Intro music: Beautiful Medicine chant

Plants & Their Friends with Robert Eidus originally aired on WART 95.5 FM.

Visit www.wartfm.org to learn more.

Plants & Their Friends with Robert Eidus originally aired on WART 95.5 FM.

Visit www.wartfm.org to learn more.

6 videos

Growing forest medicinal and decorative plants as nursery stock for market sale can often be more profitable than selling just the root. We take a look at the process of growing and transplanting seedlings for market sale with Robert Eidus, owner of Eagle Feather Organic Farm, and we review the importance of knowing your market and creating a business plan beforehand.

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

Bart Zink first learned about wild harvesting from his father, hunting for morel mushrooms in rural Michigan. Now he hunts for wild mushrooms and ramps on the steep slopes of Western North Carolina. “You kind of have to go out into uncharted territory now,” Zink says. “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack, and you might not even be looking in the right haystack.”

People in the WNC mountains have been foraging in the woods for generations, seeking out edibles like mushrooms and ramps or medicinals like bloodroot, goldenseal, black cohosh and — perhaps most famously — ginseng. But with interest in these plants rising and more novice foragers venturing into the woods, the plants are becoming harder and harder to find.

“Ramps have been over hunted in certain areas,” Zink points out. “When I was in Barnardsville recently, I saw carloads of people who were going out into the woods with big grocery bags.”

The rise in popularity of tailgate and farmers markets is also putting an increased demand on these forest plants, and according to Jeanine Davis, associate professor and extension specialist with N.C. State University, many people don’t understand where the plants they buy are coming from.

“That’s always a shock to folks when I show them that most of this black cohosh, bloodroot or goldenseal, there’s not a farm where it came from,” Davis says. “People are walking out in the woods and finding it, and that’s not necessarily bad, but we do need to have some controls on this, or those plants could be gone.”

As gourmet restaurants tout the flavors of wild edibles and herbalists extol the health value of native medicinals, interest in these plants is only continuing to grow. But what is the responsbility of the recreational forager or even the consumer? When browsing the stands at the farmers market or the shelves in an herbal shop, how can you know if the plants and products you’re purchasing came from overharvesting or even poaching? How can you know if you’re encouraging a sustainable, local economy or contributing to a growing problem?

An unsustainable demand

Davis notes that one of the first things to understand, is that not all these plants come from foraging. Some local growers are taking up the task of cultivating in their forests, but growing sustainably comes with a price.

“I can take you into the woods and show you people growing these plants all over the place,” Davis notes. “But [the question] is, ‘How do you do it so that you make money? How do you charge enough? What kind of yields do you need?’”

Ginseng is a potent example. Wild ginseng roots fetch a high price on the herbal market, but they are also small, light in weight and take years to mature to their full potency.

“Think of how old this little root is, but also think of how many of these it takes to make a pound,” Davis notes while examining a wild root. “People say, ‘Oh, ginseng’s going for $1,000 a pound,’ but that’s dried. Think of how many of these it takes to make a pound. It weighs basically nothing.”

Some growers have turned to simulated conditions and, in many cases, large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides to produce a plant that can be harvested quickly, but is compromising quality, says Robert Eidus of Eagle Feather Organic Farm in Marshall.

“The growing period for the cultivated [variety] is three to four years, and they grow for weight,” Eidus says. “With the wild [variety], it takes 6 1/2 to seven years to get the full constituents, and they’re not growing for weight; they’re growing for age. You’ve really got two different products that are confused by the public as the same thing.”

Examining the root of a cultivated ginseng plant will easily show you the difference. The wild root is small and gnarly with a long neck, whereas the cultivated root is larger and smoother. But most consumers aren’t buying ginseng roots — they’re buying dried and ground up ginseng that comes in a bottle that tells you little or nothing about where the plant came from.

