TOPIC: Three prongs are up and coming!

Hillhopper,

I will be glad to trade a few nice wild roots out with you later this fall.

The roots in my seed bed (44 total) are all nice 3 & 4 prong roots (one has a double 3 prong top - or did when harvested anyway).

I got all but 5 of them from my county but from 3 different areas of the county (at least 15-20 miles apart) which will help with genetic diversity and those other 5 I got from Billy - real nice big mountain seng roots. I spaced them out right down the middle of the bed to help with cross pollination.

I hope it does well - time will tell.

I looked over the bed real close this evening and still could not see any sign of tops coming up and also checked my spot where I have 10 other wild roots and no tops showing there either.

I went ahead and put the irrigation system in place and got it all setup.

Nothing fancy, just a 4 port mainfold and soaker hose. I spaced 4 hoses out down the length of the bed so it should water fairly evenly.

Classicfur - a lot of the gardners here rely on nothing but the rain that comes naturally but in July and August here it gets real hot and it is not unusual to go 4-6 weeks with no rain at all and well tomatoes and corn just don't do well with that. With my soaker hose in place I can keep those tomatoes producing even thru the dry spells and can get my corn to produce ears when others does not.

Last year we had several long dry spells including one in the May early June timeframe and a lot of the wild seng here just did not produce berries last year because of that one.

Here is a couple pics of my seed producing bed and the soaker hose system in place. Hope I don't need it this year but if I do it will sure be nice to just roll out the hose and hook it up.

TNhunter

This one shows the soaker hoses running down the bed length.

Just a short distance from my seed producing bed I have 3 - 40'x 4' beds planted and I found a few new seedlings up in them this evening.

Here is a place I obviously dropped 2 seeds insead of 1.



TNhunter

Photos look great! I like the irrigation system as well. wish I could do something like that, however it's not an option for me.

TN,
I was talking to Robert at The Eagle Feather Organic Farm / North Carolina Ginseng and Goldenseal Company last summer. To paraphrase, he said that it is not uncommon for some wild simulated growers to use irrigation systems in the woods. Assuming a ginseng grower has his ginseng growing in a woods were he does not have to worry about tipping off ginseng poachers, it may be possible to irrigate in the deep woods.

My thought is to take your drip irrigation method and use this in the woods as long as there is a near by water supply. I have many ginseng beds located close to a stream etc. I was thinking about pumping water into a water or rain barrel and using drip irrigation for some of these beds. As long as the water barrel was filled periodically it may be possible to continue to use the drip irrigation by hooking it up to the water barrel. It would be easy to hook up an \"on and off switch\" at the base of the barrel between the hose and the water barrel. It may also be possible to use gravity to fill the water barrel if the lay of the land allows it. If the source of the water supply is above the water barrel the hose filling the water barrel could be filled by using a vacuum in the hose line like a siphon.

A lot of \"if's\" for sure, but it may be possible to irrigate in the deep woods if the conditions are right without going to the large expense of drilling a well or running thousands of feet of water line.

I have 5 lbs planted near a stream in one woods that is protected very well. I may tinker with a rain barrel and hook up a drip irrigation system. I will have to use a water pump to fill the rain barrel periodically thou, as the stream is 50 feet down the ravine.

Thanks for the Pics TN. I like the 4 port manifold idea too.
Latt

Latt & Whitjr,

I expect the seed producing bed is the only spot that I will actually try to irrigate.

The other hollow where I planted the majority of my seed this fall/winter has no running water until you get on down the hollow about a 1/4 mile from where I am planting and it is too far from the house to try and hose water over there.

It would be a lot of trouble to get water up to those beds.

I will just trust the Good Lord to give them what they need and I expect they will do fine.

I expect my seed bed roots would survive the occasional dry spells but I do expect that they might suffer enough that it would hurt seed production.

The way I have them setup now that should not be a problem.

Latt - if you do get around to setting up a irrigation system like that send us a few pics. I would like to see that. Sounds like it would be some trouble and some work but could be well worth the effort.

Thanks

TNhunter

TNhunter, Latt

In the past six years of growing seng, I have not needed to water any of my roots. One year I had some seedlings that were starting to wilt from lack of water, but it rained just in time to save them.

If I had to water them, I have a 25 gallon barrel that I could fill on a trailer behind my ATV. All my beds can be reached with the atv, atleast close enough to run a hose to each bed for watering. I would just have to get above the bed so that the water would flow by gravity. But I would have to go up and down the hill many times to refill the water barrel. They also make a pump that runs off of the atv battery.

If I had seedlings that were wilting and my only option was to hand carry water up to them. I would not hesitate to do so. I could not stand back and watch them die without trying to do someting to save them. You may not be able to save all of them, but I'm sure you could save some.

I guess it would be good to have a plan if the situation arises.

classicfur

I'm always on the lookout for something new, and I'm wondering if anyone has tried these watering granuales. I found them on Amazon.com, and several people gave them five out of five stars in the review. Supposedly you just mix it in with the soil and it helps keep your plants watered. Maybe I will do a test this year. I could get some of this stuff and plant two small plots close to one another. One can have the granuales and the other cold be left alone.

www.amazon.com/Soil-Moist-JCD-030SM-3-Po...01482979&sr=1-74

Latt

You mentioned something about filling a rain barrel to water your beds.

Here is something that might help in some way. I'm not sure how you could make it work in your situation.

Its a Drill Pump that can be ran off of a Cordless Drill. Some brands say they are self priming and others dont say.

There are many brands found online. And they are cheap.

Check it out.

cgi.ebay.com/DRILL-PUMP-Portable-Liquid-...;hash=item2c5b625429

classicfur

Spring on it's way!

This morning we saw in our yard the first Robin of the year.

Also, I'm starting to see big patches of brown leaves where the snow has melted away. Other places in the woods have about 4-5\" of snow. Some of my seng beds are showing the mulch, void of snow. Alot better looking than last week.

The Maple trees have had sap flowing for the last three weeks. The newspaper was saying that Maine is on track for a record year of Maple Syrup. The record is 395,000 gallons of syrup.

Just a few signs that spring is on its way in Maine

Please hurry up!

classicfur