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How To Grow
Genetically |
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"Glacial Gold"™
Ginseng Seeds |
Ginsenoside Levels: The Herbal
Industry has been making great strides in the area of self regulation and product
information. As I have many times mentioned, the difference in the Ginsenoside
levels of field cultivated roots versus woods grown roots is very important. Up
until now, we have had no where to really send our roots or other ginseng products to have
them tested. A company in California sent us a card and advised us that they
provided this type of service. We have called them, talked with them personally,
they know their business, they can analyze our roots, and virtually, any other herbal
medicine products. You might want to take a look at their web site: www.phytoanalytics.com The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers are going to be putting the active
ingredients and present levels that they contain on their labels. They won't be buying
ginseng roots with a 4% Ginsenoside levels . Our plants will produce a much higher level,
therefore making "Glacial Gold" Ginseng Seeds the very BEST in the world.
Let's start with growing "Glacial Gold" ginseng seeds out in the woods. Hardwood forests are the very best. Ginseng doesn't like pine and will not do well. It does like poplar. It does well on sandy loam soils. It likes cold weather, leastwise you have to keep it cool through the summer. If you are going to grow it in the woods, get over on the east side of your woods and pick your best site. Put in a good crossbred seed from two different patches. Work with about five pounds of seed to start. You can grow your own seed crops in four years. Seeds are easier to get started than rootlets. Whatever condition you are growing in, rootlets are more expensive than seeds, but you are almost into the instant seed business if you start with three or four year old rootlets. You need a plan, you need to study what you are doing, you need to do market research. It is hard to control the light in the woods, but the soil is super soil. It has never been tilled and has all the nutrients from the decaying leaves that have been accumulating there for thousands of years.
Ginseng is a unisexual plant that can have 2 to 3 seeds in a single pod, all three can have different fathers and yet the genetic pattern of all the seeds are being taken up and become a part of the genetic pattern of the plant itself. The first generation seeds are really good, and by the time you’ve reached the fourth generation, your weaker seeds have died back, and your stronger strain seeds, the more natural type plants, have come forward. You should wind up in four years time with almost 100% yield and maybe plus.
We don’t know where all this plant will grow. We know it’s basically a colder weather, higher climate type plant, and it likes mineralized soils, such as we find on the ancient glacial deposits here in southern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, on into Minnesota. Similar soils are into the Carolinas and mountainous regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. What the Ginsenosides level of these plants will be we don’t yet know. We encourage feedback from all our growers. We need commercial growers out here that have the appropriate suitable sites. If you think your site is suitable, send us up a picture or two. We’ll e-mail you back an opinion.
You are going to be seeing tremendous demand for these genetically crossbred ginseng seeds. You can figure a yield at almost ten to one. If you plant fifty pounds of seed, in about four years, (you will start seeing seeds in about three years and reach full production in four years) you will have about 500 pounds of seeds to sell. These will be super ginseng seeds. You can sell them to your neighbors, or any of the major ginseng growing companies. They would just love to get them. You can take them out and plant them in the woods. If you don't have a woods, you might lease one.
The real super seeds and roots will come from the woods. You definitely need to work with reputable people when it comes to harvesting timber or ginseng from the woods. Timber harvesting gives you light management and you need forest consultants who understand that you are trying to blend growing timber and growing ginseng. All of the plantations that I have worked with involved using the Stewardship Incentive Program as a guideline. Ginseng is registered as Crop Number 70. There used to be federal money available but... it is an excellent outline, and is available through the Soil Conservation Service or the Dept. of Agriculture, on a local level. It gives you a real good way to approach managing your property. It does not require filing into programs or obligations about anything. You can make your own decisions. It is an excellent guideline to go by and We highly recommend it. Ginseng or forestry, get advice from some knowledgeable people. We realize that people would like to do everything their own self, but this is a primary capital investment. If you are going to do anything on any kind of a plane that is economically feasible, ask the professionals. Work with the local Soil Conservation Service, they can put you in touch with all kind of consultants. These are not the programs of the 70's with all kinds of rules and regulations. We need good, sensible land management. The idea of growing anything except genetically crossbred ginseng seeds as a commercial operation on a small scale is a losing proposition. Seeds, other than the crossbred, have become virtually dormant. Cross breeding is the only way to snap them back to life. If you will take "Glacial Gold" ginseng seeds and put them out in the woods, the mineralization in that soil will bring these plants back to life, especially on these glacial soils of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio. Then they will grow at a good pace and absorb the minerals that create the good Ginsenosides levels. The Ginsenosides level is what the consumers and the Chinese have valued so highly about this plant for thousands of years. Purchasing single strain seeds only compounds the problem. If you are out to buy seeds, We recommend you start with fifty pounds, this will go nicely on 5 acres of ground. To buy anything other than crossbred seeds to start with is defeating the whole purpose of trying to grow a good quality product. You want ginseng roots that will sell in the $300 (US) to $500 (US) a pound bracket. You have to have good seeds to start. That stuff that they are growing nowadays for a commercial roots brings $18 (US) a pound. They're left over from last year. It is just not the quality product that true ginseng people are looking for. If you want to be in the "Glacial Gold" ginseng seed business next fall, buy dual-strain four year old rootlets (when available). If these rootlets are put into a good woodlot for another four or five years you will get some good genetically crossbred ginseng seed crops and have roots with a very high Ginsenosides level. There will always be a market for good quality forest grown "Glacial Gold" ginseng seeds and roots.
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Aug. 10 1999 Dear Michael Hunter, Sincerely, |
 1998 1 year old Ginseng Plants. Above ground Cedar Box. |
 1999, 13 year old Ginseng Plants. Your seeds will be planted, for cross breeding, next to them. James |
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Here's some pictures of some nice looking, Fresh
Picked, "Glacial
Gold"™
Ginseng "SPRING PLANTING TIP'S" Plant early, especially the further North you are. This
gives the seeds a chance to become climatically adapted to the environment that they are
being planted in. This also gives the seeds a chance to be absorbing the nutrients
from the soil that they are going to be raised in. When purchasing your seeds, be
especially wary of seeds with dried out hulls. The embryos may be alive, but your
germination factor will be greatly reduced. Naturally all of our seeds are
float tested and decontaminated before shipment. Quality must be number one.
Our future markets are going to demand it. "Three"
Year Old Woods Grown "Wild
Simulated" Ginseng Rootlets.
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