Well -- you're going to have to rig up an irrigation system and control the insects that feed on this "crop." I've never seen anything deteriorate overnight like that. BTW, I had a rather distinguished "volunteer" show up in my garden a couple of weeks ago -- some folk call it "weed!" I was shocked and amused.

Lezlie

Matt, I always thought that some forms of flowers and fish, have a strong resemblance to the unknown aliens, but this one is such a fiction motive for all the writers, and novel thinkers. Sorry for your ginseng, summer here in Greece has such a strong heat, it is a miracle that nature is still blooming. Thank you for sharing.

Wow. That was a journey from flushing the well to agricultural discovery to loss. I hope you can figure out how to save it. Keep your eye out for truffles. They are worth a ton. R

I can't help with a diagnosis, but I do know that there's a fairly healthy market for your crop. I represented someone once who was charged with going onto someone's land and taking their ginseng. Guilty as charged, I'm afraid, although I don't remember if they proved it.

What a shame, Matt. Could have been anything, maybe the roots weren't long enough to reach any water lying beneath, could have been some kind of grub, acidy animal urine...anything.

I'm concerned about my orchids now...haven't thought about them in 2 weeks.

The heat has killed everything.
HUGGGGGGGGGGGG

That is one butt ugly plant and if I ever caught it growing around here I would sic my goat on that sucker.

Matt: you have could a nice lucrative side business if you are willing to work at it for 3 years (takes that long for wild seedlings, to produce seeds, and the seeds take 18 months to germinate). They say a ginseng patch needs air circulation, and to cut off extra branches and bushes to improve air flow. Moist air causes rot and diseases.

In America, I learned to put garlic in everything I possibly could, it is so advantages for heart disease. Ginseng has numerous medicinal properties, and it sells like, well not gold, but silver for sure.

Oops; here's the link:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/for-fact/0057.html

That is so cool, Matt. Wild ginseng? I had no idea it even grew here. Or that it had berries. Or really, anything about it. You're always full of surprises and apparently so is your garden.

All I know about ginseng is its effects on the body, nothing about its growing conditions. I hope you still can maintain diplomatic relations with China and Korea! R

Is ginseng not the most ancient tree on the planet?
Your crop looks infested by some tiny insects.
Not all of the ginseng is dead.I guess you'll have to hurry in applying a fine mist to the whole affected area.What I have learned over the years is that by stabilizing the plant,it develops resistancy against many ailments.
I would,like Thoth suggested,google for ginseng/china/korea.
I might do that for you today.I find it important not to use the industrial chemical killers.
I'll let you know what I come up with.
~r~

Here is a link:

www.help-farm.com

That ginseng looks suspiciously like Gumby!

r.

Sean Connery would probably harvest a stash of garlic mustard, mull it, boil it in walnut water, and then spray the simmering concoction on the ill ginseng.
You know, race for the cure.
I'm sorry for the way things are in North Korea. Dad would ask,
"How many plants does a man need?"

I like mowing the mint patch the previous owners planted in the back yard. MMMMMMM....:D

Lezlie, the leaves were like that when I discovered the plants, altho in the fading light I couldn't be sure they were part of the same plant. Next day in full sunlight the tragic truth was indisputable. I noticed further down in Kate's comment that too much humidity may be bad for them. This is probly why they flourish in the Blue Ridge Mountains, at least until traffickers dig them up to sell in the Asian markets. The national parks up there have banned the practice.

Tks, Afrodite. That root does look as if at any moment it might blurt out "Phone home!" I'm sorry Greece is suffering from the heat, as well. It's been a long hot summer.

Jerry, I've heard that about truffles, but wouldn't know one if I stepped on it. I'm afraid the ginseng plants have had it this year - their growing time in Virginia is June-July - but maybe next year they'll do better.

JL, probly need a video or eyewitness testimony. Now that I've published this I should probly be more vigilant.

V, I've been raising an orchid indoors. Bought it a couple of years back and it appeared to have died in fall. I transplanted it, kept it watered and made sure it got plenty of sun. The leaves started coming back - it has five now - and last month new flower stems appeared. I put it outdoors on the deck three days ago and a couple of the leaves now have white spots. Probly too big a change from the air conditioned house to the 90+ temps outdoors. But the humidity is heavy and it's now getting direct sunlight. Two of the flower stems are now dried at the tips, but the other three look fine. First time I've ever tried to grow an orchid.

Linda, almost everything. But our spirits remain undaunted, no?

David, I suspect then your goat would be even hornier than he is now.

Kate, I think you've diagnosed the problem. Too much humidity. Tks for the link.

Tks, Margaret. I guess it's not been cool enuf for the ginseng, tho. I wish at least the berries would ripen so I could harvest the seeds.

Sam, I'm thinking of learning Mandarin. Might be best to start teaching it in our schools.

No insects, Heidi, that I saw. I do believe humidity is the culprit here. Tks for the link. I'll check it out.

Gumby! Jon, you win the caption contest.

J.P., I can hear Mishter Connery now: "If the leavzh die, dig up the rootsh. That'sh the Chicago way!"

Tink, mint my tail! That's the experimental farm where they're developing a catnip/coca hybrid. Feel a little light headed, do we? Friskier than usual?

You live so close to nature! And the whole situation sounds very magical to me...that ginseng root looks like a mandrake root, which makes me think of the magical properties attributed to that root in bygone times ("GO and catch a falling star,/Get with child a mandrake root," - my man John Donne). Maybe the fact that you saw the plants made them shrivel - maybe they were a secret never meant to be seen by human eyes?

