Today our first Tibetan Goji Berry (Lycium eleagnus barbarum) [Solanaceae] arrived from a mail order nursery in Utah. It was bareroot, in good to fair condition, and it included some specific instructions regarding culture. A very exciting day indeed.
drdon, tell me more about your Tibetan Goji Berry, never heard of it. What zone is it hardy. Since you are in a much warmer zone than mine I know you can grow lots of things I can't. Your pots of plants look very interesting. DonnaS
hiya rutholive,
We are indeed very excited about this particular plant. Here's a link to the nursery in the Rocky Mountains where ours was grown
www.TimpanogosNursery.com
Our other plants in the greenhouse where we are leafing the Goji Berry out are a combination of medicinals, entheogens, banded roses, and my species orchid collection. We grow lots of rather exotic medicinal plants and use many of the preparations we make to feed ourselves and our horses healthy foods utilized by other cultures.
The Goji is a very hardy, deciduous plant. I wouldn't be surprised if you find that it is hardy or requires minimal protection in your zone.
nice to meet you.
Don
I went to your link and read about the Goji berry, Seems very interesting and I am always trying new fruit so I placed an order, but could not bring up an order # so will try emailing them. Thanks for the info DonnaS
I bought one from them too and it is doing great. I love the dried berries and am sad that that you should restrict yourself to 2 tablespoons of them a day. I am really looking forward to trying them fresh. I have tried growing them from seed, but so far the moment they are looking like they are going to thrive, they either wilt and die or some animal digs them out of the pot and eats them. I still have three I took in and am nursing along under a grow light, but I started with about 24.
-Bob
hiya throneofyord,
I suspected seed germination would be easy, but damping off might be an issue because of the water sensitivity of this plant. That is why for my first one I bought the bareroot plant. Later this year when it is established I'm going to try some cuttings and see how they work. We sprouted a relative of the Goji, Ashvaganda (Withania somnifera) [Solanaceae], that has the same basic sensitivity to water. The seeds came up fine and are now languishing a bit. Two damped off out of ten pots. We've been drinking Goji juice for about a year now. Health benefits aside, it tastes good and mixes well with vegetable juices like carrot and celery. I've yet to try a Goji berry juice bloody mary, but give me some time...lol.
nice to meet you.
Don
Hi Don,
So glad there are threads about Goji plant because I am very intersted in purchasing one. How is yours doing? I also thought about growing them from seeds but changed my mind after reading the postings. Thanks to all for sharing.
I live in New Jersey. Wonder if it's too cold...
hhuie
hiya hhuie,
nice to meet you,
Our Goji Berry grew like a weed this summer and we did get some fruit that I'm drying for seed. The others barely got to the kitchen before they were eaten...lol. The nursery where they are grown outdoor year round is in zone 6. I don't know much about how cold it gets at your place, but the plant is very hardy. It can be grown easily in a pot and moved to a more protected spot during really cold weather. They really grow fast.
best to you,
don
drdon,
I am curious about this plant as well. Do you keep yours planted in a pot or have you planted it in the ground? How did it fare over the hot summer months? The website you posted mentioned that they are heat resistant (over 100deg), but I am in Phoenix where summer temps are above 115 for many weeks. I was thinking about planting one where it would be shaded in the afternoon. The berries look to be about the size of a grape. How did it taste? Does anyone know why there's a restriction of only 2Tbsp a day? Thank you! June
Please pardon my question about how your plant grew over summer. I see you wrote that it did quite well. How warm does it get during your summers? Thanks again, June
This message was edited Dec 26, 2005 9:17 PM
I was glad to find this thread--I too have become fond of this plant. Last year a friend brought me specimens from Bhutan and it will be interesting to see how different they might be from those offered here in the U.S. It grew well here in northern coastal California and I cut branches laden with berries for arrangements that included elderberry branches. Beautiful! I dug up numerous suckers and potted them up. That seems to be an easy propagation method for gojiberry plants. If the health claims approach accuracy, the species seems like a miracle food. A Chinese friend said her mother used to put the dried berries in a soup, along with the new leaves. Now her mother is growing and swearing by a tropical plant called Noni, about which I am completely ignorant.
