Demand is High for Our Book on Growing Ginseng, Goldenseal and More!

If you are serious about growing woodland medicinal herbs, whether for a business or your own personal enjoyment, this is the book to have. Written by two well-know authorities, the book is chock full of information and hundreds of pictures on how to grow ginseng, goldenseal, ramps, black cohosh, and many other native herbs.

How to Get a Copy of the Book: We suggest you order the book through the publisher, New Society Publishers, or your favorite local book store; that way the authors can receive their full royalties. It is available in bookstores where native plant gardening is popular. You can order the book through all the big on-line discount book sellers. Many sellers offer the book on Ebay. The book is also available as an ebook through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, New Society Publishers, and elsewhere.

The book is a high-quality soft cover book with 508 pages. It has a center color photo section and black and white photos throughout. Here is detailed information about the book and a link to the table of contents.

 

Collecting and Germinating Ramp Seeds

Depending on where you are located, ramps are starting to yellow or soon will be. If you look closely at a patch of ramps, you will probably see flower buds just beginning to show on some of them. Now is the time to plan for seed collection. When ramp seeds are mature, the leaves of the plant are usually gone and the base of the plant is often covered up by the foliage of other plants. It is not uncommon for the only evidence of the ramps to be the seed heads. They can be REALLY difficult to find unless you know exactly where to look.

So, if you want to collect and sow ramp seeds, I suggest that mark your ramp patches now. This can be done with flagging, rock formations, or you could just get a GPS coordinate for the location. Then, in late August to early September, you can return to collect the mature seed. Be sure to wait until the seeds are black.

There are several methods for germinating ramp seeds, and a number of them are described in my book. But here is the easiest procedure that has worked for me. As quoted in the book, "Collect the mature, black seed from the plants in late August before the seeds fall to the ground; then, either immediately plant the seeds in a nursery bed or store the seeds in paper envelopes in a cool, dry place until you are ready to plant them in a moist site. Little seedlings should emerge after exposure to one warm season and one cold season in the soil. This usually means after 18 months. If you planted the fresh seed early enough in the season for the seeds to get a long period of warm temperatures before the soil cooled down for the winter, you should obtain good emergence the first spring after sowing-in about seven months."

There is a whole section devoted to ramps in the book Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals.

Let's Grow Ramps!!

My first ramp research plots.

"In 1998, when I first started growing ramps, there were only a few individuals in North America producing ramps for commercial purposes. I relied heavily on their experiences to initiate my own successful ramp cultivation efforts and studies. Since that time we have learned a great deal about them, and people are successfuly growing ramps all over North America." That is the opening paragraph in Chapter 15: Ramp Growing Instructions: Methods, Care, Protection, Harvesting and Marketing in our book "Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals". This is ramps season and this is the perfect time to start growing your own ramps. The way I got my first ramp patch started was to buy ramps at a ramps festival and plant them out.

As described in that same chapter, "Choose an appropriate planting site, as described earlier [in the chapter]. Rake off the leaf litter, till the soil, add any needed amendments, and work them in. Make raised beds if you plan to do so. To plant your bulbs or transplants, dig little trenches 4-5" deep across your beds or planting areas. Spacing these trenches 4-6" apart gives the plants some room to multiply. I make trenches by simply dragging a hand trowel across the bed. Set dormant bulbs approximately 3" apart and 3" deep, with the growing point facing up. Cover with soil so just the very tip of the bulb shows above the soil surface. Transplant leafed-out plants the same depth they had been growing. Finally, cover both bulbs and transplants with several inches of mulch. Transplants will usually reach harvestable size in four to six years."

The chapter includes two growers' stories. The first one is about the Smoky Mountain Native Plants Association. Here is a short video (link) of them explaining how to sustainably harvest ramps. The second story is about Glen Facemire of Ramp Farm Specialities in West Virginia. In 2008, Glen wrote and published a wonderful little book on ramps called "Having Your Ramps and Eating Them, Too." 

All this information and so much more is available in my book "Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals".

Where to Buy Seeds and Plants to Grow Your Own Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Botanicals

The interest in growing ginseng, goldenseal, black cohosh, bloodroot, and ramps is greater than ever. I receive dozens of inquiries each week at work about them. Common questions this week have been "Where can I buy ginseng seeds?", "Who sells goldenseal rhizomes?", "Where can I buy shade cloth?", and "Where can I buy a root washer?" Because Scott Persons and I get so many of those questions, we put extnesive (although not exhaustive) resource lists in our book "Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals". All of those listed are companies we have done business with or know personally.

Fall is a good time to plant and its not too late to get many of these plants and seeds into the ground. Just think, come spring you will have some of your own woodland medicinals growing!

If you are serious about growing woodland medicinal herbs, whether for a business or your own personal enjoyment, this is the book to have. Written by two well-know authorities, the book is chock full of information and hundreds of pictures on how to grow ginseng, goldenseal, ramps, black cohosh, and many other native herbs.

How to Get a Copy of the Book: We suggest you order the book through the publisher, New Society Publishers, or your favorite local book store; that way the authors can receive their full royalties. It is available in bookstores where native plant gardening is popular. You can order the book through all the big on-line discount book sellers. Many sellers offer the book on Ebay. The book is also available as an ebook through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, New Society Publishers, and elsewhere.