Some growers, including Eidus and other members of the N.C. Ginseng Association, grow in the forest or by simulating wild conditions without the use of chemicals. But these growers are selling their ginseng at a higher price in smaller markets, not growing quickly to sell in bulk to high-volume buyers in the U.S. or Asia. Eidus asserts that most of the ginseng grown in America, and most of what you’ll find in herbal stores — particularly large chains — is exposed to chemicals and harvested too young. “You can’t get away from that fact,” Eidus says. “There’s just a small amount of really good ginseng in the world, in my estimation.”

A desire for the more potent wild ginseng has led to the rise of poachers who take the plant from private and federal lands without permission, hoping to make a quick buck. And when money is involved, so is greed — and little incentive to leave any of the plant behind.

“The mental attitude seems to be, ‘If I don’t take it then that jerk over there is going to take it, and I’m not going to let him have it, so I’m going to take it all,’” Eidus says. Though he says many ginseng dealers have a “sixth sense” that a plant has been poached, it’s often impossible to know for sure.

“The plant is definitely endangered and going downhill,” Eidus adds. In order for a wild patch of ginseng to be considered sustainable it should have about 75 plants in it, he adds. But, “You don’t see that anywhere anymore.”

Ginseng isn’t the only plant facing limited supply and high demand. Eidus and Davis say goldenseal and lady slippers — often used in tinctures — are both highly threatened by overharvesting.

Growing solutions

So, what do you do to make sure you’re being a conscientious consumer? Davis says to start by reading the labels: Look for the USDA Organic label to know no chemicals were used in production or the Blue Ridge Naturally label to know that any wild-crafted ingredients were sourced sustainably.

But most importantly, Davis says, ask questions: Ask where the plant came from, how it was grown and what the seller is doing to prevent overharvesting.

And once you find a grower or seller you trust, be willing to pay more for their products, Davis adds. “If we want to support the farming of these plants, we need to be willing to pay a little bit more,” she says. “It’s going to cost more for someone to farm something than to go out on property they don’t own and just gather it all up.”

For those searching out these plants in the woods, local forager Michael Gentry says to take less than a quarter of what you find and remember the Rule of Three: Leave some for the wild animals, some for re-seeding and some for other foragers.

Of course, there’s another option for those who are looking for a modest supply of these plants or who are interested in preservation efforts: You could always grow your own. Many forest plants can thrive on steep slopes unsuited for other gardening, Davis points out. And Eidus adds that ginseng and goldenseal can happily grow together in a raised bed with good drainage and good shade. “It’s my answer to suburbia,” he says. “[You] don’t have to have a forest.”

Davis adds that many people in the area are inheriting land that they have no interest in farming but still hope to keep. Modest harvesting of forest plants can provide additional income to cover property taxes. And creating contracts or agreements with others who would responsibly forage on your land in exchange for caring for the property is a way to protect the plants and keep your land in good condition.

The main thing, though, is to be mindful. Whether you’re shopping at the farmers market, exploring in the woods or even beginning a construction project on your property, Eidus says to be aware of the unique and fragile nature of the plants around you.

“We have not dealt with these plants correctly,” Eidus says. “We don’t really care what’s in the forest, and that’s unfortunate because we’re losing this connection to these plants that was really strong just three or four generations ago.”

“Wild ginseng is far superior to the cultivated American or Chinese product,” exclaimed Robert Eidus. “That’s why the Chinese will buy whatever amount is shipped to them. It contains more ginsenosides, the therapeutic component that promotes overall health and relieves stress.”

Robert is passionate about the unassuming wild American plant. He grows, harvests and sells it but that’s not all. He’s a tireless promoter of ginseng as a high-value cash crop that can benefit impoverished areas in his adopted state of North Carolina. He gives generously of his time to see that Americans have access to products made from the wild native plant (Panax quinquefolius), which is more potent that the cultivated American or Asian variety (Panax ginseng).

He said, “Currently, most of the American ginseng sold in this country comes back to the U.S. from China and the cultivated products contain minimal amounts of the ginsenosides. Asia does not send back wild roots.”