Looking forward to learning more about both plants,
Maureen
Good luck with it, sadly my grasshoppers want to live for ever and destroy any goji I plant. I eat a small handful of the berries daily. Some oriental groceries have them for much cheaper than the internet sites offer. You can plant the berries and they will come up! But for me, sadly, they do not last. There is a simular berry available that looks about like it in the oriental groceries. The difference is the goji tastes good.
-Bob
Hi Bob,
Hope you're not developing a Godzilla-type insect world down there in Texas! The other day I was asking a Chinese woman who runs a coffee/herb store here in Berkeley if she knew about goji. She pronounced it differently because she speaks Cantonese, but she said she could certainly get the berries at a local Chinese herb supplier for a very good price. Everyone in the store crowded around and signed up for a pound each. Maybe I'll sell my plants there. It's amazing how much money our locals will pay for the latest food item.
Maureen
One more thing--does anybody know how Lycium barbarum came to acquire the moniker Matrimony Vine? I guessed it was due to the fertility-enhancing properties of the fruit, but my husband claims it must be due to the thorns.
Good to see this thread come back to life...
I've been a goji nut for years and interestingly enough, a Cal grad school alum....lol.
As a once and forever Berzerkelian, I'm encouraged that the go-go-goji fad is alive and well there. I've been propagating this plant now for over a year and have a bunch of them as well.
I'm soon hoping to produce enough so I don't have to pay the prices down here in southern California's version of Witchita...lol, where anything not produced by a giant corporation or loaded with hazardous waste is considered some kind of blasphemy....lol.
Good luck selling your plants, best,
don
Hi Don,
Which department did you work in at Cal? I was in Econ and Public Health. It's interesting to hear that your plants set fruit well down in southern Cal. I feared they needed more cold than I could provide here in Berkeley, where we go below 32 on rare occasions. What do you think of all the health claims of this plant?
Maureen
hiya peonymaniac,
nice to meet you,
I was in Environmental Sciences and Policy. Did my docs in marine plate dynamics and benthic ecology.
We're zone 8b, in the desert...it gets down into the teens each year, so we give them a good chill.
I'm leery of all of the 'super food' talk, but I am a fan of the taste and if it has half the good stuff the 'experts' claim then all the better...lol.
Suspend all scepticism drdon, believe in Goji. If you eat goji you will be immortal till the day you die! Pardon me I have to go speak to my great great great grandson about eating his goji.
lol@immortal till the day I die......that's a good one! I always suspected that was something I should accept as an axiom...lol.
Please give your great, great, great grandson my regards....lol.
Best to the Hunzas.....
don
Hello, Goji people!
I just acquired a 4" Goji. Having read this post, and some websites, I am anxious not to kill it.
Please: any do's and don'ts?
Gratefully,
Newbie Sally
All of mine did fine growing it like it was a tomato, until the grasshoppers decided they too wanted to stay young and live forever!
Hi all,
Hope your berry patches are growing well. Here in Berkeley the summer fog encouraged a lot of mildew on the new shoots. I cut back the offending foliage and was happy to see sturdy basal growth emerging from the crown. I treated a few plants with a new (to me) organic product that contains Bacillus subtilis, which claims to puncture the cell walls of pathogen spores, including powdery mildew. Seems to work.
I also found a neat and believable resource for some of the health claims. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's website (www.mskcc.org) has a great 'About Herbs' section.
Yours in berries,
Maureen
By the way, I have taken the goji berries from the oriental grocery, (be carefull the radioactive bright red ones are nasty, and the medlar looks just like it but is not delicious in th least. You are looking for fructus lycii or lycium or lycium barbarum or boxthorn fruit. Soak the berry in a small container for two or so days and then you can mush the seeds out and smear the paste into the soil you want to start them in. I treat the soil and berries with dilute hydrogen peroxide to reduce the chances of early root rot. So far I have started about 20 of them and seen about 20 of them get eaten by grasshoppers. The young plants are very picky about water. Too much or too little will stress them and the line between is very thin.
-Bob
I just ordered one goji berry plant, I am hoping to propagate from it. How are your gojis growing if I may ask? I am in the Santa Cruz CA area...nice microclimate here. How many berries did you get the first year?
I've got one coming from raintreenursery they didn't have it listed on the web site. but I emailed and asked, and they had it, so I ordered it as well as the wolfberry, which I thought was a goji berry .
