One Year's Growth of Ginseng Under Lattice Shade.
Mr. Wm E. Mowrer, of Missouri, is evidently not in favor of the cloth shading. I think if he had thoroughly water-proofed the cloth it would have withstood the action of the weather much better. It would have admitted considerably less light and if he had given enough mulch to keep the soil properly cool and allowed space enough for ventilation, he would not have found the method so disastrous. We will not liken his trial to the potato patch, but to the field where tobacco is started under canvas. A tent is a cool place if it is open at the sides and has openings in the top and the larger the tent the cooler it will be. Ginseng does splendidly under a tent if the tent is built expressly with regard to the requirements of Ginseng.
In point of cheapness a vine shading is yet ahead of the cloth system. The wild cucumber vine is best for this purpose, for it is exactly suited by nature to the conditions in a Ginseng garden. It is a native of moist, shady places, starts early, climbs high and rapidly. The seeds may be planted five or six in a "hill" in the middle of the beds, if preferred, at intervals of six or seven feet, and the vines may be trained up a small pole to the arbor frame. Wires, strings or boughs may be laid over the arbor frame for the vines to spread over. If the shade becomes too dense some of the vines may be clipped off and will soon wither away. Another advantage of the wild cucumber is that it is very succulent, taking an abundance of moisture and to a great extent guards against excessive dampness in the garden. The vines take almost no strength from the soil. The exceeding cheapness of this method is the great point in its favor. It is better to plant a few too many seeds than not enough, for it is easy to reduce the shade if too dense, but difficult to increase it in the summer if too light.
This disease threatens seriously to handicap us in the raising of Ginseng, says a writer in "Special Crops." It does down, but is giving us trouble all over the country. No section seems to be immune from it, tho all seem to be spraying more or less. I know of several good growers whose gardens have gone down during the last season and this, and they state that they began early and sprayed late, but to no decided benefit. What are we to do? Some claim to have perfect success with spraying as their supposed prevention.
Three years ago I began to reason on this subject and in my rambles in the woods, I have watched carefully for this disease, as well as others on the wild plant, and while I have now and then noted a wild plant that was not entirely healthy, I have never seen any evidence of blight or other real serious disease. The wild plant usually appears ideally healthy, and while they are smaller than we grow in our gardens, they are generally strikingly healthful in color and general appearance. Why is this so? And why do we have such a reverse of things among our gardens?
I will offer my ideas on the subject and give my theories of the causes of the various diseases and believe that they are correct and time will prove it. At least I hope these efforts of mine will be the means of helping some who are having so much trouble in the cultivation of Ginseng. The old saw that the "proof of the pudding is in chewing the bag," may be amply verified by a visit to my gardens to show how well my theories have worked so far. I will show you Ginseng growing in its highest state of perfection and not a scintilla of blight or any species of alternaria in either of them, while around me I scarcely know of another healthy garden.
To begin with, moisture is our greatest enemy; heat next; the two combined at the same time forming the chief cause for most diseases of the plant.