Growing American Ginseng: A Complete Profile

By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026

American ginseng is a slow woodland perennial, taking 180-plus days just to germinate and several years more before the root is worth digging.

Real shade, not part shade

This is a strict requirement, not a preference: ginseng needs at least 70 percent shade, ideally under a hardwood canopy of oak, maple, sycamore, or basswood. A partly sunny bed that other “shade-tolerant” plants would manage fine simply won’t grow ginseng well.

Sowing and early care

Direct-seed only, half to three-quarters of an inch deep and never more than an inch, about 3 inches apart, then mulch 3 to 4 inches deep with leaves or straw and keep the mulch moist so it stays in place. New shoots start out small, looking like bean sprouts with three small leaves, so weed carefully around young plants to avoid disturbing the roots. It prefers a light loam soil high in humus with a pH of 5.0 to 6.0, and good drainage is critical.

Patience pays in ginsenoside content

Roots can technically be dug starting at the end of the third growing season, but the medicinal ginsenoside content increases dramatically between years four and five, which is why most growers wait that long. Dig in early fall, late August or early September, right after the tops die back and the roots enter dormancy, when ginsenoside content peaks.

American ginseng has no well-established companion pairings, and nothing it needs to be kept away from. Given its shade requirement and multi-year timeline, it needs a wooded, undisturbed spot in the Garden Designer rather than a rotating vegetable bed.

Source: American Ginseng: Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.

Companion planting guide for American Ginseng · Find your planting dates

Typically viable in USDA zones 4-8. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.

Mature height: 0.5-1.5 ft

Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.

When to plant American ginseng, by zone

Every zone American ginseng grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.

See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →

How many American Ginseng plants fit per square foot?

Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 0.5-1.5 ft.

Varieties worth considering

• Straight-species American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this species plain, without competing named cultivars; it's a woodland native grown for its root, not a plant with meaningful bred variation. (source)

Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.

Where to buy American ginseng seeds

None of the seed suppliers we list carries American ginseng seeds right now. A local garden center or a specialty seed house is the place to look.

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See it growing

Search YouTube for "growing American ginseng" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)

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Growing American Ginseng: A slow woodland perennial, taking 180-plus days just to germinate and several years more before the root is worth digging.

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