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Post by castanea on Jan 28, 2012 12:39:34 GMT -5
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Post by darwinslair on Jan 29, 2012 21:55:11 GMT -5
They are supposed to be able to grow north of me, but I have not bought any yet. They use the leaves for tea? Wonder if there is any caffein in them.
Tom
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 29, 2012 22:56:29 GMT -5
I was out in the Nevada desert about 4 years ago, north of Wendover, and I saw a garden plant growing that had survived more than 100 years in the desert after the railway depot had been abandoned. It was probably planted around 140 years ago. All the buildings had fallen down and been reintegrated into the desert, but the plants were still growing around the foundation of the building. The shrubs were barely surviving, but they had spread about 100 feet into the surrounding desert. I collected a sample to grow it on the farm for a few years before returning it to a different garden out in the desert. As of this evening, I'm thinking that I collected a Goji berry. I haven't saw fruits yet, but the flower was the same purple solanaceae flower, and the stems and growth habit are the same. Thanks for the link!!! One nice thing about my plant, is that it doesn't have any type of plant variety protection on it, because it was collected more than 150 miles away from where phoenix nursery collected their Goji berry. I don't have germplasm to share today, but I might in a few years.
That is a drought tolerant plant!!! (Surviving for a century on less than 9" of rain per year.)
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Post by castanea on Jan 29, 2012 23:17:58 GMT -5
I've been reading that after it was brought in by Chinese laborers working on the transcontinental railroad, that it has naturalized in limited locations near railways spread over the American west.
I was shocked. I think of it as a pretty wimpy little plant, but apparently it does better in drier areas than in humid areas.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 30, 2012 10:03:18 GMT -5
The "wall patch" I mentioned earlier (the one where I found the Kudzu) also has a few goji plants (at least it has some member of the genus, I admit I have a hard time telling Goji, from any other of the boxthorns on sight) and there was a plant I remember seeing back in colledge in a peice of semi-abandoned land (that was way upstate, so these plants are also quite cold tolerant.)
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Post by ottawagardener on Jan 30, 2012 11:17:42 GMT -5
I'm growing some variation of goji here so it can't be that wimpy. Dry conditions in summer in poor, sandy soil and cold winters. I'll update you in the spring to see how well they survived but I bought them from someone just slightly south of my location.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 7, 2012 20:35:37 GMT -5
Here's a photo of the plant I think might be a Goji Berry. And the area in which it was growing. The stones used to be a building at the time that the goji was originally planted.
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Post by canadamike on Feb 7, 2012 22:53:14 GMT -5
Hey, Joseph.... May I suggest a rock garden?
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Post by castanea on Feb 7, 2012 23:41:02 GMT -5
Sure looks like a goji
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 8, 2012 0:38:58 GMT -5
;D I have a number of rock gardens. I call them the lichen conservatory. I was collecting lichen germplasm from around country long before I started collecting vegetable germplasm. Here's one of my favorite lichen gardens: About 5 years ago I treated a freshly built stone wall with a lichen growth formula. Here's what it looked like just after application. Here's what it looked like earlier today. It would look much more clever if it was raining so that the lichens were full of water, but I'm not complaining. Slow and steady is the name of the game for lichen gardening in my climate. Here's another lichen garden. I think of this one as a crossing block. There are many species from hundreds to thousands of miles away, and local species, all growing together on many different kinds of rock: Basalt, limestone, dolomite, quartzite, quartz, petrified wood, shale, sandstone, travertine, lava, volcanic ash, etc, etc... Lichens are growing inside the flat white stone. That's because the stone is translucent, so it allows light inside while at the same time conserving moisture for the lichens. Here's a close-up of a corner of the garden:
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Post by steev on Feb 8, 2012 1:45:35 GMT -5
Joseph's lichen landrace, ready to colonize Mars.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 8, 2012 2:05:39 GMT -5
Joseph's lichen landrace, ready to colonize Mars. Do you guys intentionally try to get me excited?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 8, 2012 7:02:12 GMT -5
I have to know the recipe for Lichen Growth Formula
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 8, 2012 13:08:59 GMT -5
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