Dale McSwain wrote:

How difficult is it to raise your own ginseng?
I see a lot of ginseng production in Wisconsin
on a large scale. Wonder what the income is per
acre? Anyone have a clue?

Ginseng is very demanding (half shade, slope, porous dirt, not too
deep...), and very labor intensive. If its requirements aren't met it's
quite likely to catch a disease and die. You need to grow it for at least
three years before you can first dig it, and then you've got
lowest-quality root, for which you get peanuts or less.

Were you to go the chemical route I wish you luck, but I will avoid your
product at all cost. It's a root crop, and if you can't give it a comfy
home it'll need _lots_ of *cides (pesti-, fungi-, whatever-,). And those
aren't cheap either ...

There's a reason ginseng is priced so high, and that reason is not a lack
of hopefuls growing it. As a matter of fact, some commercial ginseng
growers used to cash in by selling seeds to hopefuls. Dunno if they still
sell those at the earlier exorbitant rates or if the hopefuls have gotten
wiser.

Henriette

--
Henriette Kress, AHG Helsinki, Finland
Henriette's herbal homepage: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed
Best of RHOD: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod