For information on Identifying Ginseng, please Click Here

American Ginseng (Panax Quinquefolius) is a fleshy root perennial. Stems and leaves die in winter but regrow in the spring. It is a shade requiring plant, native to north-facing slopes in hardwood forests and best adapted to cool, temperate climates. It grows naturally in the western mountains and foothills of North Carolina. This plant has a short, legal harvest season between September 1 and the first frost.

Organic Wild vs. Chemically Cultivated

The vast majority of ginseng in the world has been sprayed with chemicals, especially fungicides. Some ginseng plants are also sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. There is a sacred relationship between the earth, air, and water allowing ginseng to grow. To grow “wild” the plants are traditionally found in hardwood forests under a canopy of tall dense deciduous trees. Usually the slope is facing North, rich in humus soil, and surrounded by companion plants.

Since ginseng is a root, it absorbs the natural minerals from the soil. Research has indicated that it may not be possible to regrow a root in the same exact spot for many years, since it depletes the soil. New research into natural herbal fungicides is being conducted at Eagle Feather Farm.

The ginseng that is cultivated can be farmed in raised beds, like in Wisconsin, or in “woodsgrown” beds, like in the mountain and foothill forests of the East Coast of America. What occurs when large numbers of ginseng plants are grown in close proximity is that a fungus appears, every time.

As the fungus moves in the beds it creates a circle and in a short period of time destroys the entire bed. A typical bed can have thousands of plants and be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

As far as we know the only way to eliminate the fungus is to spray the plants. The fungicide, pesticide or herbicide is then absorbed into the root. It is not known if the chemicals are toxic.

The two types of ginseng are different in the following ways: the wild organic root is knarled, ringed with wrinkles, small, light weight and has a bitter woodsy taste. The cultivated root is larger, heavier, smoother, tastes sweeter and smells different. The 1994 price on the world market for dried roots were ninety (90) percent more for the wild organic roots.

Studies in 1986 show that 94% of the organic wild American Ginseng is purchased by the Chinese in the Pacific Rim. The Orient, mostly from Hong Kong, sells the most chemicalized ginseng back to us for American consumption. This not to say that fungicided ginseng does not have ginsenicides, it does. However it would also include chemicals with possible toxin build up in the body which most people would not want to ingest. Unfortunately, the ginseng industry does not tell you the negative effects of its products.

Growing Ginseng

• Please see our page on growing ginseng and goldenseal.
• Soil mixture requirements

Harvesting Ginseng

• “Dig” only AFTER the plant’s red berries (seeds) have dropped or were harvested, in the legal season.
• Harvest in the Native American tradition with prayers and rituals including “smudging” and tobacco offerings.
• Never strip a digging area or harvest the first plants.
• Leave smaller plants for the “seventh generation” by harvesting only roots that are over seven years old, with most plants being between ten and twenty-five years old.
• After harvesting, the “green” roots are carefully washed and air dried under controlled shade conditions. The process of drying takes over one month. Do not quickly dry the roots using a dehydrator, heat, or sun drying as this could affect the potency and will make the roots brittle. After the roots are dried, the individual roots are packaged or they are processed for tinctures, capsules or powder.

Download a Good Stewardship Harvest Brochure for Wild American Ginseng (click on your state). The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) has produced a series of brochures to encourage good stewardship practices by those who harvest wild American ginseng roots.

For Ginseng Export Requirements, Click Here

The Ginseng Harvest In Madison County >> (newspaper article)

Ginseng is very susceptible to fungus and as a result, it is sprayed with a variety of fungicides to reduce the chances of the plant building up a tolerance to just one chemical. Consumed as a holistic herb taken for general well-being, the residue of fungicides on the root is considered a harmful additive which detracts from its healing properties.

Robert Eidus, owner of Eagle Feather Organic Farm, explains how ginseng is not regulated for the presence of fungicides and as a result, much of the ginseng that is sold for public consumption is tainted with harmful chemicals. There is an alternative form of ginseng and that is in a wild-grown or wild-simulated root without the use of fungicides. Robert explains the organic method he uses to ‘immunize’ ginseng against the soil-born fungus.