We asked Robert what he meant by “high-value ginseng” and he said that the potency of roots grown in the wild makes it so. In 2012 one pound of wild American roots sold for around $800, compared to about $50 for a pound of cultivated American ginseng. The older the root, the more potent it is. Ginseng’s fragility adds to its value. Each wild plant needs to produce 100 seeds to replace one harvested plant.

Robert’s Roots

Just how did a 69-year old with a Brooklyn accent — an urban planner before moving to North Carolina and going into the real estate business — become a ginseng farmer and advocate?

“I discovered the real estate business wasn’t who I was. There was a big void in my life — a black hole.”

He became ill and credits lifestyle changes and ginseng with helping to restore his health. After attending a ginseng conference, he said, “It sounds whoo-whooish but I had a mental conversation with a ginseng plant, it was looking for someone to represent it.

He picked the brains of people he met at the conference. He talked to Gary Stancisk, a builder who was putting up a house for Robert on land he had bought — 28 acres of hardwood cove paradise, adjacent to the French Broad River in Madison County.

“Gary was growing ginseng on his property,” Robert recalled. “A week after the conference a friend and I took a walk up one of my hillsides and found some growing. We dug up a root, brought it back and I started to learn all there was about it. I didn’t know that it grew wild in North Carolina. Next, I got a ginseng dealer’s license — you have to have one if you want to trade in it. As far as I know I am the only dealer in North Carolina who does not export ginseng to Hong Kong.”

Today his Eagle Feather Farm is also the home of North Carolina Ginseng and Goldenseal Company, which sells seeds, roots, medicinal plants, trees, rhizomes, tinctures and capsules. United Plant Savers has designated the farm a Native Botanic Sanctuary. And Robert is constantly on the go teaching classes about growing medicinal herbs and promoting the ginseng industry in this country.

He was quick to admit that his success with ginseng didn’t happen overnight. “It has taken me 19 years to make a go of it. I started when I was 50 and am now 69. Fortunately, I had rental houses to carry me through. This idea of farming in the woods is finally gaining traction and I am getting better at it. I tell people, if I can grow ginseng, anyone can.”

Farming In The Forest

Robert thinks that forest farming, an aspect of permaculture that harvests wild herbs, plants and trees sustainably, is the best way to grow wild American ginseng. In the wild it grows in shaded woodlands throughout mountainous areas of the Eastern United States and Canada, flourishing on north-facing slopes under a deciduous hardwood canopy. The most potent roots come from plants grown in this environment, although plants can be grown under shade cloth.

Growing Tips

Before forest farming and harvesting ginseng, you need to know three things: It is illegal to harvest any but mature plants, which have three or four prongs, each with five leaflets on it and four buds on the neck of the root; you only harvest a plant when the berries are ripe (red); and always leave some mature plants in a ginseng patch.

The forest farming aspect begins when you start your own patch in the woods on the forest floor. “After harvesting a plant, sow the ripe berries, 1/2 to 1-inch below the soil, 2 centimeters deep, to be exact,” said Robert. “Then, be prepared to wait seven years for a plant to reach full maturity. By law, you can sell roots overseas when they are five years old but they still do not have the full range of medicinal components.”

Good Companions

Ginseng and goldenseal grow in the wild together and Robert duplicates nature in his forest beds. Other than giving the plants a little water when the soil starts to dry out and watching for fungal problems, they require little care. Goldenseal helps with internal mucous activities and is taken short-term. It also alleviates skin and eye disorders and is a good companion plant since it has anti-fungal properties that protect ginseng.

To learn more about forest farming wild ginseng, read Robert Eidus’ booklet, Growing Ginseng, and Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals by W. Scott Persons and Jeanine M. Davis. And visit Robert’s informative website, www.ncgoldenseal.com.

By Nathaniel Axtell, Times-News Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, December 9, 2012
www.blueridgenow.com

For generations, Appalachian residents have harvested ginseng roots as a source of extra income. Often, whole families would search the woods each fall for the distinctive three- or four-pronged plant and the lucrative roots lying beneath its yellow leaves.

