does anyone know of sources for plants or cuttings for this season? am very interested in trying to grow this in a large container. thanks -Luke
You can spare yourself the search if you go to your local health food store, buy some bulk dried goji, and sow the berries. Typically, dozens of seedlings emerge.
thanks. I heard some others had success using dried berries as well. I was kind of hoping to skip some time and get a jumpstart by finding a 1 year or even 2 year old plant as i heard they do not fruit until the 2nd or 3rd year. I'm not sure how much time is saved by rooting a cutting vs starting from seed though. -Luke
Honestly, I think you're better off doing your own seedlings. Goji really isn't that difficult to grow, tolerant of all kinds of off putting conditions-however it doesn't like to be too wet or overhead watered all the time, which is generally what happens in a nursery. We brought in a shipment of them one year, they were far too expensive ($20 for a 1gallon pot) scrawny and hated the watering system. People that bought them were quite happy with their performance after being planted, but the way we kept them was all wrong and we had to toss about 25% of the order at the end of the year. IMO you'll be happier if you sprout a bunch of seedlings and cull what isn't doing great, then you'll have a strong plant that hasn't had it's conditions change several times.
Hi guys thanks for the reply. you do bring up some good points about growing from seed. are you supposed to soak the dried berry(with seeds inside) before planting or just toss them in some potting soil? Are there any steps i can take to encourage them to fruit sooner than later? I feel i need to do some more research on the plant's behavior as well. What's the plants typical fruiting life cycle, once a year for ever or do the crops produced tend to fade out after a period of time(x years)? thanks! -Luke
well in the meantime, i figured i better go pickup some dried berries and see what i'm up against. these ones i'm soaking because i heard they were kind of nice to eat out of hand after being soaked. i didn't realize a 4oz bag would have probably hundreds or so berries and probably thousands of seeds inside!
I may have to try that myself and add them to the collection. Goji berry plants around here go for $10+. I'm also interested in the haskap berries, but they are only available from the plant breeder and are proprietary.
In the past 24 hours there are another 10 or so sprouts trying to break the surface. i'll give them a few more days and see just how many actually come up :-). -Luke
I think 'One Green World" has them in stock all sizes. I've never got them to actually fruit. Has anyone?
Would anyone have some goji berry (Lycium Barbarum) seeds to spare or to sell? Would prefer organic if possible, but will take what I can get. I live in Victoria, B.C. TIA.
aslong as you have a major grocery store, or health food store nearby you can do what I did and pick up a small bag of dried whole berries, then pull a few berries apart and plant the seeds. -Luke
Thank you Luke for the suggestion. It had entered my thoughts but I'm a bit hesitant to do that because I read that people were getting bad rashes and severe stomach aches from store bought. People were saying it was the berries , or in a tablet form, or juice from the stores. Someone said it wasn't the berries but the stores were using a red dye to make the berries look more appealing. Have you experience any of these symptoms yourself?
From eating the store bought dried berries? Not at all. They are fantastic in yogurt. Out of hand they are allright. My plants are only a month old seedlings so it'll still be 2-3 years before they fruit if they ever do. -Luke
