August in the Ginseng Habitat

The weather forecast calls for possible tennis ball hail tonight, so I figured I’d better get some pics of the plants… just in case. Here’s what it’s looking like today, August in the ginseng habitat.

Most of the plants are healthy, but a few are holey from bugs or snails. That didn’t stop them from bearing fruit. The first photo shows insect/snail damage, and the second shows a mature berry on the ground beside it. There were a few more berries dropped in the same vicinity, too.

The third pic shows the greatest trouble I have out here. Mealy bugs. They’ll cause the flower stem to break off if left unchecked. I don’t spray, so when I see them on the stems, I just rub the fuzz off and kill the bug if I find it. This one managed to make a whole cluster of fruit to maturity, in spite of having no leaves after some time in June. But that wasn’t the fault of mealy bugs, it was deer that browsed all of the leaves. They didn’t bother the other mature plants in the same area, though, and no lasting harm done to this one.

The mix of trees in this location include oak, hickory, hornbeam, hazelnut, pawpaw, sycamore, and cedar. It’s not far from a spring fed creek, on a slight north-facing slope. The trees aren’t as mature as would be ideal, as the area was logged about 20 years ago, but it’s good enough. Being north-facing helps a lot with that.

Bare-Root Orders are open now

I’ll have 1, 2, and 3 year old rootlets available. Taking orders until the leaves drop and I can’t locate them anymore. Usually that’s in late September. The cost of shipping is included, and they’re available in bundles of 10.