Junnie,
I have just established my first seed producing bed this fall and have transplanted 44 real nice old large ginseng roots to it (all nice 3 and 4 prong plants).
They are not for sale at any price.
But I am interested in what Korean buyers like you might be willing to pay for nice old fresh wild ginseng roots (when out of season) like this.
As Billy said - right now you are not going to find any fresh root because the tops died back several weeks ago now and any roots that were harvested have been dried, and I expect most of the dry root has been sold already.
We sold a couple weeks ago for 700.00/lb on our dry roots.
One reason I am asking you about the price you would be willing to give for nice fresh roots out of sesaon is that over the next few years I may be establishing more and more seed producing beds and will have some nice roots that could be located in those beds and harvested fresh (long after the top is gone).
In some years when the ginseng price is not very high (in the future) I may transplant many good roots to a seed bed and store them there and either just collect seed for planting the next fall, or if the price is right could harvest a few of those nice old wild roots fresh (during the winter months) - that is if the price is right.
Just to give you a sample of what our seng looks like - here is a picture of a nice wild ginseng root that was harvested this year.
This one weighed 1.5 oz green. It was growing wild on a bluff over looking a creek and was in mineral rich soil with high calcium content. The plant was very healthy looking and the root had lots of root hairs.
TNhunter