...Sorry, we're having a heatwave here, too and I'm not doing well without air conditioning. Let's say the ginseng situation's got something to do with the weather....yeah....

Alysa, it's not the heat, it does look like a mandrake root - unless I've been overcome, too. Heat index here today is supposed to push way over 100. Drink plenty of fluids and don't exert yourself. Catch up on your reading. (at least that's my excuse)

I am amazed that you discovered ginseng , and the photograph is wonderful! ~r

So, just curious. Is it really an aphrodisiac? Just interested from the point of view of . . . uh . . . scientific inquiry.

I'm with Alysa. Too magical for words. Ginseng just grows on its own? If anyone can save the ginseng it is you.
Helps with flagging energy? wouldn't that be everyone at one time or another.
Dear Ginseng Horticulturist,
Loved the way you wrote this. The humor and charm of it wasn't missed, I tell ya. You will one day soon have fresh ginseng.

Very best,
Fernsy flagging energy

[r] what a good news/bad news scenario. thank you for the education on ginseng, though. And GACK says it all! keep us posted on those self-identity cards. i never even filled out the upper left profile on myself at os. GACK! best, libby xxx

If there are no bugs to be seen,you might have some tenant in the soil.Plants can be troubled by root vole or other rodents.

©2009-2012 www.buttersaeure24.de
Matt,I have done a bit of searching.I have contacted www.herb-farm.com and I am waiting for a response.
The above email address suggests using buttersaeure/butyric acid in case of root vole.
Let's wait and see what the herb pharmacy suggests.

for chrissakes, old man, last damn thing u need is
another aphrodisiactic (sic) !
them damn things could maybe raise yer heartrate up to
heartattack levels...

hee hee.

if i had a crop of ginsing ? what the f. would i have a crop
of f.ing ginseng for for heaven's sake?
i ain t the owner of a yard.

Joan, me, too! Thanks. I had to set the camera outside for a few minutes to equalize the temperature so the lens wouldn't fog over (which happened the first time and gave me an artsier image than I wanted)

Con, my advice: Buy a box of Celestial Seasonings ginseng tea, make some tea, drink it, and report back.

Ah, Fernsy, my energy level unflags every time i read something of yours - and see that youthful avatar.

Tks, Libby. I got gack from the comics, but I don't remember which one.

Heidi, indeed we have voles. Could be the culprits, altho our seven cats patiently hunt the little devils whenever they're not napping.

Plant the seeds in pots, James. Might be just the pick-me-up a yout' needs for an evening of...er, intellectual endurance.

That is wild. The ginseng man reminds me of the mandrake root in that Spanish flick "Pan's Labyrinth." Have you seen it? There's a strange scene in which a mandrake root is placed under a pregnant woman's bed to cure her illness. It's so bizarre. It looks like a baby and squirms and screams in pain when someone throws it on a fire. Yech. Creeped me out big time. ...

a case for Inspector Morse

Matt! No direct sunlight on orchids!!!!! Stick em under a bush or something.

Thanks for the warning, Deborah. That damned photo gave me nightmares last nite. I'll pass on the movie.

Send him by, please, Ume. I need all the help I can get.

V, yikes and thanx! I read you comment and dashed out to the deck. Put the poor plant in the shadows there. Already the largest flower stem tip has died. The two left still look healthy.

Orchids in the sun?That's a capital crime. Day light,yes,no direct sunlight.
You know Matt,I know some other nuisance in the garden:www.topagrar.com (Drahtwürmer/Goldor bait)here is the link
de.wikipedia.org
Here is a link of aperson with an English name in Switzerland.

Mail: carl.miller@bluewin.ch. Biologische Drahtwurmbekämpfung mittels Tellerfallen. Die Bekämpfung von Drahtwürmer auf biologischer Basis gestaltet sich als ...

Matt--I have this ah. . .friend. . . .who has a tendency to put way too much faith in any given pill. Herbal or man made. Doesn't matter. Guy is a sucker for anything with a too good to be true claim. (A bit of a head case.) So he hears about what ginseng can do. Goes out and buys, I don't know, a truckload. Takes it for a week. And lets just say that Johnny Holmes (this was an old guy so that's why I'm using that name) was not exactly threatened. But the second week? The world changes. Guy starts thinking that certain very private events should be Olympic events and that he is a shoo in for gold medal. Finally he's found a magic pill!

He thought the girl he was living with was laughing all the time cause she was ah. . .happy.

Till she showed him that she had switched the ENTIRE bottle of ginseng with vitamin c pills. Which she thought was really funny.

So whatever is killing your crop? ( Shrugs shoulders, wanders off. . .)

you sure in your excitement you didnt spill some clorox?

i like this picture of you walking in the woods mattie, and i just wrote a piece today about the flowers. perhaps next spring or this crunchy fall, we will get to take a walk together!

Rog, maybe he suffered from a vitamin C deficiency.

That would be fun, Daisy. I didn't spill any Clorox, but I did attract a few chiggers that started families in my ankles. Maybe the chiggers ate the ginseng leaves. I love your wildflower post, btw.

Matt: As a followup to my original comment, I'd like to note that "Pan's Labyrinth" was a brilliant film about the oppression of fascism, and the mandrake scene was a small part of the story.