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:  Alternative Nature Online Herbal: 

https://learnaboutherbs.com/

GROWING GINSENG by Scott Persons a Mother Earth News article: 

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

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 $400 to $650  a pound dried.   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.

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.  

FEBRUARY 2021 UPDATE:  We had  about 3 inches snow last week, hope we get some more snow when the snow melts gives a nice dose of nitrogen and when our ginseng emerges is a nice dark green.  We do not fertilize with nitrogen because the ginseng roots grow too big too fast.  There is small amount of ginseng seed left for sale so give us a holler if ya want to plant some ginseng seed that is cracked and ready to sprout in April.  I am getting the rototiller out  today and get that ready to plant our early potatos and if ginseng seed does not sell in next few weeks I will plant the rest of seed because after March is getting too late to plant ginseng seed.  Bloodroot first wild  medicinal wildflower to bloom here in about late March sprouts up.                                                                                  

  JANUARY 2021 UPDATE:  We getting some snow flurries this morning.  Snow good nitrogen for ginseng turns plants nice dark green in spring when emerging.  There is about 5 pounds woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed left for sale.  If ya want some ginseng seed that will sprout this spring 2021 the seed looks great and is cracked and ready to sprout.  Looking forward to this spring.  Give us a call if ya want  some ginseng seed we will plant by next month.  

  DECEMBER 2020 UPDATE:  We having great weather to plant ginseng seed.  We will be having 60 degree weather next week so we will be planting Ginseng seed and some Golden Seal transplanting rootlets in same grow bed as ginseng seed all this week.  We have about 16 pounds stratafied ginseng seed left for sale.     Our ginseng seed is cracked and will sprout next spring 2021. 

NOVEMBER 2020 UPDATE:  We are getting ready to plant ginseng seed this month.  Usually takes us until Feb. to get all the seed planted.  We finally got enough rainfall so we can work the ground.  There is about 2o pounds of our woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed that we have left for sale.  This seed is looking great and is barely cracking and will sprout next spring 2020.  If ya phone ok to leave message we might be in woods with this 70 degree weather we having.  We only send brochure out postal mail and if you want ok to phone to reserve seed .  We send our ginseng orders out priority mail.   When we sell out of ginseng seed we will not have any until next year, alot of folks been staying home and planting ginseng seed.  Hope everyone stays healhty in this covid crisis.                                        

OCTOBER 2020 UPDATE:  Our Ginseng and Golden Seal still green with all the rain we had this year.  We have been sending out orders past few weeks.  We only have about 30 pounds woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed left so this seed will sprout spring 2021.  Looks like we will be out of seed by middle of November so if ya want to grow some green gold give us a holler.                                                                

SEPTEMBER 2020 UPDATE:  We been getting our stratafied ginseng seed out  of the stratafication pits.  We wash the sand off and then do not let get too dry.  Ginseng seed has moisture content so care is involved in taking care of ginseng seed.  We have about 50 pounds woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed from our farms  left to sell.   We will be digging transplants so if ya phone please leave message.  Prices for dried wild ginseng starting around $400 a pound in this area and up to $650 a pound in North Carolina.   Our brochure goes out postal mail only.                  

  AUGUST 2020 UPDATE:  Ginseng berries been turning red so that time of year to go gather your ginseng seed.  OK to plant your red berries right away unless you get alot of berries than you can stratafy seeds.  We harvest the red Sang berries and put in sand and bury cans in sand in the ground.  These future ginseng seed will be ready to plant the next year.  Any red berries you plant now will come up in 2022.  The woodsgrown stratafied ginseng seed we have is from last years crop of ginseng berries.  So if ya want some woodsgreown stratafied ginseng seed that will come up next spring 2021 we start shipping orders middle of September.  We send our brochure out postal mail only.                                                         

JULY 2020 UPDATE:  We sent brochures out last month to customers so if ya want brochure let us know.  We will be shipping ginseng seed orders in September.  I harvested the red berries from our Golden Seal plants, this year I  picked the red berries before the squirrels got the berries.   Planted the Golden Seal berries in ginseng grow beds.  Hope everyone staying healthy in this Covid period.     

JUNE 2020 UPDATE:  We sent out our brochure this week to folks on mailing list.  We will be sending out seed and root orders middle of September.  Sure had alot of rain this spring.  We finally have had sun the last week and able to dry up some.  Ginseng  is flowering and will  have green berries by end of month.  Golden Sseal berries are green and will ripen in July.  We gather the red berries and will put seed berries in ginseng grow beds.  Ginseng like growing with Golden Seal and is a great companion plant. 

MAY UPDATE:  Ginseng is about 80% sprouted through the forest.  Will take until middle of May for all the ginseng to come up.  Our over 50 year old wild ginseng plant has 3 stems coming from one root.  The 70 year old wild Ginseng are up also.  I will have to look at the Bloodroot seed pods every day and watch the pods when they are ripe.  Bloodroot seed ripens early and seed pods burst spreading the seeds.  Most of this seed never gets into ground so dries up.  So I gather seed when is ripe and plant the seeds in our bare spots in Ginseng grow beds.  We are having good success doing this and we have baby Bloodroots the next spring.  Golden Seal and the other medicinal herbs are all up also.  We finally got our  taters planted a month later than I normally do though with all our rains we should do ok.  Hope everyone is OK with Covid 19, we have 2 cases in our county .  

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 $800 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.