Hey guys,
Here are a few highlights from my conversations with Persons, Beyfuss, and Hankins. I'm really thankful for the time they gave me and I learned a ton. I tried to push them on some of the issue's we've been discussing here. I hope I'm not misrepresenting anything they said, but take this as my interpretation of the conversation. As you might imagine, not all my questions had clear answers.
Gypsum addition is not a cure all. I mentioned I didn't think natural calcium levels in the soil were all that critical, since you can always add Ca to the soil. They didn't agree with that, and said that artificially raising Ca with gypsum isn't as good. They thought the added Ca probably wasn't bioavailable to the plant, at least not to the same degree that Ca in natural soils was. Bob Beyfuss stressed that the
mycorrizhal communities take a long time to get established, and weren't likely to be present if the Ca hadn't been there for a long time.
Seed source. Is using shade-grown cultivated seed ok? I got mixed messages on this one. On one hand, Dr. Persons said several times that wild simulated plants are really only one or two generations away from being cultivated, since the seed for most of them was orignially either shade grown or woods grown. On the other hand, both agreed and felt very strongly that if you had a source of real wild seed (not wild simulated), then it would be well worth the extra cost since wild plants tend to be more vigorous, resistant, and have genetics that make them adapted to the environment in which they've been growing for generations. Not as much benefit betweeen wild simulated and shade grown seeds since the wild simulated may have only been wild for a generation or two if that makes sense. On the other hand, he said he'd be very
cautious about who to get cultivated seed from, since the shade grown plants are all going to have some levels of disease in them, and that some growers would probably keep the seeds from their healthy plants for their own planting, and sell the seeds from the diseased plants. Chemical treatment he said was only effective at the surface, and that disease can be present deeper in the seed, which would not get cleaned with a bleach treatment. Buy from a reputable supplier was his main point.
Spring planting. Since there was so much discussion of this on the forum, I asked Dr. Persons how he felt about spring planting. He said he really doesn't like it, and he would only do it if he wasn't able to quite get everything in the ground in the fall. One point that I thought was interesting was that he said it didn't give the ginseng very long to work its way down into the soil, or to get acclimated to the site. He said there's just too short a time between when you can plant (when the ground thaws) and hot weather, and that the plant needs more time to get started and acclimate.
A few other miscelanneuous things: one of them said a few times that the idea that ginseng needs rich moist hardwood forests just isn't true.
Another thing, When we were out hiking looking at companion plants and sort of evaluating a site, I was surprised that it didn't seem like they put a lot of importance into the factors that make up their site evaluation checklists. Basically, it doesn't really matter what the % shade is, the slope direction, or what species the canopy trees are. Basically, if you have a really good set of companion plants (especially maidenhair fern and cohosh), then its a good site regardless of the other factors. Now of course, you're more likely to find those companion plants in the conditions described in the site evaluation worksheets, but the companion plants are the critical test.
Hope this is helpful. I hope the next time I can ask questions from the perspective of an established grower, and not as a rank beginner!
