goji

[happyskunk]

Anyone else growing goji berries? I am growing the mixture of seeds from the liseed project. www.liseed.org/wolf.html

Most of the plants I started have narrow green leaves but one plant has a purple/grey tint to it and one has rounded leaves.

Any tips for growing these to the fruiting stage? I've never had a fresh goji berry before.

[castanea]

I'm not growing them now but have in the past.

The greatest diffiuclty I had was snails and slugs. Other people have had the same complaint. Snails and slugs love the plants. They will strip a plant of leaves in 24 hours and then start eating the branches.

In terms of the quality of the fresh fruit, it's all over the place. It can be good and it can be nasty. The fresh fruit is never as sweet as the dried fruit because drying concentrates the sugars. And without the concentrated sugars you realize that the true flavors of gojis are not great. They can certainly be OK but gojis need a lot of breeding work to be a consistently good fresh fruit.

Good luck!

[garnetmoth]

how are these growing for you?
I have had a few germinate 2 years ago but died quickly from dried store fruit. Ill try again and possibly plan to keep these in containers if slugs and snails are out to get them.... I like them dried just fine, so I dont mind theyre not great fresh.

[plantsnobin]

In our area, they grow great, but they don't really set much fruit. They don't flower early, and mine will still be blooming in November. I have had them set fruit a couple of years ago, but the chickens got them as they were ripening. It is one of the plants that I am going to rip out. They aren't terribly ornamental, and they sprawl and spread. I've never had any of the fruits, either frest or dried.

[happyskunk]

I have the Goji plants in pots. They seem to be growing fine. The slugs we have here do not seem to be interested in Goji plants yet. I hope to get these plants in the ground somewhere before winter.

[orflo]

Here's some harvest of goji, I should have realised that birds like it as well, so the berries disappeared soon after these picture were taken...
first of all, the one I received as lycium barbarum, the berry is a bit redder than the picture here, I don't know what happened, it was just as red as the ones below.

The second one is lycium chinense, a flower, and some berries. Too bad, I didn't get around to taste them, but as always, learning is very important...

[blueadzuki]

There was a wolfberry plant (well, a plant of some sort of Lycium) mixed into that kudzu patch I found earlier this season. That patch has long since been broght to the attention of the local authorties, so that bush has almost certainly been destroyed by now, but I did manage to grab a few fruits when I was collecting pods, and they are still on my desk. I'm not sure, however, if it's actually worth planting those fruits; compared to the size of the fruits pictured (based on the size of the calyx to the fruit) the fruits I have are tiny, barely a red lick in a green coat. I'm assuming based on the shape that, if they are one of the two above species, they're probaby barbarum.

On a side note, a got a little giggle looking at the pictures on the LISP site; as a frequne haunter of Chinatowns myself, I am intamtely famaliar with many of the brand names written on the seed packest in the second picture (Chinese dry good packers tend to offer as many different items as they possilby can, so many of the packers of rice beans (which I work with) and the wolfberries are the same ones.

[wildseed57]

I have three L. barbarums wolfberry bushes that are now 4 years old and one L. chinense that is two years old. The berries of the wolfberry bushes are not as sweet as the chinese goji berries, but I think that they are both used the same way we get a few cup fulls of berries which I dry and add to my winter tea mix of dried elderberries, rose hips and hibiscus calyxes along with some stevia leaves. One thing I have found is that they will always look rather poor and spindly and will slowly spread out from the roots. To me they are one of my less better ideas when it comes to growing small fruiting bushes, the Birds really like them though.
George W.

[paulien]

I have been growing them for about 3 years now and have had many problems with snails and slugs. I keep my plants in big pots now to controle the pests. Cause they can get lice and mildew too. The ´chinensis´ with the narrow leafs looks to be mildew resistence though.
They are tough plants as it comes to winterhardiness, even young plants of two months can stand temps till at least minus 18 degrees Celcius.

For people that like to grow them from seeds, i have many seeds/berries left over (the 'chinensis' variety) and like to swap seeds. I'm always on the lookout for seeds from uncommon, hardy shrubs and trees with edible fruits. Just email me.

Paulien

[samyaza]

I have L. barbarum seedlings, sown in February. I got the seeds from fruits picked in the Montet Botanical Garden in Nancy. I knew they would be long to grow and I wanted them to have a good size to plant them outdoors after the last frosts.

Just as you said, the parent plant has oval leaves and orange elongated fruits with round tip, unlike L. chinense which has narrow leaves and red pointed fruits. Thanks to your sharing your experience, from now on, I can distinguish them.

I noticed that L. barbarum fresh fruits had little taste and were a little bitter, maybe I should find L. chinense instead. I couldn't find information on which of them was studied for calling it 'super fruit' but I'm aware that sellers are made to sell, not to tell you all the truth...

[raymondo]

I had a plant grown from seed from a dried fruit. It did well for a couple of years then died one very wet summer. It didn't like wet feet. It never flowered and I haven't tried again. From the discussion above, I'm guessing it was L. barbarum.