Spring
Spraying And
Late Season Weather
This season's cold and late spring could cause some problems, the cold
weather has a tendency to retard germination and plant development. Your seeds and
your plants may be up as much as two weeks late this year due to the cold weather.
This should not be a problem unless you are in an area with an extremely short growing
season.
When spraying for Alternaria Blight in seedling beds, it is
very important to spray lightly and about once a week for the first three weeks while
these plants are coming up. Ginseng is usually one of the first things up in the
woods and the Alternaria Blight comes on with it. That makes ginseng the only source
of food and therefore receptive to Alternaria Blight, if we don't spray the young plants
as they are coming up they will be gone overnight. After the first month you only
spray about every three weeks.
In regards to pesticides, I realize that Manzate 200 DF is
very expensive ($150 per 50 pound bag), but this is the only thing that I really trust to
do the job. Another option you can pursue is to use what they use in your
region for potatoes, usually what works for potatoes will work for ginseng. This
subject is covered in more detail in my book "Ginseng Grower's Guide".
I have several growers who are a little hungry this spring,
due to cash flow problems. This is an opportunity for you to purchase some top
quality seeds now at a reasonable price, in 50# blocks. They are still in the
stratifying pit, naturally, and could be taken out and sent to you. Then you could
put them right back into a stratifying pit and have them for this fall's planting. I
could have them sent to me and I could put them into a stratifying pit here at my place
and then ship when you are ready to plant.
A book mark on our web site www.ginseng-seed.com might be a thought. It
is the object of the site to be a living page. As the seasons change the page will
change too. In closing, if you might be interested in becoming a commercial grower
or seed distributor, give me a call at 517-787-6044. As soon as spring planting is
over I would like to do some traveling and meet some of you people in person.
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