If you're in the Vancouver area, David Hunter Garden centres sell authentic Goji berry plants. That's where I bought mine from this year.
There is no such thing of 'Tibetan goji', I am sorry to hear people are still believing goji is different from wolfberries. Goji or wolfberries scientific name is Lycium Barbarum. The berries taste mild sweet, a little bitterness might be due to environmental factor. Some southern American varieties taste bitter too but they are not Lycium Barbarum. see more at go-goji.com
I would think that one could buy the dried goji berries from a Chinese herbal store (or grocery stores, nowadays!), and use those seeds. Then you sort of know what type of fruit you're getting. Just my thought, but I haven't tried it yet.
that's what we did about 4 years ago, and grew several plants, although we bought ours at the natural foods store, Navitas brand. As I remember they were a lot more expensive then!
Hi Jen - I would love to have some of your Goji seed! I'm in Victoria, and have a collection of seed as well. Trades? Let me know!
Goji vs Wolf. This reminds me of the panda question. Are they bears or raccoons? Ask 2 different biologists, you get 2 different answers.
Hi Durgan, Would you be willing to sell some of your Goji Berry plants? I also have some fresh Hard Neck Asian Tempest Garlic cloves left over from last week's planting if you want to trade. Mike
A quick update - the Goji berry plant I bought from the above nursery flowered and fruited this year. So you don't have to wait years for fruit. And they taste wonderful.
bedixon: We started some goji plants from the seed of a berry about 4 years ago. We'd bought a bag of dried berries and out of curiosity soaked a couple of them, and when they plumped up, split them open and scraped out the seed and dried it. The seed was really, really tiny. We tried germinating it and was quite surprised when a bunch of little plants popped up. I tried putting a few in the garden cuz I'd heard they can withstand somewhat cold winters, but they didn't do all that well. I've kept a couple in pots and they keep coming back every year after looking dead through the winter. Are they slow growers? They get just a little bit bigger every year, but no sign of flowers yet. Any advice on growing them outside would be appreciated, thanks! Goji berries have grown outside for years in zone 4 Edmonton, AB with no care and my first 50 plants (grown from seed from Prairie Garden Seeds, Cochin, SK) made it through last winter in my zone 3 area. I had two plants I pulled out because they showed die-back, but the rest were hardy to the tip. Maybe the source of your seed is a much warmer zone (can't imagine much warmer than SSI!) or perhaps a drier zone than you have. My plants grew about 18-24" the first year and then to 3-4' the second year.
Goji berry, Chinese Wolfberry, Lycium barbarum There is no reason to squabble over the name of a plant. When in doubt use the Latin. Goji is fine as long as the people talking understand the meaning. This applies to most plants, since common names are often only understood locally. An irritant is talking about some plant and the people participating are discussing another completely different cultivar. Latin names are usually easy to obtain from the internet. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?OBPCS 14 October 2009 Goja Berries. Various views of the berries and plants. Inspecting the garden after the first severe frost, six goja berries were discovered on one Chinese Wolfberry plant. This is after 18 months from seed growth. There are three plants in the garden. Two are thriving and the other is healthy but stunted, since a rabbit ate the top in the Spring of 2009. I tried one of the berries and crunched down hard, and it had a sweet taste with no trace of bitterness. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?EHWKI 26 February 2008 Chinese Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) The Chinese Wolfberry pods were planted on 10 February 2008. Due to ignorance the whole pod was planted, but it is only necessary to plant one seed per plant. They were thinned and the stronger plant will be kept as they get larger. Germination was about 14 days and it appears maybe planting the pod is a good idea, since the germination was probably 100%. The plant is a perennial. Fruit production is in the third and fourth year, according to the literature.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?EHWKI 26 February 2008 Chinese Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) The first picture is a Canadian Supplier of seeds.
Durgan, I don't think that planting the whole dried berry with all the seeds inside affected your germination. I see you got your seeds from Richters, my seeds came from Jim Ternier at Prairie Gardens already separated out and they germinated at near 100% too. Goji berry seeds and seedlings seem to be very healthy and quick growing (as compared to the Apple, Pear, Cherrry, Apricot, Plum, Arctic Kiwi and Honeyberry/Haskap seedlings I've grown). My seedlings are never covered by plastic bags (I'm assuming you do this to up the humidity) and I'm on the dry prairies. I didn't take any precautions for UV protection (I've heard that Goji are sensitive to UV, but I haven't experienced that). The seedlings survived transplanting (once indoors and once out) with almost 100% survival. The plants out in the garden survived low temperatures, then high temperatures with a severe drought (less than 2" of rain between the second week of June and the second week of October) with only one watering. They also survived 6" of snow the first week of June and a hard frost the first of July. My oldest plants are just through their second summer and I found one berry on one plant: I agree that they are tasty and look forward to more.
I just contacted the owner of http://www.tibetangoji.ca They are sending me free seeds, give them a call if you live only in Toronto , Canada. Out side Toronto They charge $25.00 to pricey . e mail me and i will send you some of my for free.
Goji plants from cuttings: It is great to see so much interest in growing Goji plants in Western Canada. I grew up on the Saskatchewan prairies, and we grew a few plants in the corner of our garden plot. The plants came up every year inspite of very cold winters. They are low care plants that do not need much time. We only trimmed them back when they started taking up too much room. I have five cuttings that I am rooting inside the house, and they are doing well, but they do need a good amount of sunlight. I am going to start some plants from seeds from the dried goji berries that I have. I am just curious to see how well they germinate. The potted plants will be transplanted out here in Calgary once spring arrives.
I bought some dried goji berries from the grocery store, soaked them and removed the seeds. They started very easily.
I have been growing a few gojis on Vancouver Island for three years. I just used regular store bought berries for seed. You can plant the whole berry or a few seeds. They need warmth to germinate. Do not plant in cool weather, they will spout and rot or wither and take forever. They take a long long time to germinate and grow the first year. Very long - be patient. Keep moist but not too wet. One fragile skinny stem and one skinny root. Once they establish, the roots go nuts and it becomes very hardy but sometimes sickly looking. They can recover. Fertilizing seems to help once established. I have some 5 ft tall ones but no fruit yet. Next year maybe? I have had to knock off aphids each year - they are a pest. Gojigeek wants to know if anyone has questions or advice to share. Good luck GJG
I grow goji berry plants here in Winnipeg. I use the seeds taken from dried berries imported from Tibet. It's much easier to grow from cuttings; dip the cutting in water and roots will come out in about 10 days. The cuttings started in the spring will bloom in the summer.