Ginseng Year 8, Part 2

4-pronger with flower bud, part of the original seeding.

Ginseng year 8

This is the first area we seeded about 8 years ago (or more).  We haven’t done anything to this plot since we seeded it.  The location must not be perfect as ginseng plants appear to die off early—summertime rather than early fall.  However, the population seems to be sustaining itself.  Lots of 3- prongers with flower buds and 2-prongers.  I haven’t seen any seed berries in this plot so will be monitoring it this year to see what happens.

Ginseng Seeds

These berries (2 each) came from two Ginseng plants in simulated natural plantings.  There are 4 more berries on Ginseng plants inside my 2 raised bed cultivated plantings.  Normally there are 2 seeds in each berry.  The seeds have to be cold conditioned through two complete winter seasons before sprouting in the spring following the second winter.  It will be a long wait before I can say this is a successful seed crop.

Ginseng

The 3-pronger has 2 large berries.  This plant is located near the large Hemlock tree just off the Jennifer Trail.  This plot has a large number of 1- and 2-pronger plants across the entire plot.
The 2-pronger has one large red berry and a smaller green berry.  This plant is located right next to my second raised bed.  This wild simulated plot has not done very well, although it was planted at the same time as the one near the Hemlock tree.  There are a few 1- and 2-prongers all in a 30 sq ft area, and nothing across the rest of the plot.  I decided to use this plot for my raised beds.  While construction the second bed I noticed there were several Ginseng plants clustered around the area where I put in the second bed.  I have been careful when walking around the raised bed to avoid these few Ginseng plants.
These 3 berries are the first ever Ginseng seeds I have seen.  Kind of exciting to see some berries coming from seeds that I planted several years ago.  I hope to harvest the ripe seeds and quickly plant them before the turkeys or squirrels find them and eat them.  Then I have to wait for 2 years (seeds need to go through 2 cold seasons) before seeing any seedlings sprout.  I'll have to wait about a month until the berries are fully ripe and ready to fall off the plant.

Ginseng cages

Now we have 2 raised beds of Ginseng.  These beds are fully enclosed (all sides and top) with hardware cloth wire.  I built this enclosure with 4 x 4 posts and 2 x 4 cross members.  The top was made out of 2 x 4s and hardware cloth and I placed it on the raised bed last fall after planting the seeds and some 2-year-old rootlets.  One of the rootlets is visible in the close-up picture of the inside of the enclosure--it is the 3-pronger.  The top now sits on top of the enclosure.  Without a complete enclosure, the squirrels would use the bed to bury acorns.  In my wild simulated plots, I have not found any browsing if the seedlings, so no need to enclose those areas, thank goodness.

4 prong

4 leaflets

These were down off the skid path where most of the seedlings are only 1-prongers, although you can see a few 2-prongers.  I was looking for morels, but instead found one 4-pronger Ginseng seedling! That is a first for all of my plantings.

Ginseng 2014

I planted 0.5 ounce of Ginseng seeds and six 3 year old roots in my second raised bed today. The seeds and roots came from Harding's Wild Mountain Herbs  the same place I used last year for seeds and roots. The raised bed is 12 feet by 4 feet.   I planted the seeds in a grid pattern by dividing the bed into square foot sections and planting either 5 seeds or a single root in each section.  The pattern inside each section is like the face of a 5 in a card deck and the root goes into the center of the section like an ace card.
After filling all the sections, I still had about 50 seeds left, so I planted them in the lines between the sections.  Total number of seeds was about 250.  Not all the seeds will germinate so the resulting seedlings should be spaced out enough for a couple of years of growth.  The 6 roots should all survive and will likely develop as 3-prong plants next spring.
While setting up the raised bed I found some one year old Ginseng seedlings in the bottom of the bed--seeds that had been manually sown 2 years ago.  I dug up 7 of those seedlings and put them in a bucket of soil.  Since there was some space in the first raised bed, I transplanted those 7 seedlings there.  These roots were pretty small, about 0.5 inches long, compared to the3 year old roots, that were at least 1.5 inches long and probably 3 times larger in diameter.
Both seeds and roots should be planted no deeper than 1.0 inches so I tried to keep the planting depth to 0.5 inches.  I covered the surface of the planting bed with a dusting of peat moss and some crushed oyster shell to provide some calcium.
Even though we got a good soaking rain last night (0.74 inches), I watered the bed down with a couple of buckets of captured rainwater.