The book is a high-quality soft cover book with 508 pages. It has a center color photo section and black and white photos throughout. Here is detailed information about the book and a link to the table of contents.

My New Book on Ginseng and Goldenseal is Hot Off the Press!

I got so excited when two copies of my new book arrived this morning that I took my first "'selfie" (ever) and just had to share. This has been a long time coming and represents hundreds of hours interviewing, writing, revising, and editing. Writing a book is a labor of love and its almost like holding a new baby when you finally get to pick it up, smell it, and flip through the pages. It is not yet available in stores, so you can still preorder it through the publisher, your local bookstore, or the "big guys" (Amazon and Walmart).

Here's a little about it:

The sudden popularity in wild-harvesting ginseng has increased interest in how to find, grow, and profit from native woodland botanicals. Whereas widespread harvesting of these native plants from our forests can threaten their very existence, the authors of this book promote conservation through cultivation. While there is a great deal of material available -- both in print and on the internet -- that discusses growing ginseng and other woodland botanicals, almost none of it forthrightly assesses profitability and the challenges that may be encountered trying to produce and sell these plants. Forest landowners, if they follow this book and use patience and common sense, can grow many of these native medicinals profitably while preserving and even enhancing their woodlands.

Aspiring herb growers are often attracted first to American ginseng, because it is the most valuable medicinal botanical and because it has a broad, well-established market, which has persisted for over 275 years. Indeed, in the southern part of its range, ginseng has long been referred to as “green gold.” The first half of this book is devoted entirely to this one native plant. An individual can cultivate a forest garden of this fascinating and subtle herb just for his (or her) own consumption, but ginseng also has great potential as a small-scale cash crop with a ready market. With little capital investment, the small farmer can net a greater profit growing ginseng on a rugged, otherwise idle, woodlot than he can net raising just about any other legal crop on an equal area of cleared land. Of course, you have to be willing to take a risk, bend your back, get your hands dirty and  persevere when the payoff is years in the future.

The second half of this book provides practical guidance in the production and marketing of other native woodland herbs that also have the potential to yield “green gold.” Goldenseal and ramps are covered at length and in detail, because their economic potential is well established and reliable information on their propagation is available.  Black cohosh, bloodroot, and ten other lesser known native botanicals are discussed as thoroughly as present knowledge allows, with emphasis on their potential and their uncertainties. Plant botany and usage and present market conditions are addressed in detail. Personal stories of successful growers, extensive references and resources, including a unique Disease List, enhance this book. 

And new to this edition is a section just for home gardeners, information on wild-harvesting, and rules and regulations pertaining to the buying and selling of these plants. It is hoped that this book will help the herb grower to diversify and enjoy a greater variety of woodland medicinal herbs and/or to reduce risk and increase long-term profit potential.

Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist with NC State University. Her focus is helping farmers diversify into medicinal herbs, new crops and organic agriculture.

W. Scott Persons is the author of American Ginseng: Green Gold and an expert in growing and marketing wild-simulated and woods-cultivated ginseng.

New Ginseng & Goldenseal Book is Available for Preorder!

I am pleased to announce the newly revised and updated version of our book on ginseng, goldenseal, and other woodland medicinals is now available for pre-order through the publisher and some on-line book retailers. For goldenseal, ramps, and other woodland medicinals, I added a home gardener section with some simple recipes for products to make from the herbs you grow, chapters about wild-harvesting and new regulations affecting the industry, new and updated grower stories, an expanded price list with historical information, and new photographs. Scott revised his ginseng sections and added a chapter on ginseng growing for the home gardener section. This book now provides something for everyone interested in these native woodland plants.

You can preorder the book now directly through the publisher New Society. You can also look for it through your favorite on-line retailer. It was just announced, so that might take a few weeks, although WalMart posted it this week.

My ginseng and goldenseal book is now available as an ebook!

In 2005, wild-simulated ginseng expert, Scott Persons, and I published the book "Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals. It sold out fairly quickly and so we did a minor revision and another printing in 2007. All those copies are gone now, too. Unfortunately, our publisher Cynthia Bright of Bright Mountain Books, is retiring and we have to look for a new publisher. In the meantime, she arranged to have our book released in an ebook version so it is still available (thank you, Cynthia!). You can now download the book to your Nook, Kindle, computer, smartphone, or tablet. Instant gratification!!!  I love it. It is the complete book for only $15.  It is available through the links above and through a number of other online ebook retailers.  Be careful, we have already found two illegal download offerings for pdf versions but Trend Micro gives a "dangerous" warning if you click on the links.

In addition, Scott and I are negotiating with a new publisher to produce an expanded new version of our book. We will update all the information in the current book AND I will add a chapter just for home gardeners. The demand for me to give workshops and presentations to home gardeners has exploded, so it's time to put that information in print. We expect that book to be available in spring 2014.

UPDATE July 2013: Scott and I signed a contract with New Society Publishers in Canada and plan to release the new book next summer.  Until then, the ebook version of the current book is good. There will be some broken links on some URLs, but you can search for updated ones and the prices shown for some herbs will be out of date, but still give you a good idea of what herbs are selling for.