Goji Berries

Other plants we have or landscape elements like ponds.

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Iowaboo
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by Iowaboo »

My lycium chinense fruited this year. It had been planted in 2009, so its third year it finally did. I think it might be partially self-fertile, but will do better when the other seedlings start flowering, too. I have a cultivar of the main species barbarum that is known as Ningxia #1 and is self-fertile. It was bought this spring and here is an example what it has this fall.
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benboo
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by benboo »

I tried growing Gojiberries from seeds last year, and they had no problem surviving the zone 6 winter. Once they started re-leafing in spring, (really late spring for some reason) rabbits ate them down to nubs, and now I only have 2 left. :evil: I am protecting them now to hopefully get berries in a few years.
Lazlo Woodbine
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by Lazlo Woodbine »

I've had 3 plants for a few years ... none have got close to flowering... :(


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stevelau1911
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by stevelau1911 »

I have had a patch of goji berries for many years. They are harvested for their leaves, and the patch has never been expanded any more than it needed to be so it has never set fruit, but that would be interesting to let that happen.

I also know that these plants are very easy to root from branch cuttings without rooting hormone so they can be multiplied if that was the goal. They grow like weeds so I really haven't put much thought into them.
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Tarzanus
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by Tarzanus »

I have two of them. They both flowered in their first season, but I've not seen fruit. Last year, they were all covered in their purple little flowers, but still, no fruits until late autumn, when 10 fruits or so decided to start fattening up. They didn't finish because of early winter, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed they do it this year (year 3). Bushes are growing like crazy. one of them is around an inch if not more in diameter already. Thick layer of snow did a lot of damage to it, I have to check it and decide how to trim it.

And yes, Steve, they do. In just one week or so, you can get hunderds of small goji plants. Every small portion of the branch with growing bud on it will make roots and start growing. If leaf mass forces branch to touch the ground, You'll soon find out that it formed roots there. I think if I'd plant it somewhere undisturbed, soon it would dominate everything. Kind of invasive plant when I think of it.
stevelau1911
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by stevelau1911 »

I find that branches that run along the ground can sometimes form new plants, but after many years, my goji patch really hasn't increased in size. I could make it much larger if I really wanted to which I might do so as I have been reading up about all the health benefits of goji berries. I have goji berries so I'm going to grow a seedling tray of them just to see how they compare to what I already have.

For anyone who wants to start growing goji berries, I would suggest going to an Asian store and buying a few canes as they are sold for their leaves. Those canes do root, even without rooting hormone.
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by Tarzanus »

As far as I know, they like a bit alkaline soil. We have a lot of clay around here and acidic soil which means goji can perform much better than here. I was impressed by it's growth speed, but like some of you mentioned earlier, it looses almost all leaves at one point in early summer and hardly recover when summer starts fading out. I didn't see any critters nibbling on them, yet, there was white moldy substance on it when it started to temporarily decline last year. This year I'll try to spray it with copper based fungicide before it starts leafing out. Before it starts blooming, I'll repeat the process and see if that helps.

Steve, I've seen branch that grew around 70 cm, becoming heavy and touch the soil. When I tried to lift it and tie it upwards, I noticed it grew roots on 4 different places. From one branch, four plants appeared, one of them 60 cm away from mother plant.

This year, I've tried giving it quite a lot of hardwood ash. Soil will be more alkaline. We'll see.
dependable
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by dependable »

How do they taste?
stevelau1911
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by stevelau1911 »

They are similar to grapes, but they have a much stronger taste, and they are fare more nutrient dense as well.

I want to clean up my little patch of goji bushes, add some manure, and spread some of the smaller shoots further away from the larger bushes, but the soil here is still frozen solid so I can't work the soil yet. I have never fertilized these guys so I'm guessing they should do much better with a layer of manure.


As opposed to everyone else, mine typically continue growing through the summer. I guess it's because we have cool summers here. I don't water them either so I'm kind of interested in seeing how they will perform with a little TLC.
stevelau1911
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by stevelau1911 »

The soil actually thawed out long enough yesterday for me to dig out the goji bushes and space them out so that there are now 50-60 plants. I know they can fill in pretty quick in only 2-3 months. I will hold off on fertilizing them because I know they don't start growing until later in spring. It also gives me a chance to get rid of all the weeds before putting down a nice layer of leaf mulch. They have long tuberous roots that run 2-3ft deep so I couldn't get them all out, but I don't mind plants randomly popping up in this patch as the underground roots will produce new plants.

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Just for fun, I tried growing some goji seeds, and they are germinating in only 2 days which means they should be pretty easy to grow from seed. I guess I'll have even more goji plants.
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Another supposively healthy plant I'm growing for the first time ever is wheat grass, and it seems to be growing very fast under the heat mat and humidity dome. This picture is from the morning and now it is already an inch taller. I guess I could have planted even more seeds, but these should do fine.
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stevelau1911
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by stevelau1911 »

Goji seeds are pretty easy to sprout from seeds.

Here's what they can do under a humidity dome with a reptile heater after 4 days.
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The wheat grass seedlings also don't take that much skill to grow, but I could have put in 2-3X as many seeds just so I could get more juice, faster.
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by needmore »

That looks ready to juice Steve...
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stevelau1911
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by stevelau1911 »

The tallest ones might be 5 inches now, and they seem to grow about 1.5 inches per day under the humidity dome and bottom heat. I plan on harvesting them at the 7-8 inch mark which should happen in 1-2 days which is when they are supposed to be at their nutrient peak. Hopefully I can get a good 3 harvests out of them before they run out of nutrients and energy.

It has only been a total of 6 days since I drowned these wheat seeds in water so it does only take about a week to get a good harvest which exceeded my expectations.
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Iowaboo
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by Iowaboo »

When I ate the berries, seemed like they had sweet pepper taste, but more juicy like a tomato, at least that is what I imagined since they are all in the same family. I liked them better dried I recalled. Last year the drought and cucumber beetles destroyed most things in their path, so maybe ate one or two berries? I don't really remember it was so insignificant.
stevelau1911
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Re: Goji Berries

Post by stevelau1911 »

It has been about a week, and I have since been juicing the wheat grass every other day. It only takes about half the tray to get a nice amount of it. This stuff is pretty strong so I add about 50% ice water into it. Right now it is growing back again, but appears to be quite a bit weaker than the initial growth as I never added azomite or anything to help them out on the first grow. I am starting a new batch of wheat grass, much thicker this time because 1/2 a cup of them just leaves too much space, and I plan on using a bit of azomite to make them stronger.

The goji berry seedlings are already over an inch because of the dome, relatively weak LED light + south facing window, but they seem to be growing very good so I expect them to be nice and strong when I bring them outdoors in the spring. I am just starting to bet a gnat infestation under the dome, but larvae only seem to be attacking the yucca seeds, and completely avoiding the goji seedlings so I think it should be fine.

I also started some tomato seedlings a week ago which are just starting to produce true leaves in a little plastic cup with a self made humidity dome.
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