Opening Day of Kentucky Ginseng Season Changed

The opening day for digging wild ginseng in Kentucky has been moved back from August 15th to September 1st. Ginseng dealers will be allowed to buy green ginseng starting Sept. 1st and dry ginseng Sept. 15th. This puts Kentucky more in line with other surrounding states. There are still many green berries that haven't fully matured on the plants in mid to late August. Very few berries would be red on the old opening day. While this will shorten the digging season, it should help the ginseng population. Less plants will be dug and more mature berries will be returned to the soil. One would think that it will also increase the price a bit since less will be dug.

Make $30+ an Hour Digging Ginseng

Find out how to earn up to $30+ an hour digging ginseng. This new guide explains it all. It is full of top notch information you simply will not find anywhere else. It doesn't matter what level of ginseng hunting experience you have, this guide will help you find even more ginseng guaranteed. Click below to see it.

Ginseng Guide

Ginseng Secrets Exposed

I've titled the new guide "Ginseng Secrets Exposed". It is officially finished and up for sale on the new website Ginseng Secrets Exposed.

It is 10 chapters and almost 50 pages of great information. I can guarantee that these techniques will help everyone find more ginseng. I really believe the guide is that good. Anyway, if you want to see what it is about just go to the website and check it out. Lot more details there. Also, you can download the first chapter for free if you want. When you go to leave a popup should appear, just enter your name and email and you can download the first chapter. The first chapter is mainly just for beginners and novices to ginseng hunting, though. BTW I know popups are annoying, but I chose this one because you don't even have to close it or anything. When you go to click "back" on your browser it pops up, but if you go ahead and click back or home or whatever it goes on to your homepage or whatever and the popup disappears.

BTW I'm only going to be selling the ginseng guide this cheap until around July 1st. I'll be raising the price then because of its value and the approaching ginseng season. It will still be a bargain then but it is an absolute steal right now.

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Ginseng Guide Complete

I am excited. I have just finished writing a (Secrets to Finding More Ginseng) guide, complete with photos and screenshots, and converted it into PDF file. I believe it is a very high quality product full of information that is not available anywhere else online or offline for that matter. I have to build a website for it, but I hope to have it available for sale very soon.

Sold My Ginseng Roots for 2008

Sold my roots the other day at $410 a pound dry. I found some more the last few days and just went ahead and sold it as green while I was at the dealers anyway. I made well over $30 an hour this year again.

I'm thinking about putting together a guide of some of the techniques I've been developing to find more ginseng. The ones I've came up with have easily doubled the amount of ginseng I've found this year. The one I mentioned a few weeks ago enabled me to find a LOT more that I would have never found without the idea I came up with. Some of the other techniques enabled me to dig twice as many roots as the people I dug with even though they spotted about the same amount of plants. One of them joked that I should write a book and sell it, which got me to thinking. If I can help other people find 25-100% more ginseng, then it would be well worth the price for the information.
So, I'm going to put together a guide and if I think the final work is high quality, I will offer it for sale on the internet.

Still Finding lots of Ginseng

This new technique is really working wonders for me. I'm finding ginseng at every new location I've chosen so far except for one and it was full of yellow root (goldenseal). Most of the ginseng I'm finding now is yellow and wilted over or layed down. I've got several pounds dry now, though. Last price quote I got was almost $400 a pound.

Found a New Ginseng Hotspot!

Haven't updated in awhile. The prices here are slowing climbing toward $400. Seems a lot of the dealers got stuck with some of the ginseng they paid $800 a pound for last year and demand is still down while the supply is higher. Still the price is climbing as I imagine a lot of people are holding out for better prices and it is still early.

Oh yeah the spot I found. I've been perfecting a new technique of locating new places to look for ginseng. Anyway, on my last attempt it put me into a location where I found and dug a little bit over 3 green pounds in less than 4 hours. A great find! Probably one of the most concentrated patches I have ever found as it was a fairly small section of a hollow that it was all growing in. Really big and healthy plants too. The soil was very rich and loose and deep. The digging was easy except for all the weeds and bushes and small trees. It was a great place and great soil for everything to grow I guess.

Quick Update on the Prices

It appears the price is going to open a little lower than I had imagined. A lot of people are going to be disappointed with the prices after all the crazy rumors of prices of $1000+ a pound that were going around. I was guessing it would be between $400 and $500 but it looks like it will open at around $350 or $375. That is for here in Kentucky.

I found another 2 or 3 pounds green last weekend. Really wish I didn't have to work during the week. Also wish we would get some cooler weather so I wouldn't mind staying out longer.