From earlier in the summer when I constructed the new raised bed.

Ginseng 2014

For the past 2 days I have been working on getting my second Ginseng raised bed ready for planting later this fall.  Last week I got the 12 foot by 4 foot bed formed with pressure treated 2 inch by 10 inch boards screwed together at the ends and metal “L” braces nailed at the inside corners.  I made two frames for a screened cover, both 6 foot by 4 foot, so each frame will cover half of the bed.  I rolled out 2 sheets of 0.5 inch grid hardware cloth screening and stapled them to one of the covers.  Because I ran out of hardware cloth, I had to wait until this week to finish the second screened cover.  Because the bed is oriented on a gradual slope, one side is lower than the other, and the ground under the bed is a little irregular, so the bottoms of the boards were sometimes not in contact with the ground.  To prevent an access for squirrels or mice, I pushed flat rocks under the boards to fill in the open spaces and then piled additional rocks around the outside of the bed, again to discourage critters from burrowing under the bed.  When I built my first Ginseng raised bed last fall, I found that squirrels loved to jump into the bed and bury their nuts in the soft, prepared soil, so the screen covers were my solution.

Today I started filling the raised bed with planting material.  First, I used a pitchfork to loosen up the soil inside the bed and managed to dig up quite a few more rocks to stack around the outside of the bed.  Next, I added a 3 cubic feet bale of sphagnum peat moss and mixed that in with the loosened soil.  I covered the peat most with some lime to offset the acid pH of the moss.  I then mixed in 3 bags of Sta-Green Tree & Shrub Garden Soil Plus Fertilizer.  Each bag contained 2 cubic feet of soil.  I added one 50 pound bag of Quikrete All Purpose Sand on top of the soil and then mixed the soil in with the peat moss.  The sand is coarse, so it adds body to the mix.  Finally, I added another dose of lime on top and mixed that in.

As you can see in the pictures, I still have a lot more volume to fill in to get the soil level up to the top of the boards—probably have to repeat this process at least 2 more times with similar amounts of material to get the bed finished.

When I positioned the boards for the new raised bed, I found several small Ginseng plants inside the perimeter of the bed.  These plants were the result of a simulated wild seeding I had done in this area in the fall of 2012.  Although there were planted in 2012, they are only first year seedlings with just 3 leaflets.  I dug them up and put them in a pail to see if I can salvage them and replant them in the new bed.  These seedlings have a very small root, only 0.5 inches long and 0.125 inches wide, although they do have longer fine roots coming out of the main root, so they looked pretty healthy, even if they are kind of puny.  We’ll see if they survive their rescue.

I have seeds and a few rootlets ordered and they will arrive in late September.  Usually the planting time for Ginseng is between Halloween and Thanksgiving, to take advantage of the wetter weather to keep the seeds moist until winter sets in.

Day 2
Second day of work involved adding more soil and peat moss to the bed.  First was a bale of 3 cubic feet of sphagnum peat moss, followed by 2 51.4 quart bags of Sta-Green Flower & Vegetable Garden Soil with Fertilizer and 1 64 quart bag of Miracle-Gro Potting Mix.  I added about 5 pounds of crushed oyster shell to boost the calcium in the bed.  The oyster shell is the same material that is used to boost calcium in the feed for laying hens.  I moved the pot with the salvaged Ginseng seedlings over to the first raised bed as there was a small clear area in that bed and the pot fit nicely.  This location will protect the potted seedlings as the fencing is 36 inches high and as I fill the second bed the pot would eventually be too tall to fit under the cover.  I plan to purchase more soil on Thursday and add in some compost I have stockpiled at the vegetable garden.

