Part 9 (1/2)
He then intends to dig it, and I will try to get the facts for this magazine.
Now, to my own experience. I planted three hundred roots in the fall of '99. The following season from the lack of sufficient shade they failed to produce any seed; I should have had two or three thousand seed. Understand, these were wild roots just as they were gathered from the forest.
In 1901 I gathered about one pound or 8,000 seed, in 1902 three pounds and am expecting 30,000 seed from these 300 plants this season. Last season I gathered 160 seed from one of these plants and 200 seed bunches are not uncommon for cultivated roots to produce at their best. I have dug no roots for market yet, as there has been too great a demand for the seed. My one-fourth acre was mostly planted last season, and is looking very favorable at the present time. It is planted in beds 130 feet long and 5 feet wide; the beds are ridged up with a path and ditch 2 feet across from plant to plant, making the beds, including the paths, 7 feet wide. Beds arranged in this manner with the posts that support the shade set in the middle of the beds are very convenient to work in, as you do not have to walk in the beds, all the work being done from the paths.
My soil is a clay loam and it was necessary for me to place a row of tile directly under one bed; this bed contains 1,000 plants and has been planted two years, and I find the tile a protection against either dry or wet weather; I shall treat all beds in a like manner hereafter.
If you are thinking of going into the Ginseng business and your soil is sand or gravel, your chances for success are good; if your soil is clay, build your beds near large trees on dry ground or tile them and you will come out all right. In regard to the over-production of this article, would say that dry Ginseng root is not perishable, it will keep indefinitely and the producers of this article will not be liable to furnish it to the Chinaman only as he wants it at a fair market price.
W. C. Sorter, Lake County, Ohio.
Even in this thickly settled country, I have been able to make more money digging Ginseng than by trapping, and I believe that most trappers could do the same if they became experts at detecting the wild plant in its native haunts.
I have enjoyed hunting and trapping ever since I could carry a firearm with any degree of safety to myself, and have tramped thru woods full of Ginseng and Golden Seal for twenty years, without knowing it. Three years ago last summer I saw an advertis.e.m.e.nt concerning Ginseng Culture. I sent and got the literature on the subject and studied up all I could. Then I visited a garden where a few cultivated plants were grown, and so learned to know the plant. I had been told that it grew in the heavy timber lands along Rock River, so I thought I would start a small garden of some 100 or 200 roots.
The first half day I found 6 plants, and no doubt tramped on twice that many, for I afterward found them thick where I had hunted. The next time I got 26 roots; then 80, so I became more adept in ”spotting” the plants, the size of my ”bag” grew until in September I got 343 roots in one day. That fall, 1904, I gathered 5,500 roots and 2,000 or 3,000 seed. These roots and seed I set out in the garden in beds 5 feet wide and 40 feet long, putting the roots in 3 or 5 inches apart anyway, and the seeds broadcast and in rows. I mulched with chip manure, leaf mold and horse manure. Covered with leaves in the fall, and built my fence.
The next spring the plants were uncovered and they came well. I believe nearly every one came up. They were too thick, but I left them. The mice had run all thru the seed bed and no doubt eaten a lot of the seed. That spring I bought 5,000 seed of a ”seng” digger and got ”soaked.” The fall of 1905 I dug 500 more roots and harvested 15,000 seeds from my beds. The roots were planted in an addition and seed put down cellar. Last fall I gathered 5,500 more roots from the woods, grew about 3,000 seedlings in the garden and harvested 75,000 seeds. I dug a few of the older roots and sold them.
The worst enemy I find to Ginseng culture is Alternaria, of a form of fungus growth on the leaf of the plant. This disease started in my beds last year, but I sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture and checked it. I have not as yet been troubled with ”damping off” of seedlings. I shall try Bordeaux if it occurs.
My garden is now 100 feet by 50 feet, on both sides of a row of apple trees, in good rich ground which had once been a berry patch. I used any old boards I could get for the side fence, not making it too tight. For shade I have tried everything I could think of. I used burlap tacked on frames, but it rotted in one season. I used willow and pine brush and throwed corn stalks and sedge gra.s.s on them. For all I could see, the plants grew as well under such shade as under lath, although the appearance of the yard is not so good. I also ran wild cuc.u.mbers over the brush and like them very well. They run about 15 feet, so they do not reach the center of the garden until late in the season. I planted them only around the edge of the garden.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Bed of Mature Ginseng Plants Under Lattice.]
In preparing my soil, I mixed some sand with the garden soil to make it lighter; also, woods earth, leaf mold, chip manure and barnyard manure, leaving it mostly on top. I take down the shade each fall and cover beds with leaves and brush. This industry is not the gold mine it was cracked up to be. The price is going down, lumber for yard and shade is going up. The older the garden, the more one has to guard against diseases, so one may not expect more than average returns for his time and work. Still I enjoy the culture, and the work is not so hard, and it is very interesting to see this shy wild plant growing in its new home.
In order to keep up the demand for Ginseng, we must furnish the quality the Chinese desire, and to do this, I believe we must get back to the woods and rotten oak and maple wood, leaf mold and the humid atmosphere of the deep woodlands. I have learned much during the short time I have been growing the plant, but have only given a few general statements.
John Hooper, Jefferson Co., Wis.
I believe most any one that lives where Ginseng will grow could make up a small bed or two in their garden and by planting large roots and shading it properly, could make it a nice picture. Then if they could sell their seed at a good price might make it profitable, but when it comes down to growing Ginseng for market I believe the only place that one could make a success would be in the forest or in new ground that still has woods earth in it and then have it properly shaded.
The finest garden I ever saw is shaded with strips split from chestnut cuts or logs. There are thousands of young ”seng” in this garden from seedlings up to four years old this fall, and several beds of roots all sizes that were dug from the woods wild and are used as seeders. These plants have a spreading habit and have a dark green healthy look that won't rub off. It is enough to give ”seng”
diggers fits to see them.
I have my Ginseng garden in a grove handy to the house, where it does fairly well, only it gets a little too much sun. I have a few hundred in the forest, where it gets sufficient shade and there is a vast difference in the color and thriftiness of the two.
The seed crop will be a little short this fall in this section, owing to heavy frosts in May which blighted the blossom buds on the first seng that came up. My seed crop last fall was ten quarts of berries which are buried now in sand boxes. My plan for planting them this fall is to stick the seeds in beds about 4x4 inches.
I see where some few think that the mulch should be taken off in the spring, which I think is all wrong. I have been experimenting for seven years with Ginseng and am convinced that the right way is to keep it mulched with leaves. The leaves keep the ground cool, moist and mellow and the weeds are not half so hard to keep down. It is surely the natural way to raise Ginseng.
My worst trouble in raising Ginseng is the damping off of the seedlings. My worst pest is chickweed, which grows under the mulch and seems to grow all winter. It seeds early and is brittle and hard to get the roots when pulling. Plantain is bad sometimes, the roots go to the bottom of the bed. Gladd weed is also troublesome. I think one should be very careful when they gather the mulch for it is an easy matter to gather up a lot of bad weed seed.
I see in the H-T-T where some use chip manure on their ”seng” beds. I tried that myself, but will not use it again on seed beds any way. I found it full of slugs and worms which preyed on the seedlings.
Sometimes cut worms cut off a good many for me. Grub worms eat a root now and then. Leaf rollers are bad some years, but the worst enemy of all is wood mice. If one does not watch carefully they will destroy hundreds of seed in a few nights.
I find the best way to destroy them is to set little spring traps where they can run over them. There was a new pest in this locality this year which destroyed a big lot of seed. It was a green cricket something like a katydid. They were hard to catch, too.