Dug My First Ginseng of 2008

I went 2 out of 3 days over the weekend and found quite a few roots. Probably about 2 and a half pounds green. The weather is still very hot so I didn't stay but a few hours each time. I saw a lot more ginseng than I saw last year though in this area. A lot of nice four prongs, too. I also hear a lot more people are looking for it this year because of last year's high prices. That combined with the abundance of it this year is going to have to bring the price down. I'm going to call my dealer soon and see what they expect the price to be. They can't buy it until Sept. 1 I think.

Ginseng Season is Here

Finally, the wait is over. Ginseng season starts tomorrow in Kentucky. I'll probably go everyday this weekend to some spots where it disappears earlier because it gets too much sunlight and the ground is drier. Hopefully, I'll find some big roots and lots of them.

Lots of Ginseng

Ginseng appears to be quite abundant this year compared to last. I saw quite a few nice plants today and can't wait until the season gets here. Only three more months until the season opens here. I have a feeling we are going to see quite a price drop this year though. Everyone keeps saying they think it will be $1,000 a pound because it got so high last year. I think the ginseng prices are going to drop back down though. I would be thrilled with $500-600 a pound this year.

Finding Ginseng Hunting Locations

Well Spring has just about arrived and I am already thinking about finding ginseng this Fall. I need some new places to hunt so I've come up with a couple of ideas and located a couple of potentially good spots. Now I just have to wait until ginseng season starts and get permission from the landowners. I may go check some of my usual spots in a couple of months just to see how much has came up this year. Hopefully it won't get so dry this time and there will be lots more big roots to find.


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Selling your Wild Ginseng Roots

Selling your ginseng roots can vary from state to state so be sure to check and find out what you must do in the state you live in. A quick google search will help you find the information you need for your state.

In Kentucky we don't have to do anything except locate a dealer, sell them our roots, fill out some information about when and what county it was dug in, and collect our money. Unless we want to hold onto it until the following year. Then we have to get it weighed and certified.

Before you take your ginseng roots to sell them, you should always weigh them beforehand. Most dealers are honest but there a couple out there that may shave a couple ounces off the weight or have a scale that is a little bit off. A couple ounces could mean a difference of $50.

You should also obtain a list of all the dealers in your state. If you can't find such a list online with a google search, you should be able to obtain one by calling your state agricultural deptartment who will then mail you a list or provide you the website URL if they have it listed online. Here is the one for Kentucky Kentucky Ginseng Dealer List . Find the ones in your area and call each of them to see what prices they are paying. Also ask if they pay a better price for a larger number of pounds. Many dealers will pay an extra $10-25 a pound if you have 3, 5, or 10 pounds or more.

One last note, often (but not always) the price goes up a little as it gets later in the buying season. If you don't need the money and the price isn't changing much or is moving slowly, it is often worth it to hold onto it a couple of months and sell it later in the season. Sometimes dealers have quotas that they need to fill for their buyer and will pay a little more to finish up their quota.

Hopefully this will help you get the fairest price out the hard work you put in finding and digging your wild ginseng roots.

How to Clean and Dry Wild Ginseng Roots

After I get home with my ginseng roots, I like to soak them in water for a bit. Then I fill the sink with water and take an old soft toothbrush and gently brush the dirt off the roots. You do not want to use a stiff brush or scrub hard or you'll end up breaking the skin covering the root.

Now you may hear some people who disagree with this and say that you should just rinse the dirt off under running water or to just soak them or whatever. They may also say that it is good to leave dirt around the rings as it looks better and adds value. All I can say is that I guess it depends on what your dealer prefers. I cleaned my roots more than adequately a few times, just soaking and rinsing them and rubbing off any obvious dirt that was left with my fingers and rinsing them again. When the roots dry they shrink in size considerably and thus look dirtier even though they looked really clean before. My particular dealer (who has been in business for a very long time and pays a better price than the dozens of other dealers I have contacted) complained about the amount of dirt on them, but still paid me full price. That's why I started using the soft toothbrush. It's still fairly quick and does a better job and my ginseng dealer likes the end result better.

After you get your ginseng roots cleaned, the next step is getting them dried out. First the don'ts. Do not put them in an oven or microwave or on top of a wood stove, etc. Do not set them out in the sunlight. Drying them fast or in the sun discolors them and the buyers do not like that.
If you have a screen or tray with a screen bottom that is perfect. If not you can use a tray, a shallow box, paper plates, a baking sheet, etc. and line it with paper towels. Place your roots on whatever you use in a single layer and spaced out enough that they aren't touching. Now you need a place to set them. Somewhere that stays 85-90 degrees with low humidity would be ideal. Places like this would include attics, storage buildings, or maybe your garage. Make sure mice or other rodents can't get to your ginseng. Drying will take probably at least 2 and maybe 3 weeks depending on the conditions, the size of the roots,etc. When it is dry it should break clean with a snap rather than bend.

