OZARK MOUNTAIN GINSENG

  Ozark Mountain Ginseng is a family farm nestled in the Ozark Hills along Eleven Point River in southern Missouri.  We have been growing American Ginseng and other Medicinal Herbs since 1983.  If you want price list for ginseng seed or transplanting rootlets we send our price list   by postal mail.  If you want on mailing list please send postal address.  Farming American Ginseng will be the future for this plant.  Folks around here in the Ozarks have been ginseng harvesting in the wild  for over 100 years and is a tradition  where ginseng grows wild.  Back in the early 1980's I noticed the wild population of ginseng dwindling compared to ten years earlier  and when I go ginseng looking now where patches use to be there is almost none due to overharvesting.  So now we just plant seed here so to keep wild populations growing .  If you have any questions about growing this "GREEN GOLD"  please email or phone us at the farm.  Our phone is:   (417)264-2448     Our email is:  lindy08@socket.net

Click here to view farm:  (you can double click on pictures to enlarge) 

http://agebb.missouri.edu/agforest/archives/v4n3/gh1.htm

Growing Information and Medicinal Herb Pictures This website has wonderful medicinal herb pictures along with history and medicinal uses:   Go to the Alternative Nature Online Herbal:  that is on this site for pictures and information on herbs.  Excellent site!

https://learnaboutherbs.com/

GROWING GINSENG by Scott Persons a Mother Earth News article:  This link not working will fix next month, I hope.  Go to Mother Earth News search and look up ginseng articles will work like that. 

https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/growing-ginseng-zmaz83jaznet

"GREEN GOLD" by Scott Persons  Mother Earth News

This is an excellent article on growing ginseng! A must read for growing ginseng in the woods!  Click link below for information and color pictures of ginseng:

https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/wild-ginseng-zmaz84sozraw

 Some wonderful books with pictures to take with you in woods to assist to identify plants associated  with growing ginseng and growing information:  This link will take you to the website, go to GINSENG and books are great!:   http://www.wildozark.com  This link not working you have to type in to work.  Hopefully I  will fix next month. 

GROWING  FACTS:  American Ginseng(Panax

Quinquifolium L.)  Ginseng is a perennial plant and takes  7 to 8  years to mature.  Growing conditions are very important for success.  Ginseng has to have about 75 % SHADE.  Your local extension office can do soil test.  Our soil here in Ozarks is low in phosphorous so we add this element to get better root growth.  Ginseng growers have seen over $100,000 per acre in profits.  Ginseng looks like a strawberry plant the first year and only has three leaves.  In the second year has five leaves and a second prong.  The third year the ginseng plant will produce seed.    We plant seed close together, you will get more pounds per acre this way.  Ginseng likes good drainage so planting on a slope is great.  We use a rear tined rototiller in the woods and work ground up 4 to 6 inches.  Making the ginseng grow beds are important, though once done will grow some nice ginseng plants.  The magazine article "GREEN GOLD" above by Scott Persons is  wonderful for learning about how to grow ginseng.  If you have any questions please email or phone the farm, we love to hear from folks.  Recently we added another growing article by Scott Persons called"Growing Ginseng Organically"  So there will be 2 nice grow articles on links above.   Also added recently is the "wildozark" link above,   there is some great booklets to help identify plants in woods.   If you have any questions just give us a holler!

ORDERING INFORMATION:  Woodsgrown Ginseng seed and Woodsgrown ginseng transplanting rootlets and other Medicinal Herbs available.  Our price list this year is made by Vistaprint and is in brochure form and we can only send postal mail.      We only send our brochure and order form postal mail  Please phone at:(417)264-2448 or email at:   lindy08@socket.net        Dried  wild ginseng prices staying   about $500 to $1200  a pound dried for premium root.  The older the ginseng root the more valuable.   Usually price goes higher in December, depends upon Hong Kong and their politics there in China.  About 75%  American ginseng goes to China.   Even with economic trade and politics in China and Hong Kong ginseng will be in great demand there.    The University Missouri Extension had a workshop here with folks getting a tour of farm in early June 2019.       The "GINSENG GROW BOOK "  we have to offer  is the best book I have seen.  The description of book  is  below when ya scroll.  Visitors welcome to visit farm please phone  a few days ahead.