Day 3
Started out with four 5 gallon  bucketsful of compost and added about 5 pounds of lime.  Then I added three 51.4 ounce bags of Sta-Green Tree & Shrub Garden Soil Plus Fertilizer.  Next, another 3 cubic foot bale of sphagnum peat moss and about 2 pounds of crushed oyster shell.  On top of that three 64 quart bags of Miracle-Gro Potting Mix with Fertilizer.  I used the rake handle to level off the entire bed and it is now filled right up to the top of the boards.  Over the next month or two the bed will settle a bit, so before I start planting the Ginseng seeds and rootlets, I will probably have to top of the bed, but it should only take a one or two bags of potting mix.  So, now I’m ready for the seeds to arrive.

Mushrooms, 'sang, and Kilo enjoys a short walkabout

I found a cluster of yellow-orange mushrooms on the Jennifer Trail down by the sand mound.  These mushrooms are growing in clusters and mostly around an old stump, although several clumps are separated from the stump by distances up to 2 feet.

I installed hardware cloth screen to the frames that top my ginseng raised bed.  There are two frames to make them more manageable as the dimensions of the raised bed are 12 feet long by 4 feet wide, and 10 inches deep.  When I started working on the frames this afternoon I found the soil at the top of the raised beds had been dug by squirrels hiding hickory nuts.  So the screens will help keep those critters from digging up and eating the ginseng seeds.  We've had heavy rains over the past 36 hours or so and the soil in the raised beds is moist, but not muddy.  Today it is sunny out, so I will hold off planting the seeds and roots until tomorrow when it is supposed to be cloudy with showers.  Ginseng seeds are pretty particular about staying moist, so I want to planting conditions to be favorable. 

 

When I took the dogs out for a pee after breakfast both Buddy and Kilo seemed to sense something down the Jennifer Trail.  I called to them to do their business but both of them bolted down the trail to the left.  Buddy came back pretty quickly but Kilo did not.  I drove the RTV down the driveway to check out Ron and Darlene's to see if Kilo had gone there, but no luck.  I then took the RTV down the trails to the fire pit and still no luck.  I drove back to the house to get my phone in case someone had found Kilo and wanted me to pick him up.  Then I walked down the Jennifer Trail towards the fire pit, calling out to Kilo as I walked.  When I reached the junction of the 3 trails, I saw him headed towards me from the direction of the shed.  He seemed tired from his 30 minute walkabout but otherwise he was in good shape.  I put a small leash on him to walk back to the house but I think he was too tired to sprint away.  He has been lying about resting ever since.

'Sang

Quite by accident I was checking my previous ginseng plots to see if there were any juvenile plants.  I didn't find any juveniles, but I did discover a lot of seedlings growing in a couple of rows that were planted 2 years ago, in the fall of 2011.  I think these seedlings have emerged after stratification over the past 2 winters.  The seeds are sold as fully stratified, meaning they have gone through 2 cycles of cold conditioning to simulate 2 winters in the ground.

This plot had some success in 2012 but the seedlings that emerged in the spring of 2012 were more apart and fewer in number.  We had a hot dry early summer, and these seedlings disappeared by the middle of August.  So, either those seedlings have re-sprouted or we have new seedlings this year (or a combination of both).  At any rate, this spring the plot looks more like the way that I planted the rows, because I was not very precise in keeping the seeds 4 inches apart.

Thanksgiving weekend work

Paul's main project today was to add amendments to the soil in the ginseng plots.  The soil test came back indicating that the soil was deficient in pH, Phosphate, Magnesium, and Calcium (only Potash was in the optimum range).

The soil test suggested adding (per acre) 6000 lbs of Calcitic Limestone, 65 lbs of Magnesium, 50 lbs of Nitrogen, 75 lbs of Phophate, and 15 lbs of Potash.

I made a guess that the acreage in question is about 0.33 acres.  That worked out to 2000 lbs of limestone and 100 lbs of fertilizer, and 100 lbs of Epson Salts (for the Magnesium). 
I picked up most of the materials from Growmark F S, 552 Feidler Rd, Bellefonte, PA on Wednesday, except for the 100 lbs of Epsom Salts which will be available from Growmark on Friday.  We have an old push-style fertilizer with a spinner underneath to spread the dropped material.  I used it to spread all the materials on the 3 ginseng sites.  Two of the sites got 15 of the 50 lb bags of limestone, and the other site got 10 bags of the limestone.  I divided up the fertilizer into 3 buckets in a similar manner. The push-style fertilizer worked fairly well, although pushing the fertilizer over stumps and roots and across depressions in the soil in the plots was a challenge to keep the two wheels on the ground.  I used the ATV to move the bags from my pickup to each of the sites, so that was a big help.  It took me close to 4 hours to spread the materials on the ginseng plots. I added 10 feet or so to the rock wall today.  All in all, a productive day's work, but there's several more days to do.  I hope the weather holds.

