@hobilus — I have a online friend from VT… his online name was Maya… he had a huge apple orchard and does well at that but he is a Seng hunter too… He hunts some very steep ravines and collects some very high quality ginseng. He gets a very good price for his seng too. Ginseng in VT, NY, NC… many buyers seem to favor… in different areas of the east it looks a little different, the root does and there are specific looks that the buyers will pay premium prices for.
@BlueBerry - I always took very good care of my ginseng collection, dug it right, cleaned it right. dried it right… and once dry I would look thru thousands of roots and pick out the smallest of the bulb roots that had 25+ years age. They were my favorites… the ones that were growing in (not so ideal location) but survived 25 years or more. I kept those for my own personal use.
@Fusion_power — stratified ginseng seed averages around 7000 seeds per pound. I planted over 10 pounds myself… 70,000 seeds… and after about year 4 or 5, your plants will start producing berries… each berry normally has 2 seeds… sometimes 1, sometimes 3, but normally 2. I have planted thousands of those too, even had my own seed producing bed for 12 years.
I have several youtube vids on all things ginseng related, hunting it, growing it, etc…
I have not done video’s in years now but was into that for a few years.
I hesitate to give recommendations, but on the off chance someone wants to plant some ginseng seed, here is one source for seed. His seed are good quality stratified and ready to plant. You have to give them decent care and be sure to plant in a place where they can thrive.
We are in Indiana, well in the native range of mayapple, and it is a very common plant in our woods. We have hundreds of individual plants which can spread out to form large patches linked by roots underground. We walk our woods nearly everyday and keep an eye on ripening. Still it is difficult to catch mayapple at the correct ripeness and quality for eating (soft, wrinkled, yellow and smelling good to eat). My kids always say that the box turtles beat them to the fruit. We are happy if we get to eat 1-2 per year and that is with hundreds of plants, acres of mayapple to harvest from. Maybe it would perform differently in an area where it is not adapted but for us it doesn’t offer much potential as a crop. Maybe it could be a foraged crop on public lands if someone wanted to walk 1,000 acres to gather.
The chipmunks get a lot of stuff here. I understand skunks, possums, and raccoons are all BIG fans of mayapple fruits, too. Surely there’s a way to protect the fruit. It seems an unlikely crop, as such though. Still something I’d be glad to pick some of.
I just came across this thread. I have always admired Mayapple after seeing large colonies in very wet ground in Southern Illinois. I have planted some here in VT in a shaded ravine, but it is barely advancing. I’ll be moving it to a much wetter place where I’ve removed some of the canopy this year.
I had Podophyllum hexandrum growing well in a fairly sunny moist spot at a previous house. Quite tall (thirty inches at least), lightly variegated, and big fruit. Now I’m sorry I never tried eating the fruit, but local wildlife did. I always meant to collect seed as well.
Interesting Brian-
I’ve seen online all sorts of interesting ornamental forms of Asian Podophyllum. I didn’t poke around too much about the details, but they seem to have some promising traits. It sounds like hardiness may be one of them. Where exactly were you growing them? How did the fruit compare in size and shape to average peltatum, which are mostly about the size of a jumbo chicken egg from what I’ve seen?
I was growing that plant in zone 5, in New Hampshire. I’d say the fruit was about the size you describe for P. peltatum, and easy to see because of the plant’s size. I can’t recall ever being in the right place to see peltatum fruit. I grew it for about 5 years and hoped it would spread a bit, but it didn’t seem inclined to.
None are native in my location, and I only grow the American mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum). I have two different clones and they have been slow growing.
So far, my Mayapples (all peltatum) are staying put. I have a couple purchased from a local micro-nursery that seems to mostly grow things from seed. I was also given crowns by a neighbor whose mother collected them in Ohio decades ago. She planted them on a steep east facing bank and they’ve spread to cover several hundreds of sq ft. in that time.