JUNE 2022 UPDATE:  Ginseng starting to flower and green ginseng seeds are forming.  Looked yesterday at Golden Seal patches and most seed is green.  Should be a week  or two and then we will harvest Golden Seal berries and we plant right away so not to let seed dry out.  We sent our brochures out to customers at first of month so if ya want brochure please  send postal address.                                                                                   

MAY 2022 UPDATE:  Ginseng finally all up in the woods.  Our Golden Seal has nice large seedheads and will wait until berries turn red aroung the first of July to harvest the seeds.  I planted the Blood Root seed  last week that came off our plants. We have had about 12 inches rain this month so that will help ginseng flowering and grow nice seedheads on our ginseng.  Too much rain on our cherry trees so cherries did not ripen very well.  We are sending our brochure out first week of June so email or phone address we only send brochures out postal mail.                              

   APRIL 2022 UPDATE:  Happy Spring everyone.  Our Bloodroot finally up and has flowered and has seed pods.  Golden Seal and a few Ginseng plants  have sprouted though just a few plants.  Will take the next few weeks for everything to come through the leaves.  Our two cherry trees have alot of cherries growing, hopefully we get before the birds.  Our apple tree in full bloom and we have radishes growing in out tater hills.  Been too cold to plant anything else, need some warmer weather before tomatos and peppers are planted.  We are getting ready to send out brochure in about a month so please send postal address if ya want a brochure.                                                          

  MARCH 2022 UPDATE:  Spring coming tomorrow.  Been a cold winter and we had alot of snow and ice so spring looking great.  Snow is good fertilizer for ginseng as snow leaves some nitrogen in low amounts and helps ginseng plants look a nice dark green when emerging.  We do not add nitrogen fertilzer so ginseng will grow slow, that is what ginseng buyers want is a root that is grown slow 8 to 10 years or more.   I got 3 rows of taters planted before last snow and planted radish  seed in potato hills.  When radishes are done I put straw on the hills and first week of July should have some nice Yukon Gold taters.   Pruned out cherry trees and looks like our Bing and Brooks cherry tree  are getting ready to flower.  Remember to never fertilize fruit trees  the first few years,  wait for 2 to 3 years otherwise trees get burnt and do not survive.   Bloodroot will be emerging in next week, looks like ginseng will sprout up middle of April or later because of recent snows.  Happy Spring everyone.  Peace                                                     

FEBRUARY 2022 UPDATE:  We are sold out and we have planted all our ginseng seed for this springs planting.  Seed was starting to sprout and all ginseng seed should be planted by first of March.  We will have more of our woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed in September.  We will be sending out our ginseng brochure and order form in June.  So if ya want on postal mailing list please send postal  address.    There is 2 links not working I will work on those in next month.   Put ginseng article in mother earth news search and alot of ginseng grow information comes up.  Dried ginseng prices went to $1000.00  a pound dried in North Carolina and prime ginseng root was $200 more a pound.  Our ginseng in Ozarks selling for about $700  to $800 pound dried.  Growing ginseng in forest setting for 8 to 10 years will bring wild price.  Ginseng cannot be grown 4 to 5 years and expect higher price.  We have 20 year old ginseng growing and also a few 50 to 70 year old ginseng plants growing under a walnut tree.  Looking forward to spring.  Peace.                                                            

JANUARY 2022 UPDATE:  There is still a small amount of ginseng seed left if anyone wants to plant some.  I planted last month and there is about a pound of ginseng seed that will sprout this April.  I will plant if is still left first week of Feb.  We had some snow in last week here and is great fertilzer for ginseng.  Ginseng likes snow and gets some nitrogen in small amounts and ginseng looks dark green when coming up in spring.   Happy New Year everyone.    

DECEMBER 2021 UPDATE:  Here it is middle of December and almost 70 degrees today.  Good weather to be planting ginseng seed.  We have small amount of our woodsgrown ginseng seed left for sale.  We will be planting sang seed here so if any left we will plant.  OK to plant ginseng seed to first of March.   We was in Texas for Thanksgiving and on the local news at motel the news had on that Texas grows wild  ginseng, and the news showed some of the roots.  The ginseng looked nice and large and wrinkled.  I did not know ginseng grew in Texas like that.  Texas has some hills and  there is good ground there and farmers are growing nice crops.  I will research this furthur.   The hills in Texas are not as tall as here in Ozarks though might be ok.  Merry Christmas  everyone and Happy New Year.                                                                  

NOVEMBER 2021 UPDATE:  We had some Ginseng seedlings stay until October 31 with green leaves.  Had not seen that in awhile, ususally seedlings  die off in summer  with dry conditions because roots are still small.  So I will be planting some more Ginseng seeds in that area is holding moisture real good cause next to creek bed I figure.  I have to clean rest of Ginseng seed to see how much seed is left.  We keep seed buried in ground with sand so phone or email if ya want some woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed that will sprout next spring 2022.    Our sugar maple trees in peak this week and we having nice colors with the trees  this year .                                                                                                                                                                            OCTOBER 2021 UPDATE:  We are almost out of ginseng seed.  We have about 25 pounds woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed left so if ya want some Ginseng seed give us a call or email.  We had a customer come visit last month and we took a walk through the forest and he seen a 25 year old ginseng plant just starting to turn yellow  gold with some green berries.  Our customer was real excited and ran to  ginseng plant and took pictures.  That reminded me why I still do this and appreciate our customers enthusiasm that day.  Wild ginseng is almost gone  because of overharvesting.  Growing ginseng is the future for alot of medicinal herbs because of trees cut.  Now is the time to plant ginseng seed.  I plant all the way until February.   Our ginseng seed is cracked and ready to plant so holler if ya need any ginseng seed.

SEPTEMBER 2021 UPDATE:  We are getting ready to ship orders out middle of month.  Now is the time to plant Ginseng seed all the way until first of March.  We have limited amounts of our woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed left.  So ok to phone or send postal address email.  We busy on farm this time of year so ok to leave message.  Our woodsgrown ginseng seed is starting to crack and will germinate spring 2022.  We have been growing Ginseng and other Medicinal Herbs for 38 years.  So ok to phone for advice.

AUGUST 2021 UPDATE:  We are harvesting red ginseng berries.  There is 2 to 3 ginseng seed in each red berry.  The 100 degree weather we had last week helped ginseng berries turn red.  We are cooler this week only 80 degrees this week.  We have about 100 pounds woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed left for sale.  We do not sell online we have a brochure with order form enclosed.  This woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed will sprout  next spring 2022.  We plant ginseng seed here October to December.   We will be shipping orders out in September.  We are getting taters and green beans out of vegetable garden.  And our apples and pears are looking great.  So give us a holler if ya want some Ginseng seed.                         

JULY 2021 UPDATE:  Picked and planted our Golden Seal berries yesterday.  Do not let berries dry up there is tiny  black seeds that need to be planted right away.  This is a great way to expand your gardens.  Ginseng berries are forming and starting to turn green.  When the Sang berries are red we start harvesting those and put the seeds into stratafication  beds and in sand.  This seed we pick will need to overwinter and that will be seed we sell next year.   We sent our brochures out last month to our customers.  There is a 10% off by July 15 and a 5% off by August 15 on order form.  This seed is stratafied and will sprout next spring 2022.   We get over 95% germination with our woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed.    We need some rain here will help Ginseng berries turn red.                                                                                     

JUNE 2021 UPDATE:  We sent our brouchures out yesterday to our customers.  There is a 10% discount if paid by July 15.  If ya want brouchure please send postal address.  Visitors  that want to  take farm tour are OK now.  Ginseng is finally  sprouted  from forest.  We had cold spring so took until end of May for everything to sprout.  I planted the Bloodroot seed a few weeks ago and waiting for the berries on Golden Seal plants to turn red and hope to pick those berries before squirrels get them.  Ginseng is flowering and green berries should be in next few weeks.  Our garden has had too much rain this year and been difficult to get everything planted.  And the birds got our cherries this year.  Happy  summer everyone in few weeks.      

