Emerald Castle Farms

American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolious), Seeds, Rootlets, Planting and Growing Information










Welcome to

Emerald Castle Farms





Thank you all for a good season.
We are sold out of seed for the year.


We intend to open again for the 2025 season come late next spring/early summer as supplies are expected to be somewhat limited for next year.

Of course, the ECF seeders are available throughout the year and are very handy for planting all sorts of vegitable and flower seeds in the spring.

ECF Seeder page



Update October 10, 2024:

First, the rest of the seed and seeders went out this morning. Thank you all for your patience. I still have a few pounds of seed left if anyone needs/wants a bit more.

Some of you noticed the site has been down since the last update on the 30th. The story is a bit long, but I'll make it quick. I received an invoice around the 27th of August telling me my host (HostGator) would be renewing my hosting account at an enormous cost. I contacted them and advised I thought at this point with the increases of features of the hosting packages, I would move to a smaller plan at a drastically reduced cost. They advised the renewal was not due until Oct 12 -two days from today.

I noticed on Sunday the 29th that they had charged me an ungodly sum to renew my websites. I called and found it too late to stop the charge and it went through the next day. The support worker helped me determine which package I would renew with and got the price down to what I thought was a reasonable figure. I called back the next day and they put a refund in place.

However, the following day I got a message from a customer on Facebook asking about his order. I advised I had been updating here on the website. He informed me that the website was down. I immediately checked to find the websites were listed as suspended. So, I called my host again. The host made a couple contacts and the site was back up in five minutes.

This should have been the end of the story. However, as I was updating (as I am doing here now) I was kicked out of my administrative account, and could not get back in. I called and was informed that the websites as well as my administrative account had been deleted. Thereafter, I received an email at one of my school accounts (my emails are connected with my domains so had no personal email available which is why I have been unable to respond to some of you), advising if I renewed the hosting account, they would recover my sites from the backups and later refund the price for the hosting account until the original renewal date (Oct 12).

I spoke to my new host (who offerred three years for just over 8% of the charge to renew with my old host) and they advised they would be able to transfer the sites easily if I could get the old host to put them back online -so that is what I did, and they have now been transferred to A2 hosting my new web hosts.

So, it will take some time for everything to get ironed out and working once more. I appreciate your patience as I go through this and apologize for delays and trouble this might have caused.
~Brad







Always Beware...



I've noticed a lot more of the unethical dealers are making pushes to sell 'ginseng' seed to be delivered in the spring. Don't be fooled folks! There is a huge difference in ordering seed early (even in early April) for fall delivery, and ordering and receiving seed before fall. Mind you, there are some reputable dealers who have left over seed from fall, and it is good, viable seed. But you don't find those folks on amazon and ebay most of the time and you won't see them running from facebook page to facebook page trying to unload what they got stuck with.

So, if you see an ad for roots or a small amount of seed, and the seller is telling you "ready to plant" ...well....as a dealer in the business for over 20 years I'd advise you to be very careful. There is a reason why knowledgable ginseng growers do not plant until fall. There is also a reason they don't take seed out of stratification until then. And, responsible dealers won't sell you rootlets out of season when the chance of survival is slim without clearly expressing this fact to you.

If you need a large amount of seed (including commercial quantities) get in touch with me via phone or email for a quote.



Stratified Ginseng Seed for 2024

The 2024 planting season will be here soon. The reports I've heard for the past few springs continue to be very encouraging! Here is what a couple of the emails and texts I've received:

"These pictures are of the plants I got from you a few years ago. They're doing great! They were six years old when I got them from you - that was three years ago I believe."
~ Ohio Grower

"So, my seng is sprouting that I got from you last fall. I got a few pounds from you and I spread them out over seven different plots, all of them have sprung up! Excellent!!! This is very exciting! I was so excited to see all those sprouts come up this year!"
~ Illinois Grower

"I just wanted to relay good news on last years planting. I've not yet seen anything like what I'm seeing this year! I have large patches of nearly 100% germination. About a third of the total area is like carpet, and the remainder is decent! I did choose a more sloped terrain than previous right above my creek, but, same results in my test beds -vigorous & plentiful. Very pleased!"
~ Ohio Grower

"Hi Brad, when will you have seeds available for this year's fall planting? I purchased seeds last fall and got about a 70-80% germination rate. Without a doubt the best I've ever had."
~ Ohio Grower

Here is part of a Facebook conversation I saw about the middle of May this year:



Take the man seriously folks! Order early so you don't get caught short like so many folks each fall. Seriously, I don't say this just to get folks to buy more seed, and you will never see me dropping prices toward the end of the season to unload seed I still have left on hand.

Now, it is time to secure the seed you need for this fall's planting. The wholesale price has risen slightly, but I've arranged a supply of seed for my customers. The biggest increase in cost this year is going to be shipping unfortunately. Cut off date for advanced orders and large orders (to ensure availability) this year will be September 1, 2024.

As always, first come -first served, and we anticipate mid September delivery.

Don't wait until the last minute and get caught short without high quality stratified ginseng seed. Order now!





ECF Seeder

The funnels I have used for years on this seeder have only one manufacturer. And they started manufacturing them in Mexico. So, we are now making the funnels in house with heavier guage American steel. This makes the ECF seeder now 100% made in America, by an American small business, with ALL American steel (not imported plastic).

I designed the ECF Seeder for my own use around the year 2000 -I've been improving, and making them available to other growers ever since. As we move forward, we learn more about this wonderful plant -we also continue to grow older ourselves. Getting down on the ground or raking a hillside isn't as easy as it used to be. With this tool, neither is necessary. If you have problems with turkeys eating the seed from your rake and scatter patches...this indispensable tool will help. We've also learned that excessively disturbing the soil (rake and scatter planting or excessive harvesting) may contribute to disease issues and ultimately replant failure (meaning you can't plant ginseng in that same ground again). We have finally produced a video of the ECF Seeder in action with the results from the following spring! You can see the video at the bottom of the ECF Seeder page on this site. Just click the button below to head over to the seeder page. Remember, I make these by hand so you need to get your orders in early if you want to use them for this fall's planting.

ECF Seeder page





Join us on Facebook!

Click here to visit the Growing Ginseng: A Beginner's Group page.
The purpose of this group is to educate and encourage ginseng growers. To become a place for questions and honest, reasonable, and logical answers. Experienced growers are of course welcome and encouraged to share their experiences or ask questions as well. The new grower can learn much by reading these discussions. When you request to join, be sure to answer the membership questions or I will refuse your membership. Also, if you do not have a regular facebook profile page (for instance you last posted in spring of 2022), I am likely to assume you are a hacked account and will not allow you into the group. If that is the case, you need to contact me directly to get into the group.