I’ve managed to get ripe fruit off a few times and have stratified seed and grown out in seedling trays. I’ve noticed a fair bit of variation in the leaf form- some taller with larger leaves, some less finely lobed. I’m curious how much variation there is in fruit quality and precocity.
I corresponded with a fellow from Experimental Farming Network about a selection (not clear to me if it’s a single clone) he calls ‘Tracy’, I believe. He claims that the majority ( ~90%) of its stems are of the 2 leaved flowering/fruiting type, vs the average 50% or less. If individuals really do vary genetically for this trait, it would stand to make a big difference in yield. I would have at least some suspicion that this difference might be related to site condition, though. I was hoping to secure a crown or two from the individual in question, but he is unwilling at present to share crowns. He offered to share seed in the event he’s able to harvest some fruit, but it’s not clear to me that trait would be reliably passed on. At best, I’d think it would need to be selected for, though who’s to say, really.
Another issue seems to be pollination. I found a paper that documents drastically higher fruit set in the presence of another unrelated flowering species whose bloom overlaps, the scientists postulated that it might attract pollinators to mayapple, which apparently is not particularly attractive to pollinators. I imagine growing in far flung shady places isn’t very attractive for most pollinators, either. I’ll see if I can dig it up.
It sounds like those of us interested in mayapple should be on the lookout for significant variation in fruiting potential, probably other things like vigor too. I’d think a few good clones grown out in relative isolation out of their native range might be a good start to improvement through low intensity amateur breeding.
Nice to see that the Mayapples I’ve planted over the past 4 years are getting established. I’m growing them on my man-made woodland wildflower bed. My wife’s parents dumped all brush and woody debris in this one spot for nearly 30 years. I had a dozer spread it level and cap it with a bit of soil. In the years that followed, it was colonized by jack in the pulpit and trillium, among other things. I added loads of ramps and wild ginger, and also planted spice bush and a couple of Carolina silver bells. The wood has broken down to form the deepest fluffiest duff, and so it makes a nice impromptu woodland garden perched ponderously in the middle of a dry ledgy almost outcrop.
The Mayapples are definitely taking hold and starting to spread. Looks like a good number of flowers this year too.
It’s good there’s so much decomposing wood in
there as it seems mayapple really do well in those conditions. I went to get some more crowns from my neighbor this spring and wound up digging up this clump, which was growing into and through a large chunk of rotting wood.
One of the seedlings I grew out has leaves that are far less lobed than the others. It’s still kind of small, so maybe that trait will change. But it’s been consistent over the several years I’ve observed it.
I am going on year two with my Podophyllum peltatum ‘Joy Creek’ clone (I bought it just in time before Joy Creek nursery permanently closed). Last year it sent up one stem which flowered and bore a fruit (self pollinated). This year it has sent up three stems and all three have a flower! That’s pretty good. I think this might prove to be a productive clone as it matures.
On the other hand I am now going on year three with Podophyllum peltatum f. deamii ‘Missouri May’ which arrived as a very small start and did not flower in year one or two. This year it has sent up two stems and only one of the two have a flower bud. The plant looks much more delicate and thin overall (including a smaller flower) when compared to the ‘Joy Creek’ clone. Hopefully it’ll ripen a fruit for me to try this year.
The Joy Creek one sounds promising. Wow, 4 for 4 on stalks being two leaves flowering types. I’ll have to look at line, but I’d say offhand 50% is probably about what I’m seeing. What are the site conditions like where you are growing them? Any pics to share? I’d love a bit of crown sometime if/when you have it to share. I may write Joy Creek and see if they might be willing to sell or otherwise distribute any more of it. It sounds like it’s growing in a big patch near the nursery. The pic on their webpage would seem to show pretty a high percentage of flowering stalks, though it’s hard to discern really. Definitely keep us up to date on how that does in the future, especially in relation to percentage of flowering stalks.
Mine are still in pots. Part sun, part shade. I will probably wait till they’re big enough to divide before putting them in ground so I can keep potted back ups in case they end up not liking the planting site.
