i too, am looking for a good strain of gogi seed. i'm hopeing it's not too late in the season to do starts. anyone know? my permaculture buddy hooked me up with a pile of wolfberry seed, but after reading up, it seems the tibetan/mongolian 'real' gogi are prefferable.

anyway, i'm wanting to plant a lot of them, so haveing the right strain is important. i live on an island in coastal b.c.

any helpful info is much appreciated.

thanx!

judah,

If you're planning to plant "a lot of them" it may be worth the investment to order dried berries from a couple/few different sources and taste them. You can then plant the seeds from the ones you like the best.

I found it very confusing trying to determine which berries came from where. Many of the "brands" you will find on ebay or google are repackaged from the same wholesaler. Also many of the packages look VERY similar but the name or graphic may be very slightly different.

There is so much hype surrounding these things that its difficult to separate the BS from the genuine information.

All goji/wolfberries are extremely nutritious. If you find one that you like the taste of, in my mind, that is the most important thing.

Would these also be called Autumn Olives or Autumn Berries? If so, the PA game commission planted some nearby my house 5 years ago for game feed. They are now 6-7 feet high, very invasive, and get loaded with fruit around Halloween. Berries have more lycopine than tomatoes. Made a fruit spread them last fall, very good.

No they are different plants. How long does it take them to fruit from seed?

John

Here is a link that might be useful: One Green World

From Goji's & More, Inc. 3 seed pods (60-100 seeds) for $9.95 + ship

forgot the link: http://www.gojiberries.us

By "seed pod" they mean dried berries. $10 for 3 berries is nuts. You can buy a whole bag of sun-dried goji berries for that price, or slightly more. The germination rate is at least 50% and with a bag of them you will have thousands of seeds.

You can buy 30 goji berry seeds on Ebay for $2 shipped.

Here is a link that might be useful: buy 30 seeds (probably 1 or 2 berries) for $2

My goji berries came in an affordable 4 oz. sample size, and 4 berries produced enough seeds for around 20 plants. This vendor was approved by The Tibetan Goji Berry Company, which claims to be a farmers co-op created to support local farmers and protect ancient wild growing areas, the only official agency in Tibet authorized to distribute these agricultural products.
I canÂt comment on their claims, but the berries were sweet and good. All red, no brown. There is an after taste that lingers briefly on the tongue, but itÂs not bitter or unpleasant. There were so many little plants; I just put them in clumps in three pots with potting soil. They were four inches tall when something came and ate all of them to the ground. Some small growth is coming back from the roots, so they might not be done for yet. If I see a bird jumping around with a lot of energy, guess IÂll know who the guilty one was. ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: The Tibetan Goji Berry Co.

Aphids seem to really like my seedlings, they are pretty resilient though.

I bought some berries approved by the Tibetan Goji Berry Company and some that weren't. I couldn't tell much difference in the flavor.

They both are slightly salty to my taste and have a bit of aftertaste. The texture of the "official" ones was worse. They were drier and harder, I suspect I may have gotten a year old batch in spite of specifically requesting that they only send them if they were from the recent season.

Both germinate very easily and I haven't kept track of which plants are which.

I had bought Wolfberry plants from a mail order nursery.Plants start flowering from July on and ripe berries get ready by late August.

Picture of ripe berries to share with you.

{{gwi:78037}}

Do you have any pictures from further back for perspective? How many years was it from planting to berries?

What do you do to take care of them?

I do not have pictures of earlier growth of the plant.I am posting the pic. of the plant from which the ripe berrie's pic. is posted above. By now all the ripe berries are harvested.They were planted using potting soil.
Plants are mulched with finely shreded mulch and the grass clippings from the back yard.10-10-10 fertilizer is applied for three times during the season.

{{gwi:78038}}

You can buy plants from on line nurseries.Google will help you to find one.
Plants start bearing fruits from third year of planting.

Thanks Chaman, the picure is invaluable. Do you do any pruning? I see you've constructed some support there.

I've seen the plants described as both "vine" and bush". That looks more like vine to me. I may have to reevaluate how I want to place mine.

I wonder if it were pruned differently if it could be both self-supporting and bear a reasonable yield of fruit.

It has not been prunned after planting.I will prun it this year for first time.
I have read that it can be grown as a bush as well as vine.
Some plants have both viney and bush type habits.Jasmine is another good example.
Prunning all branches to a height of about 1 foot above ground level plant will grow as a bush. Do not remove the shoots as they appear if you want to grow it as a bush.By saving one or two longest and prunning rest of the branches at the ground level plant will grow as a vine.Remove the new shoots as soon as they appear if you want to grow it as a vine. I have experimented this with Jasmines.

