Finding wild ginseng roots for transplanting

A popular alternative to buying stratified ginseng seeds or rootlets to plant in your ginseng patch is to simply find and harvest roots in the wild. When you harvest wild ginseng roots, there are no laws that say you must sell it. Instead, you can transplant them into your own patch! The advantages of this approach are:

1 - The ginseng roots you find and harvest are virtually free (you typically pay only for the gasoline required to get you to the wooded area where you plan to search for wild ginseng).

2 - The regulations for harvesting wild ginseng in most states require that you dig only mature roots (plants with a minimum of three "prongs' of five leaves - refer to your own state's regulations for harvesting wild ginseng to be sure). This means that your ginseng crop will be ready for harvesting in a much shorter period of time than if you had planted seeds or purchased rootlets.

3 - You can begin harvesting your own ginseng seeds in the fall after your transplanted roots first come up.

Of course there is a downside to starting your ginseng crop with roots harvested from the wild as well: It will usually take you several ginseng harvesting seasons before you have enough roots in your patch to make a decent size crop. Therefore, starting a ginseng patch with wild roots is a viable alternative only for those who are in no particular hurry to harvest and sell their crops.

If you wish to harvest wild ginseng roots from the woods to plant in your own patch, you'll find details on where to find them and how to spot them on the page entitled The joys of 'seng hunting.