Background : Rural communities were facing labor difficulties due to old age and increasing number of women in the labor force. These factors have caused decrease in effectivity and productivity of ginseng production. Also, due to repetitive ginseng cultivation, salt accumulation in soil becomes more evident. When too much salt is present, ginseng plants appeared to have red colored roots and this caused the fall down of marketability of ginseng. In this study, we tested the use of wide shade facilities to enhance the growth traits of ginseng. Wide shade facilities can also reduce the working expenses of transfer cultivation and replacement by around 1,500,000 won/10a. In addition, this might also reduce the consequences of continuous cropping, thus obtaining a stable and safe field.
Methods and Results : We set up 3 kind of facility as wide shade, supply type wide shade and conventional shade in Ginseng & Medicinal Plant Research Institute, Chungnam Agricultural Research & Extension Services. Wide shade facility used three different types of shade material, black, red, and blue films. Supply type wide shade facility and conventional shade used polyetylene (PE4 + PE2) film. The planting size were 10 ㎝ × 18 ㎝ (9 × 10 plants), planting number: 90 plants/3.2㎡ in wide shade (include supply type wide shade) and 10 ㎝ × 18 ㎝ (8 × 10 plants), planting number: 80 plants/3.2㎡ in conventional shade. Our results showed that temperature was lower (-0.5℃) in wide shade facility than in supply type and conventional shade. conventional shade was lower (-0.5℃) or similar than in supply type shade. We investigated growth of Korean ginseng 3-years-old root for each facility. Results showed that total growth such as root weight, length was higher in supply type facility than in wide shade and conventional shade facility. Root rot was lower in supply type facility.
Conclusion : Wide shade facilities was shown in low temperature than in supply type and conventional shade. Supply type was good for root growth and root rot disease. These finding could be used for place fixed cultivation for ginseng using wide shade facility.