Chaman,
Did you like the berries? Were they flavorful, sweet, or weird?

Or bland, slightly sweet, and slightly bitter with lots of small hard seeds?

To me it tastes like little bit tangy,sweet,tart and sour
put together.Or like tastes of ripe tomato,raisin, cranberry and cherry mixed together.
I love to eat them.
More than less it depends upon individual's taste buds also.

BW I pick up ripe berries from the plant(like red ones in pic. above) for eating.

Another factor here is that the young shoots and leaves are edible. in commercial production they are trained as a small tree about 7 feet tall. These berries have 500X Vit. C than oranges, more betacarrotine than carrots, amino acids and antioxidants. Likely the second most healthy thing you can eat. The list of nutrients and micro-nutrients is very impressive.

rain, do you mean "500%"? The 500X claim is simply not credible.

murky,I am posting pic. of second plant I have which was planted and re-planed and finally it was brought near the first plant.If this helps perspectively.
This plant is to the left side of the window.

{{gwi:78039}}

Thanks chaman. Is it leaning against the brick wall, and did it bear fruit at that size?

murky,
Plant is not leaning against the wall.Stem is two and half feet away from the wall.
It did bear the fruit.I am posting the pic. of the fruit from this plant.

{{gwi:78040}}

Is Goji the same thing as the Wolfberries sold in Chinese grocery stores as Lycium? If so, dried berries are quite cheap and easy to find at most Chinese groceries I have been in. I looked at the Plants for a Future site for the 3 Lyciums listed and 2 are native to the US, but not rated as high for fruit value as L. barbarum.

hemnancy, could you please post the pic. of the berries that you purchase from Chinese grocery store?

chaman- here is a photo. It came out kind of dark, they are more a tomato red. I didn't have the label with them, but they are usually sold as Lycium, I don't remember anything more.

{{gwi:78041}}

I googled Gogi and it seems to be the fruit I buy in the Chinese groceries. Some health food people finally got interested in it and jacked the price way up. I tried to grow plants once but it was a weedy area and I probably didn't keep it watered and weeded enough and lost them. I may try growing them again. The Chinese grocery is full of weird fruits dried or fresh that probably also have good health benefits, as fruits and vegetables all have their unique effects to restore, replenish, cleanse, and nourish our systems, put there by the Designer of the Universe, fruit like Lychees, Longan, Durian, etc.

Autumn Olive is related to gomi or goumi which is less invasive, from what I've read. And yes, it's different from goji.

I found my other package of Wolfberries from the Chinese grocery and it is labeled Medlar. I googled Medlar images and there is one photo that looks like Wolfberries, but it is obviously labeled wrong as Medlar is a totally different plant family, and the berries are obviously in the nightshade family like tomatoes. I also soaked some berries and fermented the seeds like collecting tomato seeds, and will try planting some.

Hi there

I am interested in the goji berries, does anyone know what they call the leaves and shoots which are apprently in the Asian vege section in the fruit shop ?

I have read they root easily from cuttings and I want to give it a go.

Thanks.

Popi

They germinated and grew very easily from seeds I removed from dried berries. I got on the order of 50% germination or better simply cutting the dried berries open and pulling the seeds out with tweezers.

I put them in potting soil onder flourescent light and tried to keep the soil from drying completely too often. That's it!

The only way I could see paying money for plants is if I wanted to buy a large one in a large pot in order to get berries sooner. Otherwise they seem very easy to propagate.

I've done it with two different sources of the dried berries that are sold for eating.

hemnancy,

I got a chance to look at the pics. of dried Wolfberry/Goji berries pics. in few on line catalogs and all look like the pic. you have posted.However,since they are cultivated over a large area between Himalaya,Tibet and into China is it possible that there may be different local names in the different places of the area?

Goji is going mainstream; Trader Joe's now includes the berries in a trail mix.

I saw Lycium barbarum plants in the 2006 Raintree catalog.

I recieved cuttings and planted rooted plants last summer. This summer the plants grew well, but they didn't flower....That is until about 2 weeks ago.

I'm hoping next year to sample some fresh berries from the plant (that is if my oldest son doesn't get them first....They're his favorites)

~Chills

chills, from where did you get cuttings?

from the exchanges page. I traded for them. (sadly I cannot tell you with whom, though as I lost all those lists from a computer problem earlier this year)

~Chills

I bought seeds and small plants from Richters.com
By the time the plants were shipped, my seeds were about five times their size.

