TOPIC: SO WHAT IS THE MAGIC NUMBER?

Hey Maya,
did you ever hear from ginseg-wang?

I think all yall's roots are beautiful! Here where I live depending on how high or low in the holler you are. I get some roots that look like cousin IT and some that have no root hair at all and just have a tail that's like 6-8 inches long. Most of my \"hairy\" roots are found in hard as hell soil that takes a tool to get out. I don't like using tools unless it is absolutely necessary. My huge roots with tails are usually in the black, moist, wet fertile soil that you can sink your hand right into. Just saying...

K_duce wrote:

Hey Maya,
did you ever hear from ginseg-wang?

LOL What do you think! It's been an interesting season here on Wildgrown!

maya wrote:

K_duce wrote:

Hey Maya,
did you ever hear from ginseg-wang?

LOL What do you think! It's been an interesting season here on Wildgrown!

He certainly has a new marketing approach that is going to leave alot of dealers scratching their heads.
One thing folks dont realize about those root hairs is that it takes years for them to develop into longer thicker strands. Once agian great job.

K_duce wrote:

maya wrote:

K_duce wrote:

Hey Maya,
did you ever hear from ginseg-wang?

LOL What do you think! It's been an interesting season here on Wildgrown!

He certainly has a new marketing approach that is going to leave alot of dealers scratching their heads.
One thing folks dont realize about those root hairs is that it takes years for them to develop into longer thicker strands. Once agian great job.

Funny, I think he took a little to much heat here or something. He quit posting a while back. He could have gotten to me with an offer. Never heard from him that I know of. I had a few emails w/ offers and such but none that said it was him. If he thought I was going to take him out to dig w/ me, he's got rocks in his head.

Thanks K! Your right age is certainly a big part of it along with soil content and correct sunlight. Some of my most valuable roots are not always the biggest, ya gotta have that age an hair root. I've sold a few old ones piecemeal and I'd hate to see what they were worth per pound! LOL

maya wrote:

Getting the hair root is as simple as understanding where it is in the soil.... It's not down deep in the clay, most of it reaches back up toward the surface, especially if you are on a slope in a ravine. It took me a while to understand that. I thought like you that they were not as present or they were just to hard to get, not true once I understood where they went. I was simple digging right past them to loosen the soil down deeper. It's clear to me seeing the pics of some of the root dug here and watching the tv shows people don't take the time and are in to much of a hurry to get big numbers of root and not quality. BTW, we have clay and even shale that are hard on roots.

If you have dealers saying they don't want the hair root, find someone else, they are rank armatures! No wonder they don't pay good money. It's the end user that wants them in tact, these guys if they knew what they were doing would realize it. My buyers absolutely want to see a well dug root!I have never heard of a dealer not wanting to see the hair root.....

Maya, those are some really nice roots you dug this year. It seems like you always dig that high quality ginseng there. I cant seem to find roots like that here in Missouri, the hair roots just don't get that long here. Not sure why, but I guess that is why you guys up that way get the higher prices.

Lenno, thanks, but it's not even just those long ends that makes for something special. Hair root is that fine root ends. Look at this pic the one on the bottom left is certainly nice but the short one just above it is really good. Very old and all the fine hair root in tact. Just as valuable to my buyers. It was in some very heavy soil with a lot of shale chips as I recall. Seng grows there but it's not very conducive to growing long roots. Still a valuable root.

I agree with GMC Paul, I am from KY and have dug hundreds of pounds of wild root. I would say a very low percentage has a really long fine hair root. If it grows on a large rock in rich soil the roots resemble those you dig.

Age has little to do with fine roots on what I have dug, generally they get fatter and more bulby unless in really good soil, then they usually branch out but are usually thicker than what your look like. Also dealers in my area which have been in the business for 40 years or longer do prefer less fiber. The single long hair root would not be culled but lots of feeder roots which give it a cultivated look can be a problem.

Maya your roots look good and if you receive a good price that's even better.

Here is a pic of a root my son dug yesterday in almost all clay but the top two inches. He is learning and beginning to dig well...Maya, I think he would have even made Ginseng-Wang proud:)

I don't think that is a bone tool HH! Glad you got your son interested, I'm envious. I tried w/ mine but he is to much of a book worm. Just got a great job in a pathology lab at a major hospital. Not a bad thing but he doesn't get out in the woods much!

One trick I did teach him is, when on a side hill like that always start digging and unearth the roots from the downhill side. Most of them grow out and uphill. You have a better chance of not whacking those hair roots. I believe that's the biggest reason I get so many of them in tact. He did a pretty darn good job though.