Ginseng: Green Gold

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Leaf litter is an excellent mulch, but-in my experience-a bark/sawdust mixture from oak or poplar will promote healthy growth better than any other medium. Then too, many growers use hay or straw (probably because those materials are readily available). Whatever you cover your own plants with, check the beds regularly during the cold months to make sure the wind hasn't created bare spots . . . particularly if you haven't laid down a protective layer of mulch-holding brush.

CARE OF THE GROWING PLANTS

Maintaining a ginseng patch requires less ongoing care than does a vegetable garden of comparable size . . . but, of course, it does place some demands on the grower. First-year plants are especially vulnerable to stress, so they'll need to be watched closely and weeded scrupulously. Mature, well-established specimens that were planted thinly require little attention beyond a weekly inspection. If a problem does occur, the worst that usually happens is that a few tops are killed, so that the afflicted plants' root growth and seed production stop for the summer. Never fear: Next spring, new tops will appear.

If, however, your crop is thickly sown, you'd be wise to check even mature plants every other day, quickly removing the tops of diseased stock before trouble can spread. Of the several maladies that sometimes attack ginseng, the most dire is Alternaria (stem and leaf) blight. Many large commercial growers carry out a weekly preventive spraying program against it, beginning as soon as the leaves unfurl in spring . . . using a manebtype fungicide.

To avoid blights without having to employ a fungicide, you must plant sparsely, making sure that there's good air circulation over your beds, and-after the tops die down in autumn - removing all the litter and mulch. (If normal leaf fall is insufficient to re-cover the patch, you'll have to mulch again with material from another area.)

Should a disease problem arise that's not familiar to you, consult your county agricultural extension agent immediately.

PEST CONTROL

I've never had my own crop threatened by a severe infestation of insects or rodents, but I know of at least one grower who's had a serious problem with an unidentified species of burrowing animal . . . so be forewarned that you could have "critter trouble". In addition, slugs and snails may eat the leaves during damp weather if they aren't controlled.

Actually, all manner of furry creatures will roam through your ginseng beds . . . without doing much damage. One summer, a zoology student asked to live trap my patch, and he caught moles, voles, shrews, gray and red squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and a lone possum. None of these trespassers seems to rate the pungent root very high on its list of preferred foods, although I suspect that animals consider the berries to be a bit of a forest delicacy. (Hence, I always pick the seed filled fruit as soon as it ripens.)

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