Chapter 5: Garden planting

Essentially all cultivated ginseng is established by seeding in the Northwest. Ginseng seed is expensive in relation to other horticultural crops (see Chapter 18: Ginseng Budget). New growers often ask about establishing a new garden with transplanted rootlets in order to shorten the time until harvest. Considering that it takes 128,000 transplants to establish a 1 acre garden, and each root costs as much as $.80 each, it quickly becomes apparent that the costs are all but prohibitive on any garden of more than a 1/4 acre in size.

Bed shaping
The first step in preparing a garden for planting involves forming raised beds. As mentioned previously in the Site Preparation chapter raised beds significantly help improve soil moisture drainage especially in the late winter as the plants resume growth. Raised beds also make root digging easier when harvest comes.

Ginseng beds are formed in late summer prior to seeding. The ground is first disced or rototilled to loosen it. Beds are then formed to provide a smooth surface upon seed is sown. Note that beds are formed prior to erecting the shade canopy trellis. Once formed, beds should not be walked upon during the life of the planting.

For very small gardens (less than a quarter acre), a rototiller and single bottom plow can be used to form beds. It will be harder to achieve high yields with these implements as the ratio of non-bearing alleyway to bed surface will be considerably higher than with wider beds. New growers often start out with small gardens and narrow beds. In time, as root sales come in, they advance to wider tractors and specialized ginseng machinery. Figure I shows a custom designed bed plow, pulled behind a ginseng tractor. The astute observer will notice the wider tires, which are a disadvantage in ginseng farming.

Figure 2 depicts the ideal bed architecture and ginseng tractor design for a ginseng garden using the standard 24' wide shade panels.

Tractor design
The first problem that arises for most new growers is finding a tractor with the 6' (72") center to center wheel spread. The majority of the tractors used in Northwest berry, fruit, and vineyards operations have been designed to be narrow to fit through relatively narrow canopies and openings. To modify an existing tractor, the rear drive wheels can often be reversed on the axle to increase the clearance width.

The tractor also needs to have a high ground clearance in order not to damage the canopy of the plants. Notice in Figure 2 how the tractor will straddle the beds. The wheels and tires need to be narrow in order to minimize the width of alleyway. An alleyway 12" wide or less is desirable. Wie alleyways will reduce potential yield, as less of the garden area will bear a crop. The exhaust system on the tractor also needs to be addressed. The muffler can not be mounted underneath the engine where it would harm the plants. When the exhaust is above the engine, it has to be either low enough or modified so as not to burn a hole in the plastic shade cloth above.

New tractors
There are tractor manufacturers that offer models specifically designed for ginseng production. Northwest ginseng growers have used John Deere, Landini, and Universal tractors. Models offered by these manufacturers have the 72" foot print, the high ground clearance, a modified exhaust, and have the power to pull a ginseng digger. Figure 3 is a photo showing a Universal Ginseng tractor on the left, with an older American tractor that has had some modifications made for ginseng beds. The Universal tractor sells for approximately $16,500. The nearest dealer in the Northwest is: Big Valley Tractor, Inc., Ron Glacier owner, 4729 South Grandview Flats, P.O. Box 117, Armstrong, British Columbia. The phone is: 604/ 546-9204.

Contract planting
New growers who are contemplating only putting in a small acreage (.25-1.0 acres) should seriously consider contracting out the garden establishment. By utilizing the services of an established ginseng producer with specialized equipment, new growers will have a garden equipped with wide, high yielding beds. The costs of establishing such a garden, utilizing contract labor, will have to be agreed upon by all parties involved. In Chapter 20: Enterprise budget the fixed costs provided will serve as a basis for determining the total cost for a custom installed garden.

Bed architecture
Figure 4 depicts the bed design for different widths of shade panels. In this diagram a 72" footprint tractor is used to shape the beds. The most frequent used configuration utilizes 24' wide shade panels. In this design there will be 3, 5' wide beds and 2 half-width beds within each travel bay. A travel bay is defined as the distance between line posts.

For gardens with a 30' wide travel bay, using 30' wide shade panels, there will be 5 complete beds. While this design reduces the number of posts needed per acre, the posts that are used will need to be longer as they are not placed on top of beds. For gardens which will be designed with 36' travel bays, there will be 5 full-width beds, with 2 half-width beds. Gardens utilizing 36- wide shade panels will need extra strong support systems in order to handle the greater stress. In all 3 of the different designs, the tractor used will still straddle the center bed. Custom spray booms can be designed to cover all three different travel bays.

Figure 5 shows a ginseng garden being planted, as well as a bed shaper being used to prepare new beds for seeding.

Sowing seeds
The traditional recommended seeding rate, using stratified seed, is 100 lbs./acre. New growers are urged to seed their ardens in the fall prior to the onset of heavy fall rains. The ideal planting season is in late September through mid-October after the beds have been shaped and smoothed. It is imperative that once the seeds have been sown that they are not allowed to dry out. Growers west of the Cascades can generally count upon light rains in mid-September, interspersed with dry periods, during which a considerable amount of ginseng farming can be accomplished. If the weather forecast does not predict rainfall, seeding will have to be delayed.

