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Post by richardw on Feb 15, 2012 14:35:11 GMT -5
I'm giving it a go at seeing if i can get the Goji to produce where i am,i brought the seed from the US two years ago,the plan is once they start producing is to then select from the best bushes with the view to grow my own plants to complete 350 bush Goji orchard . The climate and soil conditions should be ideal here with a soil ph of 6.5 and a water table at 4 meters at its lowest in the summer dry season means i wont have water them once they are established.The 36 bushes in the photo are into the second year but some are differently doing better than others,ive even pulled out the poorer performing plants and replaced them. At the moment i'm working on growing one main central stem but ive had many grow so fast that the stem is not strong enough to support it and it ends up bending over and touching the ground so by taking off about the growth that seems to help them grow more up right. Its a bit of a learning curve really for as far as i know there's no one else commercially growing them in New Zealand and at NZ$80 (US$70) per kg its well worth a go i think,but time will tell.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 15, 2012 15:49:18 GMT -5
Very nice. Good on ya for starting from seeds!!!
Yup, seems like there aughta be enough moisture in Medbury for Goji.
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Post by templeton on Feb 15, 2012 15:58:36 GMT -5
I was given a few goji seedlings, two of which have survived with mostly neglect for the last 3 years - but haven't produced a single berry. Thegojiy are coming out this autumn to make way for my saffron bed. I think mine were grown straight from seeds collected out of commercial dry table berries. T Attachments:
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Post by raymondo on Feb 16, 2012 4:34:33 GMT -5
Good project Richard. I grew a few plants from seed I collected from dried fruits. They grew well but didn't produce even a flower in three years so I took them out.
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Post by potter on Feb 16, 2012 9:28:17 GMT -5
I've heard they have to be really well established and let grow tall before they will do anything. Unfortunately they are untidy plants so letting them grow like hedge will allow them keep each other up. Nor do they like much fertilizing.. Mine are now few years old..haven't done a single berry..slugs and snails keep eating leaves and last year OH tipped and spread barrowfull of chicken's bedding underneath the bushes... So mine are just about had all done to them what should not be done..
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Post by richardw on Feb 16, 2012 14:16:21 GMT -5
I too did start off growing a few from bought dried berries but when i was given a packet of seed from a fella in the US and grew them i realized the seed out of the berries was no were as vigorous growing,even had smaller leafs as well,ended up pulling all those early one and started again. A friend of mine has one bush growing from the same seed from the US which is a year older than mine (3yo),his flowered and are producing some fruit at the moment,so thats a good sign.
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Post by richardw on Jan 18, 2013 12:28:04 GMT -5
An update on a discovery ive made,i knew that Goji's like a soil PH of 7 - 8 and that my soil is naturally sits around the 6.5 mark so winter just gone each goji bush received a wheelbarrow full of a line stone and powder mix,it comes from a quarry 5kms away which i can get it for nothing,its what falls out of the crusher and tends to have too variation in size to be of much use for them.Well the difference is amazing,the ones with the linestone have larger and darker green leaves than the others,also one is flowering. All i need to do now is get a few ton more and do the rest.
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Post by raymondo on Jan 18, 2013 15:29:26 GMT -5
Huge bonus having the free limestone. Looking forward to reading about you're lush and very profitable goji patch!
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Post by circumspice on Jan 18, 2013 22:05:40 GMT -5
I have 6 goji berry plants that are about a year old now. I have them in 5 gallon buckets awaiting spring planting. I got them when they were 4 inches tall & now they're 2 feet tall. They flowered during the hottest part of the summer but produced no fruit. Small lavender flowers. Maybe that's a good sign & hopefully they'll start fruiting when they are 3 or 4 years old. I sure hope they do.
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Post by richardw on Jan 18, 2013 23:43:23 GMT -5
Here's hoping Ray
Thats interesting that yours flowered in there first year circumspice,its taken three seasons for me to get the first flower.
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Post by steev on Jan 21, 2013 0:43:34 GMT -5
They come to bloom faster when growing right-side-up.
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Post by circumspice on Jan 21, 2013 1:07:41 GMT -5
Here's hoping Ray Thats interesting that yours flowered in there first year circumspice,its taken three seasons for me to get the first flower. By seasons, do you mean years? When I think in terms of seasons, I usually interpret it to mean the four seasons of the year. Except, of course, here in Texas. We have 2 seasons per year. Hellishly hot & fairly cold. Or is it hellishly dry & Biblical floods? I can't seem to recall...
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Post by richardw on Jan 21, 2013 4:03:21 GMT -5
Around these parts we would interpret a season as the been the growing season in which winter separates each of the growing seasons because nothing grows that time of year.
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Post by 12540dumont on Jan 21, 2013 14:13:05 GMT -5
I need a new emoticon, How about it Alan? I need a green with envy. Attachments:
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Post by raymondo on Jan 21, 2013 14:51:59 GMT -5
Just curious Richard ... how much land do you have to play around with? It seems endless, for a backyard I mean. I have 3000 m2 (about 3/4 acre), which sometimes seems a lot, especially when I have to mow the damn lawn, and sometimes seems very little.
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