By steeping goldenseal roots and rhizomes in hot water, he makes a concentrated tea that he uses to wash the soil in the raised beds. Once the soil has been washed with the antibacterial and antimicrobial properties of goldenseal, the ginseng seeds are then planted. To combat air-born fungus, Robert sprays the ginseng seedlings with horsetail. After it rains, a new coating of horsetail spray should be applied. While this method may be more feasible for smaller patches of ginseng, growing ginseng and goldenseal together may help reduce the spread of fungus such as phytophthora.

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

New York city grown, Organic American Ginseng
July 18, 2013.

“I gave no shade, no pesticide and no chemical fertilizer…just water. This year I add worm casting from my worm farm. By adding it, some of the ginseng prong had 7 leaves, which is unheard of. I read somewhere that the maximum of leaves per prong is 6. I bought my seed from Robert Eidus, North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Co.”

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

Reported in New Life Journal,
Healing & Whole Foods News & Information in the Appalachians
www.newlifejournal.com

This is a revolutionary concept: to farm in the woods, without chemicals and without tractors. It recognizes that the last great hidden resource is our north-facing slope in our hardwood mountains. The lumber industry would like us to think that the only use and income for landowners for these magical, deep hardwood coves is to cut the timber every third generation. This myth is with us today.

The other myth is that wildcrafting ginseng brings easy money and big rewards. All you have to do is ask a ‘sang hunter how long it took to get over 400 roots to make a pound in the year 2000, and you will find that the wild ginseng is disappearing fast. Wildcrafting also includes knowing how to dig the ginseng correctly, clean it right and dry it properly. Both current day logging practices and wildcrafting are not sustainable in the new millennium. Chemical cultivation of ginseng in mono-cultured plots, either under shade cloth or in the woods, is not sustainable either, in my opinion.

Cultivation to me means spraying the ginseng with fungicides. This is not a healthy method, as the ginseng root absorbs the chemical where it becomes a residue. According to Bob Beyfuss, NY State Ginseng Specialist, “Ginseng worldwide is the most heavily sprayed plant on the planet, next to cotton.” I would add to the statement, “We do not eat cotton.” The fact is that heavily sprayed cultivated ginseng nets $18 per pound, while wild, chemical-free ginseng in the year 2000-2001 is fetching $350 to $380 a pound.

Examining Your Property.

Let’s take a look at what prerequisites you need to grow ginseng. Consider first the habitat for American ginseng. If your property has the following attributes, you should seriously consider growing native medicinal herbs. This could lead you not only to saving endangered plants, but also to making a profit from your effort. Ginseng and its friends live best in moist, dark, hardwood coves. A northern or eastern exposure is best for growing because it reduces summer heat and maintains moisture. The ginseng seed, unlike other seeds, cannot dry out, or it will die. On the north-facing slope, there are two main ecosystems to note.

The first is the rhododendron, mountain laurel and hemlock community with their plant companions, pipsissewa, galax, and wintergreen. The rhododendron and mountain laurel have a toxic leaf which causes problems by eliminating many other plants, including ginseng. So you do not want to plant down the hill from this acid-loving community. Plant above these trees.

The other hardwood community to look for and plant in is the poplar, beech, maple, dogwood, oak community with many companion plants, like trillium, cohosh, jack-in-the-pulpit, solomon seal, goldenseal, and bloodroot, to name a few. Ginseng studies show a good growing habitat in a pH that is 5.5 to 6.0. Tests in New York have shown that calcium is beneficial for ginseng growth and that maple trees can give off calcium. While maple trees may be good for ginseng growth, they are not beneficial for goldenseal. The maple tree roots which are close to the surface compete for nutrients and space with goldenseal, but not ginseng which has a tap root.

Checking Soil Requirements.