Growers have tried seeding rates higher than 100 lbs./acre. On less than ideal sites including those with heavy clay, sandy soils, or ones with excess soil moisture, rates of 130-140 lbs./acre have proven beneficial as a certain amount of mortality does occur. It is generally accepted that only 70-75% of fall-planted ginseng seeds will germinate the following spring. Remember that this is an open-pollinated crop and thus will have a much greater percentage of seed variability than would be the case for modern hybrid vegetable seeds. Over the 4 year life of the planting, a root mortality rate of approximately 10% per year is quite common.

Update on seeding rates
Recent findings in the Northwest have shown that a lighter seeding rate of 80 lbs./acre has resulted in larger root sizes at harvest. Ginseng buyers pay a premium for larger roots. Higher seeding rates can contribute to lower yields per acre due to plant crowding. Northwest growers should try different seeding rates on their own farms to determine effects on yield.

Spring planting
Occasionally growers ask about spring planting. When green seed is put into stratification (see Chapter 11: Propagation) some of the seeds will germinate prematurely the first spring. As a general principle, growers who are stratifying their own seed should be be digging up the seed/sand mixture from their stratification boxes in the late winter. Any moldy seed should be removed to prevent diseases from spreading to neighboring healthy seed. If there are seeds that have started to germinate, they should either be sown outside, or eliminated. It is possible to slow down the rate of development of these germinating seeds somewhat by moving them into a refrigerator but storage beyond a week is doubtful. Spring planting is complicated by frequent late winter rains in the Northwest. If growers know that they want to try some spring seeding they should prepare planting beds during the brief periods of dry weather that often occurs during early February.

Seed delivery techniques
In the larger growing regions of Wisconsin, Ontario, and British Columbia growers typically use mechanical seeders pulled behind tractors to plant their beds. Specialized ginseng machinery dealers can build mechanical planters consisting of 10-16 Stanhay or Plantit Junior seeders mounted on a toolbar which is attached to a 3-point hitch. Figure 6 shows a ginseng tractor and mechanical seeder. This arrangement is quite common in ginseng producing regions where the farms are larger. With this arrangement 100 lbs./acre of seed is uniformly sown at a 1.2" within row spacing, with 6" between rows.

With the smaller ginseng gardens in the Northwest, most growers simply hand broadcast seed onto shaped beds. Figure 7 is Don Hoogesteger, founder of Pacific Rim Ginseng, sowing seed on a new garden. A few assumptions are in order to make this make this technique work. A one acre ginseng garden will cover approximately 43,560 square feet. Because of alleyways however, only 32,800 square feet will be planted (75%). None-the-less, due to the natural mortality listed above, it is still advised that 100 pounds of seed be broadcast per acre.

Divide and scatter
From the layout of the garden, divide the seed into an equal amount based on the number of travel bays (generally 24' wide). Within each travel bay count the number of line posts, which are spaced 24' within the row. Further divide the seed lot by the number of line posts. For each 5' wide, 24' long bed, an equal amount of seed can thus be sown. It helps to mix this smaller quantity of seed with sawdust so that it is easier to see how well the seed is scattered.

Mulching the beds
Once sown, the seed can be left lying on top of the beds. Soon after sowing however, the beds will need to mulched with 1.5"-2.0" of sawdust. Douglas fir sawdust is generally preferred over either alder or cedar sawdust. Mulch will help preserve soil moisture during the growing season. Mulch also helps considerably in reducing weed seed germination. Most weed seeds have a light requirement in order to germinate. If a meticulous weed control program has occurred prior to seeding, the application of a mulch layer should help immeasurably in controlling weed seed germination after planting. Once applied, the mulch layer should not be disturbed. The least amount of light striking a weed seed can lead its germination. As the mulch decomposes over time it will add to the natural humus of the soil itself.

Different types of mulch
The relatively young Pacific Northwest ginseng industry is unique in its use of sawdust as a mulch. Straw is generally used in the larger production areas of Canada and Wisconsin. Growers have access to machinery that will shred straw bales and scatter them uniformly over their ginseng beds. The major drawbacks to the use of straw is its inherent weed seed load. Unless the grain has had an excellent weed control management program, there will be a certain amount of risk that weed seeds will be transferred to the ginseng garden.

Mulch will also help reduce the incidence of foliar diseases on the developing ginseng leaves. Botrytis leaf blight (see Chapter 12: Diseases) would be exacerbated on straw mulch beds. The over-wintering fungal spores would easily colonize the decomposing straw.

Different types of sawdust
Growers that have tried using alder mulch have been disappointed with the number of wood rotting fungi that are produced. Cedar sawdust has been viewed with suspicion as the high tanin content of fresh material is known for its growth inhibiting qualities.

Slug control
For Northwest growers however, one the main advantages to the use of sawdust over straw is it ability to discourage slugs. With the cool moist springs that are so common in areas west of the Cascades slugs (see Chapter 13: Insect Management) can become quite numerous. The drier surface of the sawdust helps discourage them from feeding on the emerging ginseng plants in April and early May. Growers have noticed that even during wet springs when slug populations are very high on the perimeter of their gardens, there are very few that have moved into the ginseng beds.