Robert Eidus, owner of Eagle Feather Organic Farm, gives advice on how to begin growing and selling forest medicinal herbs.

Number one: “Don’t cut down your trees.” We look at stratification – the best method for increasing ginseng’s propagation rate. We follow up with the importance of having a business plan before attempting to supplement income through forest-based medicinal plant production, and we finish with a few bits of advice on cutting costs.

Plastic pots can often be obtained for free from other growers or nurseries and leaves can be gathered in the fall once they’re put out for trash collection. However, be careful of collecting any invasive species that may be tossed in with the leaf pile. Leaves contribute to forest soil and can be combined with other organic additives and composted to be used in raised beds and for potted plants.

Provided courtesy of Forest Farming. Find them on YouTube at www.youtube.com/channel/UCA-ZP07pEpCzWuGGeI1veWQ

Raised seed beds beneath the forest canopy can give ginseng seeds an advantage. By constructing the beds to certain dimensions, screens of the same size can be placed over the planted seeds to protect them from turkeys, mice, voles and other forest dwellers who feed on the seeds.

Robert Eidus, owner of Eagle Feather Organic Farm, explains how he plants the seeds, covers them with leaf litter, fits the screen to the raised beds and then finishes by adding another layer of leaves. The screen must be removed in the spring before the seeds sprout. If the screen is left in place, the seedlings will most likely die. The leaves are removed in the spring and straw is put down which allows the ginseng seedlings an easier medium to grow through.

Provided courtesy of Forest Farming. Find them on YouTube at www.youtube.com/channel/UCA-ZP07pEpCzWuGGeI1veWQ