Hi Madraoula, I have a couple potted Crimson Star Gojis that I grow near Seattle. Do you ever have problems with wasps drilling the berries like I have here? Good luck with your business. Greece is a beautiful country full of warm and friendly people.
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Hallo Quill…thank you !!!..Fortuntely I haven’t problem with wasps.As I know the problem with wasps on grapes, you can put a bottle with orange juice (you’ll cut the upper piece of a plastic bottle of coca-cola, you will put orange juice(e.g. fanta) at the bottle,you’ll put the cutted upper piece upside down on the lower piece and wait for the wasps to go inside, they just can’t got out…you can see 3 ways to do that ----> http://www.supereverything.gr/2014/08/pos-tha-apalageite-apo-tis-sfikes.html )
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I just planted a Goji this spring. I got it from Burnt Ridge, who describe it as “Goji berry- Wolfberry (Lycium Barbarum)”
I was suprised when I saw it start to bloom in late July. I just passed by it again yesterday and noticed that it is covered in berries. I’m not sure if it is too late for them to ripen, but I was suprised how fast that happened. A month ago, there were only 2-3 flowers and now there are a lot more berries than that…
One other note- while it was free standing in July, it is now bent over. Maybe it will need some support in the future.
July 30:
Aug 27:
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Bob,
I hope they taste better than the ones I tried! They sure do look good and seem like they like growing there.
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I’m not worried- even if they are horrid fresh, I know my wife likes them dried in soup, so I’ve got something to do with them.
I read that they like hot, dryish conditions, so I put them on a South facing hill which dries out pretty quickly. It must not be too dry though, as I get plenty of weeds growing on it. I had just finished pulling a decent amount of them up when I snapped the first pic. The top part of the pic shows a part that I hadn’t gotten to. I need to be more proactive in putting down mulch next spring- I feel like I could spend 100% of my time in the yard pulling weeds and still not keep pace.
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My Lycium Chinense, that I had for several years had grown slowly. Half the berries it had this year had a fungus or disease with large black spots. The good berries where eaten by the birds. I pulled it out of the ground and was surprised how little root growth it had. I don’t know why but that probably why it hasn’t produced much.
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My experiences growing Goji Berries. Crimson Star & Sweet Lifeberry. Turns out @madraoula is right. Barbarum is sweet.
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“Maybe it will need some support in the future”…my friend, not in the future, DO IT NOW!!!
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I’ve got a couple of ‘Crimson Star’ plants about 2 yrs old. They grow okay for me here in wet, humid Iowa. Got a few berries the first fall. This year more in July and Aug mostly. They seem somewhat everblooming. Birds like them. My daughter and I enjoy them fresh, but we like the dried ones more. Hopefully I’ll get enough of a harvest to dry some next year. They’re definitely a different kind of fruit, very savory as well as somewhat sweet (similar to they’re relative the tomato in that regard).
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I wanted to respond to this post because I have found a way that makes goji berries taste pretty good (but might defeat their purpose, I don’t know). I found that when I make vinaigrette based salads, I can toss in some gojis that I’ve grown and dried. Once tossed in with the dressing, cashews, feta cheese, and other ingredients they soak up the vinaigrette and swell to the size of a mini plum. They taste really good.
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Berries are frequently sold locally in China where they are grown but they aren’t usually sold that way because they have little shelf life and there is a much larger market for dried berries. Gojis are grown mostly for eating so that is indeed what they are for. The medicinal market is much smaller than the food market. The line is blurred though because many Chinese merchants advertise their goji berries as being for medicinal purposes. I discussed this very topic last October at Northwest A&F University in Yangling China where I attended the International Apple Symposium.
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Bumping this thread as I was wondering if anyone had harvested any Goji berries last year. If so, how did they taste? From the last few posts in this thread I saw @BobVance, @kshaunfield, @Drew51, @Chills and others growing them, any reports?
I’ve seen them in the small boxes at Lowe’s and Tractor Supply (bare root) for about $10, and was wondering if they’re worth trying.
Thanks.
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Mine are not terribly happy with their location (non-irrigated shaded) but they did produce a few berries. I got to eat about a dozen. I found them seedy but sweet.
I’m hoping that the production increases and the berries are a little larger, but it will mean I will likely need to water them more.
These were the lifeberry ones nurseries are carrying now. I have another in the back yard which grows much stronger but always blooms very late (September) I have not ever had a berry of this one in 4 years.
Scott
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I got quite a few of them last year from a 2nd year plant (Burnt Ridge). In fact, the plant had some in September 2016, after being planted in April of that year.
Mine seems quite happy on a non-irrigated steep South facing hill with almost complete sun. It seems that they can take dry conditions pretty well. I had a different goji (Phoenix Tears, I think) in a shady location with more water and it did nothing.
I don’t like them, at least this one. When ripe, they are a bit sweet. But they have a very strong flavor. Something like a bad tomato (and I don’t like good tomatoes). I figured they are healthy, so I tossed a small handful into a smoothy and less than a dozen ruined the flavor of a blender full of fruit and yogurt. Powerful stuff.
On the other hand, my wife eats them in soup and they are really easy to grow, so I’ll probably keep it for now.
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Until now the few i’ve tasted were like bitter “sweet pepper”
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Seems they’re a love 'em or hate 'em kinda fruit. My daughter and I thoroughly enjoy them. I don’t find them particularly strong flavored, though they have a unique savory quality in addition to being sweet. I think I have the variety ‘Cimson Star’ unirrigated in full sun. I moderately prune them back once or twice a year to keep them bushy and do not provide support. They seem easy to propagate and I have a half dozen or so plants that came from suckers or hardwood cuttings. They are everbearing with flushes produced from June or July to frost (depending on rain). We eat them out of hand but do enjoy them dried even moreso. Maybe one day I’ll get 2 or 3 dozen plants growing to make harvesting/drying more worthwhile. I understand the leaves are used as a green vegetable or tea. Will have to try that sometime.
Cheers,
Kirk
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We have two different kinds and what they are I do not know. One kind is almost inedible to me. Not sweet and a really strange taste. The other ones are not bad. I will throw a few down my throat
while I’m working around the beds and they are very sweet. Have that unusual twang that to me just seems to be a “wild, uncultivated” taste (which I know what that is to me but it will be something else to anyone else). My husband uses them in smoothies but I’m not going to put a lot of them in there. But like I said they are good enough that I will eat a few of them fresh off the plant.
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Mine is always scraggly looking, and birds mostly eat any fruit it has, haven’t been impressed with the plant.
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I’ve bought dried goji berries that where good and others that tasted terrible. I don’t know what cultivar the good ones were. I had several plants of Crimson Star planted in the ground and in pots. They grew poorly, and did not taste good. After 4 years I gave up and they went into the compost pile. Perhaps the ones I had were mislabeled and not Crimson Star. The Crimson Star that @kshaunfield has sound much better than mine.
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Thanks for all the replies. I guess the variety to look for is Crimson Star. The plant in a box from Lowe’s had a variety name on it, but it’s just called “Common”.
All the Goji I’ve had are usually sweet, with a few seeds. But they were from China, and I have no idea what variety.
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