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.