Hunting Ginseng

[Hiway40frank]

Since this is a good base of people who own their own land I was wondering if anyone here ever hunted for ginseng on their land? A guy here in the adk claims he gets 500-1500$ a pound for wild ginseng that he exports to china. You are only allowed to hunt it 6 weeks a year and need a permit to sell it. But that seems easy if you could harvest a few pounds. Its really easy to spot and grows in mature maple forests.

[Ljohnsaw]

That would be cool.  When we moved from our horse ranch property in to a more suburban area, we got a couple of new dogs.  One from a shelter (odd mix) is a great hunter (kills moles/voles and rats) around our place.  She also eats honey bees :  One day she was digging up around some oak trees (in gravel).  She came up with a couple California Truffles.  For a minute there, we thought we had a gold mine ;)

[Hiway40frank]

I wish I could train my dog to do something besides chase and kill anything smaller than him. The up side is hes a natural duck hunter and finishes off the ones that dont get a clean shot. I put some thought into the whole truffle thing than found out unless they came from italy/france? Or some specific region they were worthless.

[WH_Conley]

In order to dig "A few pounds a year" you will have to cultivate it. Long term investment. It doesn't sound impossible though. There are Ginseng farms. Some people just have a small patch, more a hobby. There is plenty of information on the net. I have a book "Ginseng and other Medicinal Plants. It goes in great detail about cultivation. It is about 100 years old, but the plants don't know what century it is. I see that book is on the net as a PDF file now. Probably as cheap to buy the book as the paper and ink cost to print it.

[Hiway40frank]

In order to dig "A few pounds a year" you will have to cultivate it. Long term investment. It doesn't sound impossible though. There are Ginseng farms. Some people just have a small patch, more a hobby. There is plenty of information on the net. I have a book "Ginseng and other Medicinal Plants. It goes in great detail about cultivation. It is about 100 years old, but the plants don't know what century it is. I see that book is on the net as a PDF file now. Probably as cheap to buy the book as the paper and ink cost to print it.

The problem is farmed/cultivated ginseng is worthless compared to the value of wild. Im guessing my idea would work if I could get access to a large tract of land. The people in china think that the wild ginseng that is 10+ years old is a magic plant and thats what they pay 1000+ a pound for.

[OneWithWood]

Wild ginseng is worth a good bit.  I have a couple patches on my land that are routinely raided.  The thief grabs everything regardless of size so it takes a long time for the patches to get to commercial viability again.  Some day I am going to catch the thief.

[Chuck White]

Wild ginseng is worth a good bit.  I have a couple patches on my land that are routinely raided.  The thief grabs everything regardless of size so it takes a long time for the patches to get to commercial viability again.  Some day I am going to catch the thief.

Hide a gamecam somewhere close.

[coxy]

Wild ginseng is worth a good bit.  I have a couple patches on my land that are routinely raided.  The thief grabs everything regardless of size so it takes a long time for the patches to get to commercial viability again.  Some day I am going to catch the thief.

maybe a goat ate it  :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Bark Beetle]

I'm not certain but I think a ginseng root must be 7 years old for there to be much of anything to harvest. I think you harvest it like horseradish you take some but leave enough for it to grow again from the same root.

[Hiway40frank]

Its like a tree and has rings to tell age, theres a law on min size but for the china market they want atleast 10 year old and the super valuable one that people pay 10grand a root for are 100-300 years old if ya can find them. Maybe a deer is eating them? They love them and dig for them in fall.

[mesquite buckeye]

Sadly, mine are only 17 years old. :(

Don't be thinking it's all gravy. You still have to dig them and dry them... That is a lot of work.

[OneWithWood]

Wild ginseng is worth a good bit.  I have a couple patches on my land that are routinely raided.  The thief grabs everything regardless of size so it takes a long time for the patches to get to commercial viability again.  Some day I am going to catch the thief.

Hide a gamecam somewhere close.

Did that and got his backside - not enough for a positive ID

[Joe Hillmann]

That price is for dried ginseng.  It looses a lot of weight in drying.  Closer to $150-$200/lb fresh.

An average price for dried is $400-$750/lb.  It takes some special/large/old roots to be over $1000/lb.

Also you can hunt for it any time.  You just can't harvest it until the legal season.

There is also wild simulated ginseng.  Basically you plant ginseng in favorable conditions, take care of it for a couple years then ignore it another 5 or so years until it is ready to harvest.  From what I have heard buyers can't tell the difference between that and true wild ginseng.  You can buy stratified seeds for about $200/lb.  If you had woods that had favorable conditions for growing it and planned to keep the land for a while it may be worth planting some.