TOPIC: Next Ginseng Season

This season has been good. I've managed to try ginseng from a number of states. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and West Virginia. I've got some good roots from West Virginia and Minnesota this season.

So next season I hope some West Virginia harvester with dealer license to sell across state can offer me some. I don't buy much, only around 1/2 lb each time.

Great...ginseng season starting soon. I wonder how much it will open this year?

Kman,

No idea about price but I think supply should be better this year.

Last year several states had some serious summer/late summer/fall dry spells and the seng died back much earlier than usual so the supply was a bit shorter than usual.

Also here in Middle TN, a lot of our seng just did not make berries because of the suffering from dry/heat.

This year (here in Middle TN) we had one bad dry spell - end of May, first few weeks of June, but then after that got some decent weather and quite a bit of rain.

Our seng is looking good this year and really putting on the berries - glad to see that.

If the rain holds out, at better levels than last year, hopefully the seng will stay longer and we will all be able to dig a few weeks longer than last year.

We sold our seng last year for 700.00/lb - best price I ever got, and would sure love to see prices in that range again.

Will just have to wait and see on that though...

Good Luck to us all on that !

TNhunter

I have seen more seng out scouting in the last few weeks than I dug all of last year, I knew dry weather caused alot to go down early last year and made prices go up. Im sure more will be dug this year due to plenty of rain and in turn prices will be lower. Iv been doing some thinking and unless I change my mind, Im not selling under six fifty, ever. If i have to hold out for a couple years to see seven or eight hundred then that's what i'll do. We'll have a another dry year eventually, if that's what it takes to get that out of it then I'll wait. I know this is a long shot but if everyone would band together then we could set our own price. The Chinese really, really want what only we have yet we let them tell us what they'll pay for it. That most definately is not how economics works. We should realize how truly valuable our native commodity is and start reaping the rewards. I say lets let them go with out it for a couple of years and we'll find out what it's really worth.
I'll get down off my soap box now but that's how I feel.

Hillhopper

West Virginia was one of those states. Last year by the 1st week of October it was done. By the second week in September it was common to find some dried stalks barely standing. In 2009 my uncle ginsenged up until October 18. I hope this heat wave get's over with quick. I live in NY and go back to WV every year to seng. 2007 was so bad that senging was over the first week of September. Nothing ruins a vacation for me like not being able to hit the woods and do some senging with my uncle. Great memories I will cherish forever.

I've been sitting on a few pounds for a couple years now, been scouting last week and seen more seng than I have seen in years and am really hoping to see it around $550-$650 lb. at least. Last year I sold any was probably 2006 and if memory serves correctly I only got about $400 lb. That can be very discouraging seeing how here in middle TN to get to the big seng you gotta do alot of hiking up some pretty good mountains. Just my opinion but I think all those hours of climbing hills, cliffs, and walking for miles and miles to dig the \"good ones\" are worth alot more than $400 lb.

In the newsletter that Scott Person's sends out, he writes that in May ginseng was trading for only about $500 in Hong Kong, and that when the season opens here, that he expects it to sell for about $400 before climbing through October.

Just over a month to go before the selling season starts again. Hope everyone has figured out the paperwork needed to sell their sang on eBay?

Kman,
What am I missing? Seling on ebay??? I know some fellas got in trouble a couple of year ago for buying and selling on ebay without a license but thats all I know about ebay.
Latt

Check out this thread from last season.
www.wildgrown.com/index.php/Ginseng-Foru...Ebay-Wow/Page-2.html

It seems that if you have the right licenses etc, you can legally sell your sang on eBay. From what I gather, the difficulty is in getting your sang certified in the right size lots eg batches of 1/2lb or 1lb. In some areas its not so convenient to get the sang certified.