Ginseng?

Does anyone else on here hunt ginseng? I was raised digging it ,and have found quite abit on the property we bought this winter,(havent dug it yet as seeds havent ripened)

We have also planted new seed but it takes 5 -7 years for it to mature enough to dig. It is quite lucrative if you have good hunting grounds,it is supposed to start out selling at around $325 -$350 a dry pound this year.

WHen I was growing up,you could dig it at anytime and sell it also,but now it has a hunting season in the wild beginning in September.

I’ve been wanting to hunt it for a long time but I don’t know much on how to find it. But I’ve been doing a little research.

Its really easy to find once you know what it looks like,(that is if it hasnt already been hunted out).

As soon as we found it growing in our woods we began buying seed and repopulating the area with it .In a few years we will have lots to dig and use those seed to continue to keep ginseing in our woods,and hopefully the critters will help disperse the seed to nearby woods also.I guess my goal it to bring it back in my area because it has been so heavily hunted by people whom do not practice resowing the seed,alot of them are out hunting before the seed ripens.

I hear that when you harvest them you should take the berries and put them an inch under ground so they have a better chance of growing.

yes preferably in the same area where the mature plant/root was harvested.It has nearly been delpeted in my area of southern Indiana,but if more people would buy and replant the seed it would only take a few years to bring it back.

I look for the price to go higher in coming years because ginseng has been found to give cancer patients more energy and help them tolerate their treatments better.

The going rate for ginseng this year is $650 a dry pound,I dug very little of it this year due to the drought,the tops dried up ,in most cases before the seed even ripened.

I haven't dug any in a couple of years but I've been digging it on & off w/my father since I was about 5yrs old. My father & little brother still hunt it every year, I just don't have the time anymore (work & 4yr old twin boys).