    MAY 2021 UPDATE:  We had a hard freeze last month and we had some large old 70 year old ginseng plants growing and morning of hard freeze the plants looked like they wilted.  By end of day the ginseng plants pointed their leaves upward and are ok.  Looks like ginseng will take a few weeks more before all are sprouted up.  We have some yellow lady slipper growing and one lady slipper orchid has 2 stems with a flower on one stem and other stem has 2 flowers.  I have never seen that before.  We are learning on how to grow this medicinal herb and what I do is get leaf mold and bring to lady slipper plants and that is working.   We will be sending out brochures next month so if ya want on mailing list please send postal address.  We do not sell online just through our order form in our brochure.                                                    

APRIL 2021 UPDATE:  An exciting time at Ozark Mountain Ginseng.  Our Bloodroot is sprouted and flowering  May Apple and Trilliums also up.  Our cherry, pears and apple tree all made it through last weeks freeze, we only got 30 degrees so that great.  Golden Seal will sprout up next and then ginseng later this month.  We planted the rest of ginseng seed first week of March.  We will be sending our brochure out in June so if ya want on mailing list please send address.                                                                            

  MARCH 2021 UPDATE:  There is several pounds of our woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed left if ya want to plant some ginseng seed.   This seed will sprout this spring and is cracked and looks great.  I started rototiller a few days ago so if seed still in fridge will plant in next week or so.  Ginseng seed planting should be planted by first of April.  We had over a half of foot snow few weeks ago so that will keep ground cool so ginseng does not sprout too early.  I seen a bear track around our place after the fresh snow.  The bear circled out trash dumpster and could see where the bear was walking around our fire pit in front of house.  Here in southern Missouri sometimes bears do not hibernate because is warmer.  This winter we had about a foot of snow and was cold.  Hoping we do not get rain today cause looks like we get about 5 days sunshine after today.  Ready to plant our taters once ground dries up.  Looking forward to our medicinal plants sprouting.  Happy Spring everyone.  

Amereican Ginseng in the wild is not abundant like in previouis years because of high prices  that root buyers were paying.  Some wild ginseng went to $1200 a pound dried.  Right now prices are around $500 a pound at local root buyers around  southern Missouri and as much as $1200  a pound dried on east coast.  Also in Ozarks we have wild feral hogs and these pigs are  digging  up medicinal herbs that are growing wild and need to grow there in forest enviroment.  So the future for American Ginseng is in growing this wonderful herb that is also helping with cancer patients. American ginseng is an rejuvenative herb and helps body organs restore.        The way I figure  if you grow 100 pounds dried ginseng in the woods for 7 to 8 years and get $400 to $500  a pound, Now that pretty darn good.  So if prices go up that just fine.  The market for ginseng looks fantastic especially with wild root almost extinct due to overharvesting.  The future for ginseng is in growing this wonderful herb.  Growing ginseng in the woods at least 7 to 8 years will give a wild looking root.  This is what the root buyers want.  Growing ginseng to 10 years old can even give ginseng an extra hundred dollars a pound especially if you grow large roots like the root buyers desire.

GROWERS HANDBOOK:  "Growing and Marketing of Ginseng and Golden Seal and Other Medicinal Herbs." by W.S. Persons and Jeanne Davis.  This book is over 480  pages and covers ginseng history, market and especially cultivation.  Revised  2nd Edition 2014 will be a wonderful grow book. 

GINSENG CONSULTATION:  We will go to your farm and assist any way you need.  We have started large ginseng farms in Missouri to Wisconsin.

VISITORS:  If you have any questions please call and visitors are welcome at OZARK MOUNTAIN GINSENG.  Please call in advance to visit the farm.  Growing ginseng and other medicinal herbs since 1983.