Learn from my ignorance. I seasonally visit our future retirement property, 20 acres with about 8 heavily wooded, hedge walnut etc. Broadcast several pounds of gensing seed, to my horror the next year the floor was carpeted with 6" poison oak! Sprayed it all! Then went for a walk through later with my glasss on. Was unaware how much baby seng looks like poison oak when not wearing my glasses. Pricey defeat personally blown.
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You are fortunate to live in a place with “trees for weeds”.
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I feel it is important for everyone that people like us dont build housing developments who could. Money is not my guiding force. The planet needs trees and to many people have got rich from focusing on their own self serving interests. Sub dividing property is ridiculously profitable. There is a housing shortage in most places. The answer is not to use our land that oxygen makers and food are grown on for housing. Plenty of land and houses are available in cities like detroit than can be demolished and rebuilt for housing. They might need to ease up on taxes on property all over the country.
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Hmmmmm…I see from your screen name you must have come by a fear of itchig through experience. I had a little patch of ginseng once upon a time…then off to college…and next time I looked for it, somebody had raided it. Maybe I should buy some more seeds. Last ones I bought 30 years ago and didn’t get many to come up///live.
Might as well get some more seeds in the ground , but as you say, sleep with one eye open. Think i will get some more dogs once the plants get a couple years old. Most harvest a few roots at 5 or 6 years old
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One of my favorite threads
Try again in 50 or 60 days.
Some of the best wild forest plant crops here in Austria, Europe would be bear leek (Allium ursinum) if you have chalky, limestone soil and bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) if you have acidic soil. Both of them form dense groundcovers across the forest floor. I would never try introducing them where they are not native though, especially bear leek. It would very readily become invasive. Bear leek typically grows in deciduous Beech or Oak woodlands on limestone while bilberry grows in montane, acidic spruce and pine woodlands.
There is also a similar species to bear leek from the Caucasus called few-flowered leek (Allium paradoxum). It has been introduced to some areas in Germany and Austria and spread into the wild. I have seen it growing next to bear leek in the forest in one place, after escaping from a planting in a nearby garden. It seems very similar to bear leek, but due to the thinner leaves, the poisonous lookalikes are different (it could be mixed up with e.g. snowdrop leaves, while bear leek is usually mixed up with lily of the valley or meadow saffron).
I have heard from another similar species native to the US though, called ramp (Allium tricoccum). You also have a lot of different blueberry species that would do well in a forest setting on acidic soil. Pawpaws are another native woodland plant, but probably more for brighter edges and along streams if you want good fruit production. You could clear around them if you find wild plants in the forest. I have also heard positive reviews regarding the fruit of American mayapple and you already mentioned American ginseng.
I have heard of people having some success with Ribes species in an agroforestry setting, especially Ribes nigra.
Mushrooms are probably your best bet, as they require no sunlight to bring you a crop.
Another option would be to have the forest trees themselves produce a crop. Here in Europe this could be English walnut or European chestnuts on acidic soil. Oak or Beech could also be a crop but need processing to become directly edible to humans. Acorns have typically been used as fodder for pigs. Another fruit tree that can grow as a full-sized forest tree here in Europe is cherry (Prunus avium). In the US you might consider the other American-native Juglandaceae nut trees or American persimmon.
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@BlueBerry, yes highly allergic-horrifying childhood experiences with poison oak, actually had to take a daily potion for years…screen name due to favorite niece not being allowed to curse came up with " b with an itch" DH turned it into “don’t be an itchy bee” when i nagged him…
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I do get poison ivy … like on tender shin and such, but it’s typically not a big bother to me.
I’ll reach into a plant pot and pull up a baby poison ivy plant using my fingers and usually not be concerned. (Though if I broke the skin of the plant and got sap on me, I try to rinse off before I accidentally scratch some more tender skin.)
As a child decades ago this barefoot boy ran through thick patches of poison ivy in the forest and the only concern I had being I might step on a copper head snake or fall in a hole from a rotten chestnut tree stump!
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My mother told me years ago we would lose some of our immunity as we age like she did. My sister and i collected plenty of bets after we rolled in it with no ill effects as children. The other children had learned at an early age to respect it. We often were paid off to salt poison ivy patches or pull thistles as children.
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My youngest sibling has had to go to doctor because of poison ivy.
Me…I’ve eaten the pollen and the honey from it.
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I told my mom last year that when I mowed it off, i could feel it but never broke out. It was a very large patch. I showered quickly afterwards.The body changes as we age.
The juvenile stage doesn’t bloom (Similar to English ivy)…but large old poison ivy becomes a large vine climbing to the tops of trees in good environments. And it is from these old big (tall) vines that most poison ivy blooms…(and makes lots and lots of seeds that birds eat and subsequently distribute all over creation).
You probably realize that, but most I’m sure don’t.
(If you had enough of a concentration of these big poison ivy vines…it could be a possible nectar and honey item … getting back to the ‘forest farming’ concept.)
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At my old place, poison ivy liked to climb trees-especially burr oaks.
Where I live now, i have yet to see PI climb, even though I have many burr oaks. PI prefers to spread into “patches” instead. All through central MN you will see huge amounts of PI growing in ditches and sidehills.
I used to be immune to the stuff, not anymore…
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Yes i had to kill out some old plants last year that got away from me while i was sick. Blackberries and poison ivy seem to be compannion plants.
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Sumac is another oportunistic plant…apt to be in areas of the 2 you mention.
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There are large patches of mixed blackberry, PI, and wild rose growing all around my place.
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Those 3 and invasive honeysuckle are real problems sometimes. The blackberries and roses rip me to peices! Wild grapes are not as bad.
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Even the invasive honeysuckle is a good honey plant…and the berries could be edible in a pinch…or mixed in a blend.