Today, ginseng is so prized in the Orient for its medicinal properties that poaching and overharvesting of the plant by collectors threatens to wipe out wild Appalachian ginseng from North Carolina’s forests, experts say. Dried roots now sell here for $500-$600 per pound.

“I’m very concerned that we might not have ginseng in the wild in a few years,” said Jim Corbin, a plant protection specialist with the N.C. Department of Agriculture, which regulates the sale and export of ginseng.

Corbin was part of an expert panel of botanists and regulators discussing plant conservation Friday at the International American Ginseng Exposition, a conference held this weekend at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center.

Conference speakers agreed that more ginseng must be grown on private lands by forest farmers to take pressure off wild populations on federal lands, which have been hard-hit by drought, poaching and decades of intense collecting pressure.

“Getting more ginseng grown on private lands is the key to sustainability of ginseng long-term,” said Pat Ford, a botanist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

While the conference focused on numerous barriers facing ginseng cultivators, experts say high demand for wild ginseng in China and Hong Kong offers local landowners the opportunity to sustainably manage their forests while generating steady income.

“Every single year, they continue to make some kind of money off it,” said Robert Eidus, a medicinal plant dealer from Marshall who teaches courses on ginseng growing. “Where as when they cut the trees down, boom, that’s it. The key here is to diversify. If somebody does cattle, soybeans and a nice woodland lot (of ginseng), you’re talking about a nice $200,000 income.”

‘Sang gets rarer

Since the 18th century, Appalachian ginseng collectors have been exporting the plant’s root to the Orient, where Asian ginseng has been used as restorative tonic and energy booster for 5,000 years. But in recent decades, global demand has outstripped supply and intensified pressure on wild populations.

In 1997, about 6,500 pounds of dried wild ginseng root were harvested in North Carolina; in Henderson County, just 86 pounds were recorded that year by the N.C. Department of Agriculture.

By 2007, when prices hit close to $1,000 per dry pound, the statewide harvest almost doubled, to 12,799 pounds. Locally, harvests reached 216 pounds that year. Corbin said the lure of big money turned what once was a sustainable family affair, where seeds were sown and immature plants left to ripen, into a ruthless business.

“These folks we’re seeing today, they’re taking everything,” Corbin said, even baby plants whose roots aren’t five years old, as required by state law.

Ginseng reproduces by seed and usually doesn’t produce fruit until its third growing season. So harvesting a young plant before it’s able to produce seed stifles reproduction. A study of 335 likely sites along the Blue Ridge Parkway found just 47 ginseng populations, 35 percent of which had no mature plants left.

“Seventy-one percent of the populations — this just staggered me — had less than 15 plants remaining,” said conference panelist Nora Murdock, a botanist with the National Park Service. Many experts consider 30 ginseng plants the minimum number necessary to ensure the long-term survival of a population.

These ginseng patches weren’t found close to the road, or even near trails, Murdock said. And harvesting ginseng is illegal on national park lands.

“When we started this, I honestly thought when we got back to these really remote sites, we’re going find some big populations,” Murdock said. “And we’re flat not finding them.”

A four-year study in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of six ginseng populations found that most patches were so bereft of mature seed producers that they “are currently barely maintaining themselves and cannot tolerate any further harvest,” Murdock said.

On National Forest lands, where ginseng may be harvested in most areas between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 by permit, botanist Gary Kauffman said the number of permits has risen steadily over the last five years, while harvestable ginseng has become more rare.

“So I’m kind of wondering where people are getting all the plants,” he said.

‘Wild-simulated’ to the rescue?

Experts at the conference said “wild-simulated” ginseng — plants sown, lightly cultivated and sustainably harvested on long rotations in private woods — could help take pressure off wild populations.

Roots grown under such conditions typically are nearly indistinguishable from those of fully wild ginseng, and command high prices, but the practice has its challenges. Poaching of wild-simulated “crops” is widespread, growers at the conference said, and it requires ample patience and land.

“You really need this huge amount of forest because you’re doing 400 roots, 10 years old to make an average pound,” said Eidus. “And they have to be spread about three feet apart, so you need a lot of land to do it.”