Any opinions on the difference between goji berry and wolfberry?
kathy who's going to check out that nursery in utah now LOL
hiya kathy_ann
Wolfberry, Withania somniferum is often confused with Goji. One they are both in the family Solanaceae, two they are both considered "superfoods", but the main difference is that Withania is known as an "Ayurvedic" medicine for everything from erectile dysfunction to insomnia.
Goji is most considered a food/snack that is super high in antioxidants and several vitamins and phytonutrients that increase or sustain health. Lyceum barbarum is in fact very different from Withania, but both do have super health increasing properties.
Hope you are getting a Goji and not Withania,
best,
don
Well, I"m getting both LOL. The wolfberry was listed on the web site, and I emailed and asked about the tibetan goji berry, and their sending both of them, I also bought 6 tibetan goji berries off ebay. for 40.00
I hope to be healthy and a super woman soon LOL
thanks so much for that info, I appreciate it.
Does anybody know what the proper ph for these should be? I got my 6 last week and they are all sprouting new leaves and I'd like to stick them into the ground soon. Any ideas?
do you think they'd grow well close to the blueberries, with ph around 4.5 to 5 I hear most fruit in general like it around 5 to 6 ph right?
kathy
hiya kathy_ann,
nice to meet you!
I've found over the years that Goji like to be neutral if possible, but a small deviation in either direction is not significantly influential in their growth.
Enjoy your new pals!!!!
best to you,
don
Thanks Don
kathy
hiya kathy_ann,
My pleasure.....and enjoy these rascals as they do have a tendency to be very grateful garden residents and will make a really nice patch of Goji treasure very soon.
best to you,
don
I've been lurking and watching this post hoping somebody would post a picture of larger Goji. Sure would like to see one. And you all almost have me convinced to get one. I just need to find a spot in the already overcrowded yard.
Ray
Well, i'm affraid mine are the same size as pictured above. Hope they grow up soon though. I did get mine off ebay 6 for I think 40.00 and I got 2 extra, so i'm in goji heaven right now.
drdon I didnt get to see your goji when I was there at the roundup, maybe I did see but did not know what I was looking at. Does it have invasive roots?
steph
I am looking to grow goji berries , found this thread and reserected it from google.. :) I'm pretty sure all solanacea's grow well here
Hi everyone ...as a gardener I enjoy anything that is a novelty and something different...but I think you should know that our Goverment is about to jump all over the goji berry industry ..re their "false claims"...They are very strict about false advertising in this country....so sorry about that...I just thought that you should know.
hiya chrissy100,
I'm a skeptic, but I've got several years of experience with goji, and whether or not the Australian government is about to "jump" all over the silly claims made by the snake oilers in this country, goji is a fine example of what should not be considered as a "superfood", but most certainly IS a super part of a diet that includes fresh fruits and veggies.
As I recall, the Australian government also is pretty lax on pesticide use by residential gardeners and advertisement there is as loopy regarding the use of toxics on one's land as we are here. Let's just see how hard they "jump" off the goji wagon as there is more money to be made by promoting the health benefits of diet sodas and their lobbies have lots of money to to fight upstart health foods that threaten their market share. Before I believe any of the nutjobs in this country who claim that a "new" thing is going to cure cancer, grow hair on a bald head, or improve sexual function, I, as a scientist, test it for myself. I've found goji to be a good part of a balanced diet and I, for one will continue to consume as many of the little rascals as I can grow. I don't claim it to be anything more than that, and if the Australian government (in all of their wisdom....lol) finds that U.S. claims are false (no surprise there...lol) then so be it. Maybe the next new fad will be that Vegemite is now a cure for asthma.....lol, and then U.S. pharmaceutical companies will come after the Vegemite folks as their market share may be threatened as well...lol.
There is silliness everywhere, especially at this laptop,
don
My ma gave me goji juice a while back and I have been enjoying it. I'd love to grow the plant and have been hunting for it online. So far I spoke with someone in Canada that sells it. There are several asian markets around town though. I'm considering trying to grow it from seed. It would seem though if the fruit was processed that something would have been "done" to the seeds as well as the fruit.
manic,
I've started seed several times from the dried fruit. You can find the fruit on line from many sources, or likley at a local health food store. Just tear a part the small fruits to locate the seeds, then plant. No special teatment needed. Small plants grow slowly at first, then rapidly during second year. My plants bloom prolifically, but fruiting is very sparse; I think pollination is not optimum here.