In my next post we will discuss selling your roots.

How to Find and Dig Wild American Ginseng

The first thing you need to know is what you are looking for. Here are a few pictures of wild American ginseng plants in various stages of growth.



These photos are fairly typical of late July, late August, and late September where I live in Kentucky. Notice the leaf pattern, shape, size, edges. You will overlook many plants if you can't identify it by the leaves alone. People that just look for red berries or wait for it to turn yellow will not find as much.

First you need to find out when ginseng season starts in your state. In Kentucky it is August 15th. Next you need a place to go, something to dig the roots with, and something to put them in (any kind of sack or bag is fine really). Some people just like to use a flathead screwdriver. Some have "sang hoes" that they made themselves. I generally use one of the following.



Now to find some woods. If you don't have any suitable woods on your land or a friend, neighbor, or family member do not fret. You can get permits for most National Parks. You can also just simply ask someone for permission. Some will say no and some will say go ahead. Ideally the kind of woods we are looking for would be hardwood stands of poplar, maple, walnut, hickory and beech with around 70-80% shade. North-facing and East-facing slopes are best. The ground should be moist but well-drained. Now if it happens to be a dry year the ground may be dry nearly everywhere so if the other conditions are met, it still may be a good place.

Once you are in the woods, one way to tell if you are in a suitable spot is if you see some of the following wild plants: cohosh, goldenseal, trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit. You can find pictures of these by searching google images.

Just make sure you only harvest mature ginsing plants (three and four prongs) and plant the red berries back in the ground if they haven't fell off yet. When you dig a plant, first rake the leaves and debris away from it so you can see where the stalk enters the ground. Gently dig down around the stalk very carefully until you see the root. Usually you can see which way it is growing and then dig it up easier. If you are using a hoe type tool though you need to start digging away from the stalk and gently make your way back to the root and under it. If you happen to unearth a root that is quite small (say the size of a AAA battery for reference) or still young just plant it back. It should be 5 years or older before harvesting. You can count the bud scars to determine the age of the root. See below.



This should be enough to get you started. I'll put up an article tomorrow about what to do with your wild ginseng roots when you get home.

Click Here to see the best guide on Wild Ginseng.

Sold My Ginseng Roots

I sold all of my ginseng today. I only had 1 pound and 1 ounce dry but I got $800 a pound so I'm quite happy with that. I spent about 30-35 hours in the woods this year so $20-25/hour isn't too bad. I also sold the 18 green roots since they paying 1/3 price for green and the price was so high.

The ginseng dealer I was talking to said they only had about a third of the amount of roots they would normally have by this time. People were finding a lot less and it was drying up in the woods much faster.

Well, you might think this is the end of this blog until ginseng season comes back in next year but I intend to try to keep updating it about once a month or so. I'll be writing some articles on different topics such as finding ginseng, best places to hunt for it, growing ginseng, ginseng seeds, etc. so come back every so often. I'll also discuss any ginseng news I hear.

Got Lucky Today

I went today and found another 18 ginseng roots. I say roots because I only found maybe 9 tops and only a couple of those were still standing and had yellow leaves. It was on a steep but very short hillside covered with fallen leaves. After I spotted the two standing ginseng plants I looked very, very hard and managed to pick out the golden brown, shriveled leaves of a few more after several minutes. When I began digging them I found several other dormant roots.

The going price is over $700 a pound now.

Wild American Ginseng Prices Skyrocketing

Wow! The price dealers are paying is going up rapidly. Last year I received $365 a pound. This year it is already over $600 and climbing fast. Still waiting for some of my roots to completely dry but I think I'm going to go back out and try to find a little more at these prices.

Happy Hunting!

Ginseng Season over for me

I guess I'm done digging for the year. My best area yielded a decent amount of roots but overall I didn't do so well. I have a little over a pound of dry roots.

A combination of the late April frost and the very dry summer and fall has made the ginseng a little more scarce this year and it disappeared faster as well. The upside of this is that it appears the price is going up sharply.

Biggest Root of 2007 so far....

Well this is the biggest ginseng root I've found so far this year. Still hoping to do better though. This root is also completely dried in this picture. I found it 3 or 4 weeks ago. It weighs 1 oz. dry.



Happy digging.