Here's some intersting info on wolfberry marketing

Here is a link that might be useful: Goji info

When I click on the e-mail link at The Tibetan Goji Berry Company's website I get an error message. Would someone please post the e-mail address? I'm interested in some organic berries for eating now and also want to grow my own. Thanks for any info. (I live in metro Atlanta.)

info@gojiberry.com

I planted a wolfberry last summer in what is basically a giant "pot" I created with extra-large retaining stone. I'd snap a picture, but right now everything's dormant and unimpressive. Maybe in a month...

...anyways...

This little guy grew like wildfire! Mine is very spreading, with "tentacle"-like growth that has weaved out to about a 30-foot wingspan. This and two boysenberry "twigs" just EXPLODED last summer.

I filled my retaining area with the best topsoil I could find, mixed in sand and vermiculite and fish meal. It drains exceptionally well and is out in the open where it's pounded by fullsun (and Kansas sun is VERY blazing in July/August) until about 7pm during the longest days.

I have wolfberry, boysenberry, blueberry, grape, 3 jujubees, 2 Jap persimmons, 1 cultivar goumi, 1 cultivar magolia vine, a smathering of strawberries, 3 different cultivar gooseberries, and 1 passion flower vine (maypop) growing in my "pot". All the vines did extremely well, the magnolia lagging behind the others. Blueberries struggled. I await the rise or fall of the Jap persimmons -- we dipped into sub zero temps this winter, so it will be interesting to see what kind of staying power they have. Same with the juju's, although Roger told me he thought they'd be fine (he has relatives in Topeka who've grown them for years).

I got no berries on the wolfberries last year, but hopefully this year.

One thing I did notice is everywhere the tentacles went if they touched ground they rooted. I think I can generate another 20 plants this spring by simply severing the branches from the main stem and then digging them and moving them.

raddog...I'm glad to see you've had luck. My wolfberries opened a few blooms last October. I picked them off rather than let them try to produce that late.

My magnolia vine lagged too. I just chalked it up to it being in shade, which it is supposed to tolerate.

Which persimmons did you get? Did someone recommend the varieties to you? I got Ichi Ki Kei Jiro and it looks fine (though it is in tubex and it hasn't even grown out of the tube yet, so it was somewhat protected).

~Chills

You can get info on Goji berry seedlings and plants at wheelersgreenhouseandnursery.com

You can also get them from me.

:)

Our family have been growing gogi for over 20 years.

There are 2 different varieties of Lycium barbarum, and they have rather different growth pattern.

The large leave variety is grown primarily for its delicious leaves which is usually used as a soup vegetable. In my garden, zone 15, it has providing us with enough large leaves almost all year around. The branches is almost cut down to the ground during harvesting to stimulate new growth and prevent mildewing. However in mother's house in the hot central valley,zone 14, once the weather really warms up, the leave become rather small. It will produce the berries if you do not cut down the vines. However it does produce too many berries.

The second variety is literally named the small leaf gogi will produces rather small and narrow leaves most of the year, and the leaf is too small for practical cooking purpose, But it produces immense amount of berries, and here again its growth pattern is different in the Stockton area. The berries is much more plentiful and much larger in my mother's garden inspite of fact that both plants came originally from the same plant over 10 years ago.

My suggestion is to grow and use both varieties. For around a dollar in an Asian market you can buy a bunch, strip away the leaves, and make enough cutting for 100 plants or you can get a bunch from a Chinese friends since it is the most common and easiest plant to grow. I have seen it grown in sandy soil in San Francisco. I grow it in a rather heavy clay soil.

The berry variety is a little different story. I have been sucessful in making many cuttings, but it is much slower than with the other variety. The fresh seeds are rather easier to start, but you will have a long wait before you can harvest enough berries to consume. If you can afford it I would suggest buying it rooted from a nursery. A pound of dried seeds can be purchased in most Asian market for a few dollars.

Sorry, I have a correction! The sentences should have been written "It(the large leaf variety) does not produces too many berries."

Yong

I am living in Atlanta GA zone 7. Could somebody in Atlanta confirms the success of growing Goji? Where you bought the seed/plant? What is the special care for Goji in Alanta area?

Reading the previous posts, I understand that we could just go to Chiness stores to buy the dried berry fruit, or envent buy the part of the plant in the asian grossery store. What exactly the name I should say to Chiness/Asian grossery store so they understand that I want Goji??? Some people name it Gogi?

Most Chinese grocers are ethnic Cantonese. They call the vegetable, gull gay, and the berries gull gay gee. I enjoy growing the berries, but I find it not cost effective if you live near a Chinese grocery or drug store since I have only one harvest a year. The leaves I harvest almost all year around. Unfortunately there is very little promotion about the large leafy variety, but the leaves are highly nutrious and delicious if properly cooked in a soup.

Get it here

www.GojiLtd.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Click here to get your Goji