Growing ginseng is not easy task, plus the fact that it takes a lot of time. What it also requires is a lot of patience. Ginseng will take anything from between 2 to 10 years to grow into the desired maturity level. But if you are satisfied user of it and/or you would like to grow your own ginseng, it might be a nice idea to try growing it. What could be more satisfying than eating your self grown fresh ginseng.
It could also provide you with a nice extra income if you would like to sell the roots. The current price for dry ginseng root varies between 800 to 1000 dollars.
And the good thing is that the seeds are really inexpensive so money should not be a problem when starting to be a ginseng farmer.
So, how to actually grow ginseng?
Its better to start off the growing process by buying stratified ginseng seed. This is the easiest and fastest way to start growing with seeds. Faster way would be buying the roots and planting them but they tend to be really expensive compared to the seeds.
Plant the seeds ¼ to half inch deep into a shallow container. Around 4inches deep container will do fine. Cover the container lightly with soil and water it a bit to make it moist. It can take anything between 19 to 24 months before the ginseng will sprout out. When the ginseng has reached around 8inches height, then it needs to be transplanted into a deeper pot. At this point you need a deep pot to give the plant enough space to grow well.
Get some wood chips and place them at the bottom of the pot. Around 4inch would be ideal. Then add some good plant soil. If the pot you are using is more than 12inches deep, you do not need the chips. You can just fill it with high quality soil and thats it.
Placement of the pots is really important. Place those in location where the plants will catch partial sun. Morning sun is ideal. This plant is really picky when it comes to the right amount of sunlight.
During the wintertime its good idea to move the pots into the garage.
Ginseng do not need huge amounts of water. Actually too much watering could turn the roots rotten, thats not what we are chasing after so remember to water the plants with care. Ideally ginseng needs watering in every 2 or 3days. Keep in mind not to over water them. This is really important.
When the plant is growing up, remember to trim the lower level leaves which are closest to the soil level. This will maintain faster growing and make the plant to grow a lot bigger.
When the plants are around 3years old, they are going to produce red berries, each of the berry contain two seeds. Be sure to collect the seeds and plant them to keep a continuous supply of ginseng. It is common that the ginseng farmers will remove the flowers and seeds to improve root growing faster. Red berries are edible. Some make delicious juice out of those berries.
The ginseng roots are ready to be dug out after 2years. But if you are chasing for the best results, roots of age 6years or older would be the best ones.
After you have dug them up, clean the black outside cover with running water. Boil with few ginger slides and also pour in some honey.
Rinse and repeat once in every 2weeks, or just once a month. Best idea would be eating them at the morning time since the huge amounts of energy included in ginseng might make you have some problems catching the sleep if taken later the day.
Be sure to watch out your ginseng plants carefully. The plant is really desired and valuable so some areas are known to have problems with thieves.