The first harvest can’t occur until the seventh year, Eidus said, but when combined with other commercially valuable medicinal plants such as goldenseal, Echinacea, bloodroot and black cohosh, a forest farmer can make good money from his or her land without having to log or subdivide it.

Not all forests are suitable for growing ginseng, Eidus said. The best sites are shaded, north-facing cove forests dominated by tulip poplar, beech, and maple, not woods filled with rhododendron and mountain laurel.

Chinese consumers also need to be educated more about the value of cultivated ginseng, said Dr. Jeanine Davis, a horticulturist at the research center. Years ago, buyers were wary of cultivated goldenseal, another medicinal herb, but research proved it was just as potent and more consistent a product than wild-grown.

“We need to work with consumers to have them understand that wild-simulated is better for the environment, it’s better for the conservation of the plant and I would like to see the research that shows wild-simulated ginseng is a more consistent product,” she said.

Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.

Written by Robert Eidus, 2010 –
Marshall, NC

Part 1

I hear the President asking for ideas to increase employment in the earth-friendly areas, or green jobs. The President is also establishing The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (crfb.org) whose task is to lower America’s deficit while, lowering the unemployment and hopefully increasing green employment.

This is a daunting task to those in Washington, DC, as they work together. There are few policy makers who can see outside the industrial box. The ones with the economic support (inside the box) give corporate advice to our country with a big-corporate favoring influence.

It seems obvious to me that a way to reverse the Chinese deficit is to find something that the Chinese want and need daily. Vast numbers of Asian people from all walks of life want and use ginseng products daily. Many actually prefer wild and wild-simulated American ginseng over cultivated American ginseng. Wild-simulated ginseng as a commodity has the potential of increasing Chinese sales for this uniquely American product. These increased ginseng sales could easily offset our deficit.

The answer lies in America’s Appalachian forests (from Georgia to Maine), and not the corporate pine forests that exist today. American ginseng, a high-priced and desired product, grows naturally on the hardwood-based north-facing slopes, where most other medicinal plants flourish as well. The American ginseng plant was in abundance through much of Appalachian history, and used to be a major American export product. Men like Jacob Astor and Daniel Boone made their fortunes from Panax quinquefolium, ginseng’s Latin name.

Current policy makers might be unaware of this eco-friendly and effectively profitable solution. Also, the corporate lobby doesn’t seem to care about these earth-logical developments, even when there are new profits to be made. No one is pushing an American ginseng agenda. Though the AHPA, American Herbal Products Association, is pushing sustainable harvesting, they don’t seem to include farming in the woods.

There are no American lobbyists who have influenced this ginseng production agenda. One could ask who is benefiting from current policies. It would seem that the ginseng conglomerates in Hong Kong have quietly been involved. These ancient family businesses have been influencing ginseng worldwide to their corporate benefit.

These large ginseng family businesses have created a unique monopoly where ginseng is grown on our planet. The monopoly has two goals as I analyzed current past history. First, is to obtain as much wild/wild-simulated American ginseng for the Asian elite, never to come back into the American market. Then second is to sell inferior grade ginseng back into the American market without any American safety testing.

To influence getting the American ginseng to Hong Kong, there are myths created, one indicating that ginseng has no health benefits. This rumor has been with us for hundreds of years and many Americans have believed that ginseng has no value. This myth allows large numbers of roots to be exported each year. That is the front door.

The export trade of American ginseng from North Carolina has felony laws are being broken and not enforced by local law enforcement officials. The myth that poor, church-attending mountain folk are buying Thanksgiving and Christmas food for their table by stealing ginseng is still is believed. This is outlaw mentality with local law enforcement not seeing a crime being committed. These are two myths that help get our ginseng from North Carolina woods to Hong Kong with minimal profit for America.

