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Cold spring weather delays ginseng crop

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SIMCOE - Many ginseng growers are behind up to 12 days in the spring part of the growing season, due to a combination of extreme cold weather in April and heavy winds that knocked over shade canopies on many farms.

"Nothing is coming up yet, it's been such an incredibly cold spring," Remi Van De Slyke, chairman of the Ontario Ginseng Growers Association, said in an interview this week about the troubled spring that 160 members have had to endure in their operations across Brant, Norfolk, Oxford and Elgin counties.

Van De Slyke was commenting on the first three weeks of April marked by below-freezing temperatures and periodic snowfalls.

"And we had those big winds on Friday afternoon that blew over shade canopy in a lot of places. Some areas got hit harder than others. We're just getting feedback from our members."

But ginseng growers have become accustomed to coping with difficult early spring growing periods, almost to the point that they are regarded as a "new normal" in the industry.

Last year, they had to contend with bouts of spring frost that destroyed or severely hampered growth. But even that wasn't as severe as an almost legendary killer frost in the spring of 2015 that wreaked havoc on crops, particularly in just-planted beds that sprouted that year.

Those beds were either devastated or the root began life stunted.

Ginseng takes four years to reach full maturity and growers hope to nurture its progress through all four years to get the best yields. The beds that were hit by the 2015 frost will take this year and next to reach full maturity with potentially lower yields.

In 2017, Ontario ginseng growers had a collective 8,000 acres under cultivation.

It's still too soon to determine how much this year's late start will affect growth, said Van De Slyke, adding that increased acreage still is expected to be harvested this year.

MMarion@postmedia.com

@expMarion

Brantford Expositor 2018 ©

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