Then on to our traditional dinner at the Corner Room, in business since Pop Mac was here.

Ginseng

Yesterday I marked out the boundaries of 3 potential ginseng plots.  The 3 plots are all rather close to the house and located near a couple of single Hemlock trees.  I put stakes at the 4 corners of the plots and tied pink ribbon to the stakes to make them more visible.  All the plots are only a couple of yards from the Jennifer Trail.

Today I raked leaves off of the first plot, which is the largest at 45 feet (N-S) by 30 feet (E-W).  This plot is located due North of the Hemlock in a mixed hardwood forest of Chestnut Oak, Red Oak, Sugar Maple, and Black Cherry.  This plot also has some Witch Hazel and a number of Chestnut Oak seedlings on the forest floor. After raking the leaves off the surface, I found that the leaf duff layer was about 1-2 inches deep.  Below the duff layer the soil is mostly blue-grey in color and sandy in texture.  About 3 inches under that layer the soil color turns a tan-yellow color but texture remains sandy.  In many places across this plot, extending from the leaf duff layer and into the blue-grey layer there is a network of fine roots.  There are also rocks scattered across the plot within 4 inches of the soil surface.  These rocks range in size up to 8 inches across and most seem to be composed of limestone.  Because of the mature trees both within the plot and along its boundaries, there are a lot of large roots crisscrossing the plot.  I used the bow rake to break up the leaf duff and expose the soil.  This action loosen up a lot of rocks near the surface, so I removed these, along with handfuls of the mat of fine roots near the surface.  The soil moisture is low right now, so I will probably delay sowing the seeds until we get some more rain.  I'd also like to loosen up the soil with a pitchfork.

Winter is coming closer

Lots of clean-up jobs were accomplished this weekend in great weather: turn over the compost pile so the chickens can work on the seeds, plant more 'sang, pick up sticks for kindling, mow a trail in the walnut grove for winter walking.

Reading: As the Crow Dies ****Ken Caspar Vietnam took his legs. A murderer took his father. Somehow, Jason Crow has to take a stand. Jason Crow comes home to Texas on clumsy, prosthetic legs, struggling with his lost dreams and the pitying curiosity of friends and strangers. But there's no time for him to brood, because his father has just been shot to death. In the process he uncovers family secrets that shake him to his core. While fighting his own insecurity as a double amputee, Jason must challenge forces capable of destroying him and those he loves to pursue the person who robbed him of his greatest hero: His dad.  (Kindle summary)

Toy shed and 'sang

From the Baron:

I have finished the shed project after filling in the floor with additional soil and topped with a 2-4 inch layer of crushed rock.  I moved the excess hemlock timbers into the rear of the shed and I think now that I can park both the tractor and my pickup truck inside without any crowding.  We still have extra construction material and other 'junk' inside the shed, but now the insides are manageable and we can use both of the shed doors to drive in and out.
My ginseng patch this year is in an area of the forest that has an east-facing aspect and has typically shown a blanket of may apples.  I hand planted the ginseng seed alongside two old logs, on the side of one and on both sides of the other.  I also planted a small area that was adjacent to the logs but this area had exposed soil, so I can compare the results next spring.  I should point out that the planted lines of ginseng have a small locust stake at the top and bottom of the lines.  These locust stakes have been kiln-dried and have been painted a dull red color, making them blend into the background leaf litter.  Locust is pretty rot-resistant and should last a long time, so they should be helpful in locating the ginseng plots in the future.

And then there were 14

After a full day of an alternative forest products class we came home to a flock minus one. We walked the area but didn't see any signs of extra feathers. I'd better get on the butcher plan or we might not have enough to do.