Growing
Ginseng
A
Short History
The spring of '97 was the first year I tried
to grow ginseng...American Ginseng (Panax Quinquefolium). I planted
both stratified seed and 3-year old rootlets. I spent a lot of time
preparing the planting bed, and put the roots in the ground in early April.
When the shoots started coming above ground, we had a hard frost and I
covered them with a healthy layer of dried leaves. This kept them
from freezing, but most of the stems were unable to come up through the
leaves which became wet and matted. The ones that did emerge were
quickly trampled by the goddamned neighbor kids, and I finally dug them
up (the ginseng, not the kids) and transplanted them into a large whiskey
barrel full of dirt. Not long after that, the shoots dried up and
died. I dug up a few of the roots this August, and they seemed to
have formed a new bud for next spring and appeared to be alive. I
am now in the process of putting barbed wire (I couldn't locate any razor
wire)around the ginseng garden and will soon replant the roots. The seeds
didn't have a very high germination rate...about 10% to be exact.
I planted 3oz (about 400) of seeds, and only ended up with about 40 or
so plants. The picture below is one of those plants. It looks
huge, but the 1 year old plants have roots about 1" long. You can
also see the small green bud on the top, which will remain dormant until
the spring.
Fall
'97
Once again, I ordered 2oz. of stratified,
American Ginseng seeds from HSU's ginseng Enterprise (see "Sources
of Seeds and Roots" below). They arrived three days later, October
9th, and looked very healthy. Many of the seeds showed early signs
of sprouting, the shell was cracked and a little of the root inside was
visible. From what I have read, this is normal in ready to plant,
stratified seed. I went out to my 4'X8' plot, which is now a 6" raised
bed, surrounded by 24" of burlap which is supported by treated lumber (see
picture), and started to prepare for planting. I think the neighbors
may have been a little offended by the big "KEEP OUT" sign, which is clearly
visible from accross the street, but then again, they are the reason I
had to put the sign up in the first place. The soil in the garden
was great! The previous fall, I had lawn-mowered bushels and bushels
of dried leaves and twigs, and mixed it in with the soil into a huge heap
and let it compost the entire summer. The result was rich, non-clumping,
easily tilled, organic soil...ideal for ginseng. I raked it smooth,
and removed about 1/4-1/2" of soil and set it aside. I then planted
my 9 remaining 4-year old roots which survived from the spring (see first
paragraph), and the 12 1-year old ginseng plants which I grew from seed.
There are probably more of these plants still in the ground in front of
my house which I didn't dig up because a lot of the plants entered dormancy
and lost their leaves and stalk before I could dig them up. I planted
these in rows 6" apart, and placed the plants 5" apart from each other. 
I then sprinkled the seed over the remaining area of the garden.
The soil which I set aside was spread out over the seeds, covering them
to a depth of 1/4-1/2". The final addition to my ginseng garden came
from a fellow by the name of Matt Hull (see "Sources of Seeds and
Roots" below), whom I discovered while searching for a source of live ginseng
roots on the internet. It was nice that I didn't have to order a
minimum of 100 roots as most sellers require. They came exactly when
he told me they would, were in great condition, and were obviously "fresh
out of the soil". I ordered 20 of these 3-year old roots, some of
which are shown relative to my hand in the picture. Notice the root
on the left which has two dormant buds, which means this plant will have
two stems and twice as many seeds next year as normal. I strongly
recommend buying from him if you decide to buy some live root stock.
Anyway...once everything was planted, out came the 2cubic foot bag of hardwood
bark mulch, which I spread out evenly on top of the soil about 1" deep.
A final shower with the water hose and I was done for this fall.
Sources for Ginseng
Seed and/or Planting Rootlets
HSU's
Ginseng Enterprise: This company sells many ginseng and other
herb products, and they don't mention anything about selling roots or seeds
on their web page, but they do. Get the phone number or email from
their web page, and request a ginseng seed catalog. It comes with
pictures and some other information. They seem to be about the cheapest
source of seeds and live roots, and are based in Wasau Wisconsin.
Matt Hull:
This fine gentleman treated me well. He was unannoyed by my annoying
emails, and was happy to sell me as much or as little ginseng roots as
I wanted. As I mentioned above, the roots arrived in excellent condition,
and appeared to be extremely healthy and fresh. He also sells stratified
seed ready for fall planting.
back
to main menu