Why is this ginseng turning yellow?
UPDATE 10/5/24 This is an old post from when I first started observing ginseng in the wild and among my wild-simulated patches, and thought I knew a lot more than I did. The ginseng in the story below probably only turned yellow because it was time for it to do so. I’ll leave it here for historical sake. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone back to this post to read it and I should have updated it sooner. The commenter who left his opinion (at the duplicate post over at my main website) did me a favor in reminding me to review my own words. So, he is most likely correct, and I was most likely wrong.
This year was very dry, and many of the plants turned yellow sooner than they do in seasons when we actually get some rain. Many of the plants had lost all of the berries and dropped leaves before September even got started. So, while I can’t imagine ginseng will grow well in bright sun, a small sunbeam wafting down through the leaves isn’t likely the culprit.
The other day I just so happened to be right where I needed to be to see why my little 2 year old ginseng was yellow. How serendipitous! It gave me the perfect opportunity to make a post about what happens to ginseng in too much sun.
Day before yesterday I went out to gather some ginseng plants for show and tell for a presentation I did at Compton Gardens yesterday.
It was a cloudy day with a shower threatening.
Most of the plants still looked pretty good, in spite of it being late in the season. There were even a few berries still clinging and some recently dropped to the ground.
This one, though, looked pretty poor. The leaves are severely yellowed and although that happens late in season, this was the only one that looked that way.
And when I was almost ready to day, the clouds parted and a shaft of sunlight came down to the forest floor. Guess where it landed?
Shade is so important to ginseng that this one little beam of light can make a huge difference to the poor little ginseng in the way.
The thing is, though, that this plant only recently turned yellow. I check on them throughout the growing season and previously it was fine.
However, with the season changing from summer to fall, the angles of the light have shifted.
Now the sunlight is hitting the ground in different places.
Unfortunately for that 2-year old, change burns. Luckily it’s the end of the growing season for it, though, and it will likely be fine next year.
As long as we don’t get an ice storm this year that knocks out some of the shade-casting treetops in that spot.