Ginseng requires a well-drained soil, which means a steep to moderate slope. Too much standing water will generate diseases and cause the roots to rot. Creating terraces by taking downed lumber and putting it on the up-hill side will create a flatter area to plant but will not cause the water to stand. These terraces are desirable for keeping the soil from eroding. One of the most important elements for good ginseng growth is the soil. Soil testing is essential. I consider myself a convert of Dr. Elaine Ingham from Oregon State University, author of the “Soil Foods Web” concept. To simplify here, soil in the woods and soil in the sun garden are different. Woods-soil is made at my farm from 75% bark mulch that has been composted and 25% veggie compost (which can also be horse, chicken, turkey manure or worm castings). I would like to use hardwood mulch but pine bark mulched compost is all I can get. This will give you a dark, moist medium in which to plant the seeds or roots.

Planting.

Ginseng is planted from seeds and roots in the spring or fall of the year. September through October is the best time to plant, just before the leaves come down. Density of planting is very important. There needs to be space enough to ensure airflow, to reduce competition for moisture, nutrients and sunlight, and to help control the spread of disease. A minimum of 1 1/2 feet between plants is needed, and three to five feet is recommended, in a mixed bed with other companion plants and ferns. Broadcasting seeds usually have lower germination rates since the seeds tend to dry out. Some people rake, broadcast and cover. However, this usually is in a mono-cultured area and will require chemical spraying for the minimum seven to ten year growth period or thinning the bed in the spring.

For best planting success, consider planting in the third quarter of the moon in the signs of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces, with Cancer being the strongest sign. The next best signs to use are Taurus or Capricorn. The University of West Virginia has studied ginseng seed planting depth, and they have concluded it is optimum at two centimeters, which is between 1/2 inch and 3/4 of an inch. Roots planted in the fall should have the bud just below the surface of the earth. Transplanting roots is best in the early spring. The summer is never a good time to move or harvest ginseng.

Mulching.

Mulching is a very important step which provides protection for the plants. Leaves normally provide enough mulch naturally where moisture will be retained for a longer period of time and the temperature of the soil will remain cool. In addition, since mulch is constantly decaying, it leaves a natural fertilizer in the soil. If you are planting in the spring or after the leaves fall in the autumn, mulching should be applied to the beds immediately after planting.

Pest Control.

The best way to control pests and disease is through growing healthy plants. Healthy plants need great soil. Much of the topsoil in the mountains is at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Plant diseases caused by fungi are one of the primary limitations to ginseng production. The fungi are borne by soil, air, and water. Today’s prevention is by spacing and proper drainage. New studies indicate that sprays made from either Horsetail in the spring or Goldenseal in the fall can help with fungal problems. In certain areas deer, wild turkey, livestock, ground squirrels, squirrels,voles, mice, and slugs can be a problem. However, all of these have management solutions.

Robert Eidus runs the North Carolina Ginseng and Goldenseal Company in Marshall, NC.
Contact him at 828-649-3536.

A recent report ranked Madison County number two in North Carolina, behind Jackson, for, pounds of wild ginseng harvested annually, according to Ross Young, extension agent for agriculture.

In 1997, America exported two million ponds of cultivated ginseng root and 110,000 pounds of wild root to Asian countries.

The beginning harvesting date of September 1 has been in effect for several years, Young said. However, a new regulation has placed an export restriction on any wild ginseng less than five years. old.

The age of a ginseng root can be determined by counting the bud scale scars at the top of the root. There is one bud scar for each year. By all means do not dig a plant that has not produced a seed pot, Young stated.

Ginseng is a medicinal Herb native to our mountains. The roots of this perennial plant has been dug for decades and sold to China and other south Asian countries where it’s used as a major component of herbal medicines.

The life cycle of ginseng plant begins as a seed. A germinated ginseng seed wil produce a small, three leafed plant the first year. The plant dies down over winter and resprouts the next spring with five leaves.

The following years the plant begins to “fork,” producing a “two-prong,” “three-prong,” and eventually a “four-prong” ginseng plant.

It is not until around the 5th year that the plant is mature enough to produce seeds. This is where The. new regulation comes in to play, explained the extension agent. Over the years there has been significant decline in wild ginseng populations, he said.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service believes that a contribution factor to the decline is harvesting of plants that have not had the opportunity to produce seed.

There are two ways this can happen, Young said. One is harvesting ginseng before Sept. 1 (the first legal day of harvest), and the other is harvesting plants that are less than five years, having never produced seed.