There is another myth that most Americans can wake up from, which is that all ginsengs are alike. The way ginseng is grown has to be kept a secret. Right now, there is a politically-sensitive use of fungicides on industrial-grown monoculture ginseng. This degrades and pollutes the product and ground water. The forest wild-simulated ginseng doesn’t need fungicidal treatment. If the Marathon County, Wisconsin water system is tested, or the ginseng coming into the United States was tested for fungicidal residue, people would not be so quick to allow this monoculture practice to continue, let alone to use the imported polluted ginseng from Asia.

The Chinese conglomerates have branded ginseng to most Americans indicating that all ginseng are the same, which is not true. Forest-propagated ginseng has greater chances of being more potent and it is not laced with fungicidal residues. These Hong Kong ginseng global business elites have created a unique (and secretive) system to get the world’s ginseng and America’s entire wild ginseng crop at the cheapest price.

Wild-simulating helps re-propagate the species (in an eco-powerful way), it gives America a huge boost economically, and it provides an affordable clinically-proven superior product for the users of ginseng. This would also give Americans a true dose of the benefits of forest-grown American ginseng and access to this remarkable health-stimulating super-food. Ginseng farming in the woods does all this, while providing jobs that are green and healthy-employee-friendly.

The CITES Treaty (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, cites.org) (ratified by 150 countries), protects flora and fauna worldwide. American ginseng was put on the treaty as one of the first plants in the late 70’s, whereas Asian ginseng was put on the Schedule II of CITES in the late 90’s. It is safe to say that China voted against both of these plant listings. In the 1980’s, 30% of all ginseng exported was wild (W. Scott Persons, American Ginseng – Green Gold). By 1999, 3% exported was wild (according to US Fish and Wildlife Consultants Report, presented at the 2000 Louisville Ginseng Conference). Wild-simulated was not, in 1980, and still isn’t a category (by US Fish and Wildlife). The point being made that the treaty, which each country signed, was to maintain their wild population numbers. We are not living up to our treaty responsibilities.

No one with significant influence in our government (from USDA to Ag-extension) is helping the market to propagate high quality ginseng (and other medicinal plants) production. Currently, our government is regulating a vanishing commodity, instead of helping small farmers produce the high quality ginseng, and forest management jobs.

One of the reasons people are discouraged from trying to produce ginseng, is because of ginseng poaching, prevalent with no real law enforcement. Each year, as the wild crop is depleting, replenishing it takes 6.5 years to replenish with wild-simulated or wild ginseng. The US Fish & Wildlife Service has used regulations to protect exports, but little to resist the thieving. Many agricultural extension agents still have a hard time recommending this cash crop, because of theft.

However, there is still no pro-active propagation surge here in America.

The history of America shows the impediments to maintaining a business growing American ginseng throughout Appalachia are overcome with the awareness of its profitability. We know that organic forest propagation of American ginseng is a natural and profitable match. Our taxes would be best spent in a quest for a superior organic crop with minimal danger to the environment and have green jobs.

May this president and his staff see the importance of creating a viable way to lower the deficit and green work opportunities.

Part 2 is soon to come.

The Permaculture Activist (North America’s leading permaculture periodical),
www.permacultureactivist.net

Ginseng Speaks by Robert Eidus

Who will speak for the plants
The gentle flowers cloistered
In quiet meadow and lonely wood
Plants whose power is in their softness
Or in their strange difference?
Grandfather Ginseng will take the stand!
~ Lee Murray

Panax quinquefolium (American ginseng), a relative of the Chinese Panax ginseng, is a member of the Araliaceae, a family of approximately 700 plants which includes spikenard and English ivy. Though the Chinese have been using herbal medicines for approximately 5,000 years and writing down information for over 4,000 years, the earliest mention of Asian ginseng is in Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, the world’s oldest comprehensive herbal document, written about 2,000 years ago.

American ginseng, which may have been used at least as long by Native Americans, lives in the rich, shaded, and moist coves of the mountains of the eastern United States and has a range from Georgia to Maine and west into the plains. On the West Coast, wild ginseng can be found in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Like its Chinese cousin, “sang” as it’s called by the mountain folk, ginseng is a perennial herb, its stem and leaves die in winter but regrow in the spring. This shade dependent plant has a fleshy, slow-growing root and short stem, and is native to hardwood forests. It is best adapted to cool, temperate climates.

