff works well for our Ginseng!

classicfur

Thanks Guys...

Sounds like I may need to get about 1/4 lb of the flowable product. That should do all of my seng beds and would have some left over for my garden and orchard, my wife's roses, etc.

I read that detailed study on how it affected ginseng and noticed they said...

Seed beds were prepaired, fertilized, stratified seed cast, and then the beds were covered with freshly shredded straw.

Then it says they treated the ginseng beds before and after seedlings emerged.

It shows they applied 5 lbs of the product on May 8 and again on June 1.

Classicfur - I recall you mentioned that you raked the leaves back off your beds and spray the soil, then put some leaves back on.

They did not mention removing the straw before treating that first time and I am sure they did not once the seedlings emerged.

Did you guys ever get an answer to \"if\" it was Ok to just spray it on top of the leaf cover ?

PS - when I talked to Larry Harding the other day he cautioned me strongly on having too much leaves on top the beds when the seedlings start trying to emerge.

He said straw was much better than leaves and suggested shredded leaves instead of just whole leaves.

Wondering if I need to be concerned about the leaf cover on my beds now. I tried to put on about 2 inches of lose leaves and make sure there were no clumps or piles. I checked and Scotts book says no more than 3\" of lose leaves.

What do you guys think - should I be all that concerned about em not making it up thru the leaf cover ?

Thanks

TNhunter

TNhunter

When I had talked to Kelly at Ampac, I told her that I had a previous problem with Damping off and she suggested sprayinging directly on the soil in the spring before they emerge, especially since I did'nt spray it on when I planted in the fall.

As far as leaf covering seeds. I have found that if I remove all but 1\" before they emerge, there is no problem with them finding their way through.

Here is what I wrote to Latt:

Because of the heavy snow pack where I live(9+ feet of snow) I usually put about 4-5\" of leaves on all the beds before winter snow to protect from frost heaves. In spring I usually rake off the leaves so there is about an inch left covering them( only on newly planted, 1 and 2 yr old beds). The beds with older roots, I do not remove any of the leaves. The older plants seem to come up fine through the heavier mulch.

The 1 and 2 yr old beds, I planned to rake all the leaves off and spray Trichoderma Plant Helper on the soil, then rake back a 1 inch covering of leaves.

If the leaves are matted against the ground, it is best to fluff them up so the young plants can find their way through more easily. For seedlings this is very important!

classicfur

TNhunter

After some thought about whether or not Plant Helper would work well being sprayed on top of the leaves compared to spraying directly on the soil. In my situation of having a small window of time between snow melt off and emergence of the seedlings, and since the Trichoderma spores need a temperature of 39 degrees to become active. I think in my area it's important to get the plant helper into the soil asap so it can become active next to the seeds.

It may not be so important if you apply Plant Helper at the time of planting the seeds.

Perhaps where you live and the soil temp will get above 39 degrees alot sooner than mine, It may work fine to spray directly onto the leaves and work it's way into the soil and become active before the seedlings emerge.

I was very interested in this type of Trichoderma, because it was the only one that was active in cold soil(39 degrees and above). The study they did in Alaska showed that seedlings and plants are more vulnerable to disease in cold damp soil, which is what I have in the early Spring.

I will try to contact Kelly at Ampac and get some more positive answers of what the best application for roots grown in both the north and south.

classicfur

TNhunter,
I planted a pound of ginseng seed 8 years ago. Half under Maples and half under Oaks. I didn't know better then but the ones planted under the oaks never came up. I know we all know that Oak leaves are difficult for ginseng to sprout through due the the size and weight of the leaf. I am confident the other half would have done better too underneath the maple trees if I would have raked some leaves off in early April. As long as it rains in April I think it is OK to rake at least 50% of the leaves off.
Thanks,
Latt