by By W. Scott Persons and Jeanine M. Davis
Bright Mountain Books, 2005
For many of us who have considered, tried, succeeded, or failed in growing ginseng, help is here in W. Scott Persons’s updated Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals. Written with Jeanine M. Davis, this compendium of practical advice on how to cultivate and market woodland medicinals is just what might get more people involved in digging and planting.
Persons has grown ginseng for a living for nearly 30 years right outside his front door in western North Carolina. His 1994 book on ginseng cultivation has been one of the best resources for the woodland ginseng grower available. In this new book, he presents updated information on cultivation as well as the history of global ginseng trade from ancient times to North American Colonial times and on to the present. A fact that has not made its way into standard textbooks, for example, is the role ginseng trade played in Colonial economics as one of the two major exports, the other being raw furs. Wild ginseng played a critical role by providing many pioneer homesteaders with cash they needed until their first crops came in. The fortune of John Jacob Astor is said to have begun with ginseng trade to China. Even Daniel Boone traded in ginseng.
Early chapters provide ginseng’s botany, life cycle, habitat requirements, and range, presented so that the reader may easily compare these with a specific site under consideration. The author then covers three basic methods of growing ginseng, along with tables of production budgets for each. He covers the harvesting and processing of roots and seeds and the important business decisions you will need to make if you plan to sell your crop. A timetable of what to do when is spiced up with details accrued from years of experience. Pages of resources, including plant stock suppliers and websites, are most valuable, and photographs, illustrations, graphs, and tables abound.
While the harvest of wild ginseng was a booming business that has severely depleted wild stands, today most of the world’s ginseng is grown in cleared fields under artificial shade. Persons lays out this method in detail, including specifications for several types of lathe structures, plus planting and culture points. He also spells out two other methods. “Wild Simulated” planting calls for seeds to be planted in existing woods and left to grow naturally. In this method, choosing the site is crucial. In addition to the ideal slope and orientation, the author lists plants that enjoy the same conditions as ginseng, so that you can be more certain ginseng will thrive there if you find the companions in your forest.
Studies seem to show that ginseng thrives best in soils rich in calcium. Northern growers with stands of sugar maples can expect good levels of calcium in the soils. The author quotes Robert Beyfuss, the Cornell Cooperative Extension Agent for Greene County, New York: “Sugar maple trees accumulate calcium in their leaves. They use their leaves as biological “sinks.” All trees use their leaves as biological sinks during the growing season, but most trees suck their nutrients out before the leaves drop, particularly oak trees. Sugar maples, however, do not do that. Sugar maples concentrate calcium in the leaf tissue, and when they drop those leaves there’s a tremendous storage of calcium right in that leaf litter….” This is good news for many northern woodland owners interested in ginseng.
The third method is “Woods Cultivation,” in which land is cleared within the woods to accommodate beds for planting. Again, the steps are laid out, including tables to determine the potential of a particular site.
Persons winds up his discussion with pages on diseases, pests, and poachers before sailing into rich and lengthy interviews with two ginseng growers – one in North Carolina and the other a pioneer grower in Australia.
Jeanine Davis wrote the second half of this book, sharing her 20 years of experience studying and growing woodland medicinals, noting the call for these is on the rise. Goldenseal, wild leeks, and 11 other woodland plants are presented with cultural requirements and marketing potential. Like Persons, she gives entertaining stories of individuals growing these plants for sale.
At first glance I thought advice from two North Carolinians could be off the mark for northern growers, but the material is offered with such ample data as to be useful indeed. Inspiring, too.