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.

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.

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.

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.

Welcome to the Ginseng Hunter Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog. I wanted to start a blog about something I have a lot of interest in, so this is it. I will post trip reports about my days hunting ginseng this season, upload some pictures from this year and last, and maybe post some stories I have heard or tell about how I got started (addicted to) 'sang hunting.
I want to keep most of my personal details personal. With that said, I live in central Kentucky and will simply go by GinsengHunter. Following is some information on Kentucky ginseng.

"The wild ginseng trade in Kentucky is a $5 to $8 million industry. Kentucky is the largest supplier of wild ginseng in the United States, averaging approximately 16 percent of the national harvest annually. The average wholesale value of wild ginseng to a root digger varies between $300 and $500 per pound."

The state of Kentucky almost lost its right to export ginseng this year though, after an undercover operation found that many if not most of the licensed dealers were buying the valuable root out of season. You can read more about it here if you like Kentucky faces ginseng export ban

I'll post some photos in a day or two of the roots I dug last season.
Until then,
Happy Hunting