weed control for ginseng

Hey Guys, I'm needing some info. Last fall I planted a small patch of ginseng. The weeds are now thick and I've been told to spray it with 2-4 d. Is this possible without killing the ginseng.

Absolutely NOT!The best method of weed control for ginseng is mechanical removal, or by hand weeding.

Thank you Dave, It didn't make sense to me... unless a certain time of year the plants are dormant.

X2

And believe it or not a few weeds don't hurt a thing. Pulling all weeds and leaving just the ginseng will help promote the spread of diseases. Pulling of weeds can also bring the fungus such as phytophera root rot to the soil's surface, allowing it to become active and spread.
In your post you say the weeds are thick. If they are so thick they are choking out the ginseng then I would definitely remove some but I would wait until the ginseng and weeds start to die back for the upcoming winter.

Even if the roots were dormant, 2=4D can trans locate into the soil and kill the root.

I also wouldn't feel comfortable using a chemical herbicide on a root that will be consumed by people some day.

I'm confident about the planting. My friend Doyle showed me where and how to plant. But I'm not sure it even came up this first year. What about mowing the area late ...before winter?

Mowing isn't really going to help. The weed roots are still in the ground and will come up next year. Your 1st year seedlings will have 3 leaves and look somewhat like a small strawberry sprout. As I said earlier, if they are thick, remove by pulling out in the fall right before winter. If you uproot any ginseng roots you can replant them right where they were. If the weeds aren't too thick, I wouldn't worry about them. Ginseng naturally grows in and around other forest plants.

Mowing will help keep annuals away from your beds as long as you mow before they set seeds.

I plant and forget my ginseng. It gets a higher price the more "natural" it is grown, that means competing with weeds.

Cattails ,I used to buy Doyles Ginseng from him. He grew pretty nice seng. I gave him wild price or close to it, for some of his seng. Other seng he had was poor seng. It had a brown scale growing on the out side of the skin and it knocked the price down to $50.00 or less. I definitely would not spray weed killer on my seng. Seng is labor intensive, so pulling weeds by hand is a necessary evil.

Thanks for all the responses... I won't be spraying