What's your opinion? I love to hunt wild but it is getting so scarce i like to plant seeds. It all goes back to wild origin less than 150 years ago. Introducing bought seed back to wild areas I think is the only way to keep it going, Any opinions?

I think bought seed carries a lot of disease with it. Most growers have to spray woods grown seed a lot to keep it alive. While some of the seed may make some roots that look fairly wild, a big part of it still shows poorer grade of Ginseng. I buy woodsgrown all the time and your lucky if 25 percent of your roots look even remotely wild .Sewing seed that is not wild seed into woods so it makes wild plants is not a good idea unless your actually growing it to be sold as woods grown seng. Anybody that thinks there is no difference in the plants, needs to know more about Ginseng.

I've found just the opposite Don. I've been planting bought seed in the wild for over 30 years with no issues. I've also sold planted root and it is just as wild as wild can get. Panax Quinquefolious is panax quinquefolious, therefore it will grow wild once planted wild. There is only one sub species of ginseng in N America which is dwarf ginseng. Its range is relegated to the extreme southern states. Domestic growers go to great lengths to keep diseases out of their
seng. The chances of stratified seed carrying diseases is quite remote for that reason. Wild seed would have a higher risk of carrying disease because it isn't cared for.

Dave I have several people that send me Ginseng that is planted from cultivated Ginseng seed. Their seed is sewn in the woods under natural conditions and most of their roots look like woodsgrown root, that is a poor quality. The seng has odd shapes, extremely heavy, off color, and a lot of it at times has root rot.
Matter of fact I have 12 pounds that a fella sent me yesterday that is anything but nice. I still say that seed that comes from the growers in Wisconsin has something in it that has changed the gene pool.
In my area, most of the seed you plant that comes from growers, will not make it past the 3rd year. Most of it blights out so bad it kills the roots. There is a few growers in the Kentucky, west virginia, and north Carolina area that say they have seed that will live until it is dug and the roots all look wild. talk is cheap, i need to see proof. Been at this game for at least 45 years and have looked at and bought thousands of pounds of seng both wild and woods grown and I can still tell the difference between wild and suppose to be wild.

Only in to ginseng for seven or eight years now, but it is a passion now .Planting for seven years with seed from big ginseng farm in Maryland. I have some six year old plants and the roots look different from wild sang. Last night I found thirty four year old plants I planted. Beautiful red berries, and I planted all of them.But again the roots are big but don't look very wild yet. I agree with Don about woods grown versus wild, but agree with Dave we must supplement the woods with some bought stratified seed.

That's very interesting Don. Planted my first stratified seed in the early 80s. I just dug some beautiful root out of that first patch last week. Sold right along with all the other wild. The seed I purchase is grown in MN. I always give it a soaking in an alcohol/water mix. This will kill any fungus or blight that may be on the seed coat. I dug some today out of a patch I planted in '93. I'll try and post some pics later. They look like any other wild root I've ever dug.

Thanks for the opinions guys. Been into ginseng for a while but not nearly as long as most of you . I just feel the amount of wild seed that i could gather it would take me 40 years to get it scattered off 1 section of land ,due to regs you plant back in same area found . I just would like to find a way to keep it going as my children enjoy hunting it too!