The Shapeshifter

Ginseng is magical and mysterious. Although there are general patterns of growth, sometimes it will trick you. Most perennial herbs look the same each season of their growth, but not ginseng. The first three years it changes its appearance each successive year. When the seedling first emerges, there are three small leaves (said to resemble wild strawberry) on a little stem. When it unfolds in year two, there is more growth to the central stem with two prongs, each producing three to five leaflets. In the third year, three prongs emerge from the leaf stem, each bearing a palmate cluster of five leaflets. Where the prongs are joined to the stem, white-green flowers appear which later ripen into bright red berries containing the seeds.

Ginseng is the only species I know that reveals the age of each and every plant, because when the stem falls off in the fall it leaves a scar on the neck or curl. The new bud emerges just above the old scar. Just count up the scars to determine the approximate age of the plant. Each year the plant grows, more prongs may be added. As a rule four prongs indicate a seven-year-old plant that is medicinally mature. Ginseng can continue to grow more prongs as it gets older. I remember seeing a five-prong, which is getting rare, and two of the prongs had five leaflets but two had six and one had seven.

Above the ground ginseng plants of a similar age look pretty much alike, but when you look below the surface, wild roots will vary greatly in appearance. Cultivated roots tend to be more uniform. Every now and then you can find a mature root with a human-like shape, with arms, legs, and body. These were prized by the Chinese whose ideogram for ginseng means “essence of the earth in the form of a man.”

At Home in the Woods

Ginseng needs hardwood forests to block out the sun and to provide a roof. It thrives in mixed groves of poplar, beech, maple, and dogwood. If the trees above are cut down, ginseng’s root and seeds dry out, a fatal condition. Clearcuts thus destroy habitat for this threatened species. Shade from the forest canopy keeps the soil cool, the roots stabilize the earth, and the trees provide a rich annual mulch of leaves. Herbaceous plant companions commonly found near ginseng include trillium (Trillium spp.), cohosh (Caulophyllum thalactroides -blue, Cimicifuga racemosa-black), jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema atrorubens), wild yam (Dioscorea villosa), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), and Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum).

Some of these companions help the ginseng to survive. Research by Dr. Jeanine Davis, with the North Carolina State University Agricultural Research station, has shown that goldenseal can clean up beds of ginseng infected with fungal disease. Since ginseng has a problem with fungi, goldenseal’s anti-fungal properties make it a choice and valuable companion. Many Native American tribes consider ginseng and goldenseal to be brother and sister plants because they grow well together in the wild.

The Ginseng Industry

Most Asian and American ginseng is grown in an environment that is not natural. How did this happen?

Panax ginseng has been in increasingly short supply, especially in the last four hundred years. With population growth and the steady loss of forest cover to agriculture, the governments of China, Korea, and Japan long ago took measures to ensure a supply of this precious medicine. For many years they licensed the growing of ginseng on plantations in guarded walled compounds, but only in the last century have these growing techniques been documented. Although Asian growers were successful with ginseng in a monocultural environment, very strict rules and procedures were required to achieve healthy plants.

The labor-intensive procedures developed in East Asia were largely abandoned as chemical fungicides and nasty stuff like DDT became available. Although, the worst of the chemical sprays are not used in America today, most cultivated ginseng, including woods-grown ginseng, is still heavily sprayed worldwide. Studies in recent years have shown fungicidal residues to be cumulative and toxic in cultivated roots. This discovery, along with recent EPA fines levied against Wisconsin ginseng growers who had used toxic biocides, has sounded a worldwide wake-up call to the dangers of contamination of this great plant.

At the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora (CITES), 80 countries identified American ginseng as one of the many plants that need international protection. The CITES agreements were implemented in the US in 1977 and are administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Despite rules and regulation governing the export of American ginseng, we are still losing this plant in the wild due to over-harvesting. Currently, more than 90% of the ginseng harvested in America is exported to Hong Kong and other Pacific Rim markets. With worldwide demand steadily increasing, the situation becomes ever more critical for this powerful tonic.

