Are you saying that there are no Chinese herbs that would grow and be a great therapeutic coming from a Western state? I am in Oregon and buy plants from Strictly medicinal, who I trust greatly. I know he is growing several, and I have purchased many sets of three just to see how they do in my environment. We are currently looking to move to Eastern Oregon and do a very small scale herbal farm, just for me to make my herbal tea blends and other things I make and maybe have a farm stand or do markets. I never want to be high production, but your article sounds like all/most Chinese herbs should not be grown here?
Thank you for getting back to me! I plan to try to grow some and thank you for the suggestions. I am still learning about all you are referencing with qi and such and it gets confusing. I am currently at the coast, Angelica did great here, but many of the Chinese herbs I want are struggling, even though I didn’t transplant them until June. It’s just been too darn cold here this year so far. Eastern Oregon is different, but I had never considered if the plants would have the same energy depending on where they are grown but it makes sense. So much to learn. May hit you up for suggestions once we get our farm going over there. It will be very small scale, not interested in doing anything big at all. I am a student of yours, I am just epically failing to get rolling again😫
Perhaps I over-stated the point, if you got the impression that "all/most Chinese herbs should not be grown [in the western states]," that is not my intention. However, if one were to grow most Chinese herbs in those states, first we would want to look at herbs that are likely to do best. Licorice could be one, or astragalus, perhaps you might try to grow cistanches, which may do very well there, especially in a sandy soil. I think that most mints should do fine, there's already more than one Agastache species (I like A. urticifolia), and many other plants will "grow" in the western states, but we know that environment changes the "qi," or one might refer to this as chemical constituents, or perhaps even "energy" of a plant. Whatever you'd like to call it, it is related to "daodi," which I attempted to briefly explain in the article.
So, since we know that environment can and does change the qi, chemistry, energy, etc., then I think it would be irresponsible for me to suggest what is grown in western states is the same as what is grown in China, or in the eastern states, where we can often easily find a location that very closely matches the "daodi" region in China.
Would a viticulturist grow their wine grapes is a region that was substantially different from the region they were traditionally grown? I think not, or they might select a new variety to grow in a different ecological niche. The problem is that we don't know, for sure, what is actually going on if we don't use some reasonable method to assess the efficacy of the herbs. It is entirely possible that we would find some that would do very well there, even if they are substantially out of they natural ecological niche. I am not aware of any science that suggests that can be done for any Chinese herb, probably because the Chinese simply wouldn't try it, I don't think it makes any sense to them -- why bother?
All that said, if I lived in Oregon, I would likely grow more than a few Chinese herbs, if for no other reason other than to have them in my garden.
Are you saying that there are no Chinese herbs that would grow and be a great therapeutic coming from a Western state? I am in Oregon and buy plants from Strictly medicinal, who I trust greatly. I know he is growing several, and I have purchased many sets of three just to see how they do in my environment. We are currently looking to move to Eastern Oregon and do a very small scale herbal farm, just for me to make my herbal tea blends and other things I make and maybe have a farm stand or do markets. I never want to be high production, but your article sounds like all/most Chinese herbs should not be grown here?
Thank you for getting back to me! I plan to try to grow some and thank you for the suggestions. I am still learning about all you are referencing with qi and such and it gets confusing. I am currently at the coast, Angelica did great here, but many of the Chinese herbs I want are struggling, even though I didn’t transplant them until June. It’s just been too darn cold here this year so far. Eastern Oregon is different, but I had never considered if the plants would have the same energy depending on where they are grown but it makes sense. So much to learn. May hit you up for suggestions once we get our farm going over there. It will be very small scale, not interested in doing anything big at all. I am a student of yours, I am just epically failing to get rolling again😫
Dear Tammi,
Perhaps I over-stated the point, if you got the impression that "all/most Chinese herbs should not be grown [in the western states]," that is not my intention. However, if one were to grow most Chinese herbs in those states, first we would want to look at herbs that are likely to do best. Licorice could be one, or astragalus, perhaps you might try to grow cistanches, which may do very well there, especially in a sandy soil. I think that most mints should do fine, there's already more than one Agastache species (I like A. urticifolia), and many other plants will "grow" in the western states, but we know that environment changes the "qi," or one might refer to this as chemical constituents, or perhaps even "energy" of a plant. Whatever you'd like to call it, it is related to "daodi," which I attempted to briefly explain in the article.
So, since we know that environment can and does change the qi, chemistry, energy, etc., then I think it would be irresponsible for me to suggest what is grown in western states is the same as what is grown in China, or in the eastern states, where we can often easily find a location that very closely matches the "daodi" region in China.
Would a viticulturist grow their wine grapes is a region that was substantially different from the region they were traditionally grown? I think not, or they might select a new variety to grow in a different ecological niche. The problem is that we don't know, for sure, what is actually going on if we don't use some reasonable method to assess the efficacy of the herbs. It is entirely possible that we would find some that would do very well there, even if they are substantially out of they natural ecological niche. I am not aware of any science that suggests that can be done for any Chinese herb, probably because the Chinese simply wouldn't try it, I don't think it makes any sense to them -- why bother?
All that said, if I lived in Oregon, I would likely grow more than a few Chinese herbs, if for no other reason other than to have them in my garden.