The Reason We Dig!!!

I've been hunting 'seng about 30 years now, and found three big 4 prongs today that reminded me why I climb up and down these steep mountains all the time. I was crossing a holler and going to the next ridge on a steep mountain and had to go through a laurel thicket I would have never imagined there being in ginseng in. It got so thick I had to crawl and just happened to look up and see a big pod of red berries staring at me about 10 yards away. I really had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't seeing things, but after crawling over to them, I ended up finding these three big 4 prongers. After counting the stem scars, all are about 25-28 years old. I've found a few roots in the past as big as these, but never within 3 feet of each other. It was one of those moments I just had to sit there and admire them for 30 minutes before I ever broke soil. I've dug that mountain all my life(since I was 6 years old with my dad) and we've never thought to look in those laurels. I didn't bring home a lot of 'seng today, but the one's that I did I will remember forever. These are trophies for sure! Hope you enjoy the pics and good luck the rest of the season!! My season was made today!!

Those are some beauties, and hopefully ya find many more. Good luck digging

Found a few like that in my life time also...the biggest being below a steep old logging trail in a thicket...the berries looked like a apple.

Great find!

Great looking plants. Always nice to find the big ones. Those are getting harder to find than they used to be. I hope you find a big patch of the sane size plants.

lotsa light kills sang , that's why they were there ,nice work.

very nice!!!!!!

Very nice!! I like crawling through raspberry patches around here. Thats where those big brutes can be found.

These are a couple 4 prongers I found today. My biggest root so far!!! Couldnt believe how big the zomes are...as big as my thumb lol It was a good day !! No so much quanity, but quality was great.