An Awakening

But I didn’t learn this until 1977, when, at a health conference in Hot Springs, North Carolina, I met Hawk Little John, a Cherokee medicine man, who discussed ginseng and goldenseal. His enthusiasm and respect for plants seeded in me an ever-deepening relationship to the green world.

In 1992, Dr. Jeanine Davis of the N.C. Dept. of Agriculture, organized an historic conference on ginseng, near Asheville, where I learned much about the wonderful nature of the plant and techniques for growing it. After the conference, I went back to my land in Madison County, and with the help of a knowledgeable friend, found ginseng growing. When Paul found the plant he gave a Native American war cry to the forest spirits. After praying, we harvested this root and dropped some tobacco as an offering. It was a wonderful day.

A couple of months later, I founded the North Carolina Ginseng and Goldenseal Company in Marshall, but it was not until 1995 that I left my real estate job and decided to grow and sell medicinal herbs as a full-time business. This was not an easy choice, for though I was an experienced gardener, I was still new to forest farming and botany. But following a weeklong illness I reappraised my life and saw that selling real estate was not something I did very well. The ginseng plants spoke to me during that feverish time and asked me to help them survive. Definitely a favor worth returning.

I agreed with the plants to become a role model for the new wave of ginseng farmers.

I soon found myself trying to convince others to attempt farming in the woods. Unexpectedly, my New York accent and urban background turned out to be a big plus. If I could learn to grow high quality ginseng there was no reason others couldn’t also be successful medicinal herb farmers.

As I became a spokesperson for the plants, I knew that the plants, especially ginseng and goldenseal, would do their part to help me to the next level. An unexpected assist came in the form of a request from the owner of New Frontiers magazine to review Eliot Cowan’s Plant Spirit Medicine. I loved the book and gave it an enthusiastic review. By learning about the spirit world of plants, I came to realize that I could communicate with them and that I had a special ally in ginseng. My heart had no problem understanding this psychic relationship. My body followed.

Thus, the North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Co. was born with the primary goals of actively re-seeding both plants in the wild and encouraging their organic cultivation in the woods. In the last five years we have laid a strong foundation for both aspects of this work. In that time the United Plant Savers, a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing endangered populations of wild botanicals, was founded, and the land I steward, Eagle Feather Organic Farm, became a U.P.S. Native Botanical Sanctuary. At the same time research into organic methods of cultivating ginseng has given us some important tools. Following Dr. Davis’ work, we’ve learned to spray extracts of goldenseal on the ginseng beds to control soil-borne funguses in the fall. And now a group of people are conducting research into the use of horsetail (Equisetum arvense), another native plant, as a spray to curb airborne fungus in the spring.

A Growing Challenge

In some ways, however, the situation for ginseng is getting worse. Though more information is available today and interest in growing and in conservation is high, the harvest of ginseng is increasing. Last year 11,000 pounds were legally exported to Hong Kong from North Carolina. This is 2,000 pounds more than the year before. Five and a half tons may not seem like much until you consider that it takes approximately 400 dried ginseng roots to make a pound. That would mean that over four million roots were harvested in 1999. During the same year I sold 21 pounds of ginseng seed to Madison County Extension Service. That seed was divided and sold by the ounce to local farmers. If all the plants come up, (350 seeds to an ounce), that would be about 500,000 first-year plants, nowhere close to replacing all the plants taken in the North Carolina mountains. There are only a few of us selling ginseng seed in this region, and only one other Extension office, in Yancey County, is offering this program to area landowners. That leaves 31 other mountain county Extension offices pushing Xmas trees, blueberries, strawberries, or other non-herbal commodities.

You do not have to be a genius to realize that the plants are losing the battle for survival. The two-leggeds must rally round these beneficent plant alies and help save them from greed and extinction.

Robert Eidus grows ginseng near Marshall, NC. Contact him at eidusbiz@gmail.com