As I said earlier in the thread we grow them quite successfully here on the outskirts of Phoenix. They are pretty good/ok to eat out of hand now (year 3), were less so the first year. I believe that mine came out of LaVerne or Proven WInners. Purchased at Home Depot on sale.
My biggest issue with them is that they are the worst most invasive root sucker SOB ive ever planted. Its sending up suckers 10 ft away from the plant! They arent a big deal to keep up on, a quick pull gets them out but it is annoying. The other annoying thing is that it hast been terribly productive yet. It doesnt bloom all at once and give you a nice big harvest. Instead to trickles blooms, a few everyday so that you need to be picking all the time, but unless you collect and freeze or dry them it never amounts to much. Maybe production will get better in the coming years.
Well, Gentlemen, to make this a little more complicated… Some Goji, Chinese only eat its leaf as green put it in the soup; some eat only berries. I don’t know their Latin name. Chicago can grow both type. From my Childhood memory, commonly the berries was in dried form, this because dried form is the easiest and long lasting method to preserve and store. Until recently, the buzz word of antioxidant flows everywhere, Goji berry suddenly become a raising star. Its price was very cheap back 10 years ago, now the price 5 folds . Goji berry has been consider something promote health for your body, and for your eye sight, etc. for thousands of years but never a expensive item. It usually grow in poor soil region for some reason( come to think of it, It is mainly because in these regions, main staple food, such as rice, wheat, potatoes etc can’t grow successfully). The best Goji berry is produce in NingXia(宁夏）area nowadays. Regard to it is food or medicine, I have to say it is very ambiguous because Chinese consider food is something you eat(食物）. So under this definition, all edibles are food Therefore this can be called food. But I prefer steak and potatoes as my food not Goji berries Truely, most common fruits and veggies, herbs, weeds, plants, mineral have medicinal property. To make it is event more complicated, for example, an apple. red apple and green apple has different warm and cool medicinal property . I once asked someone, what about hybrid of red and green apple? I guess the whole thing goes back to thousands of years, at that time, there is not that many apple varieties as we do now, study needs to be continued…
Modern Chinese use small amount in dish to add color, add flavor, etc, but don’t consume large qty daily. Traditional Chinese medicine will prescript Goji berries as part of medicine where it fits.
Summary…
Goji is common name for" Lycium barbarum"
Some cultivars in certain soils taste bad.
Some cultivars are specifically for use as dried fruit.
Can taste better as the plants mature.
Voles eat their roots.
In China fruits are dried and used as nutrition and medical use.
Invasive tendency by some cultivars by seed and/or root suckers.
Maybe taste depends on soil pH?
Info suggests alkaline soil needed with a pH between 6.8 and 8.1.
Can anyone report taste or growing info using Cultivar Names?
Does anyone know other Cultivar Names and sources?
Information from Grow Organic Website
“Goji berries are easy to grow, container adaptable and drought tolerant. They do require alkaline soil with a pH between 6.8 and 8.1. Do not apply any nitrogen and they really don’t need any fertilizer. The Phoenix Tears variety was discovered in 2004 on a ranch in western Utah near the historic site of a transcontinental railroad camp where primarily Chinese workers resided.The mother plant is thought to be a chance seedling planted by accident back in the days of the transcontinental railroad construction. Phoenix Tears is a productive, almost thornless variety of goji berry.”
Yesterday I went out to my yard to see what shrubs that grow like Goji now. I remember seeing something very similar. And it is Asian (Chinese/Japanese) honeysuckle! I just hope Goji is not that aggressive. But I’m afraid. The root sucker story is alarming. The birds will certainly like the showy red berries.
Both belong to the same large family: Plantae or Eudicots.
Honeysuckle is another plant with same value as Goji. Its Chinese name is “Gold and Silver Flower” for its yellow and white fragrant flowers on the same plant. The flowers are used in Chinese medicine. I have not heard folks eating its flower or the black berries.
I do not know what to do with my Goji yet. I’ll have to find an isolated place for them, not close to the woods.
For commercial planting, spreading is not a problem.
Asian (Chinese/Japanese) honeysuckle Gold and Silver Flower is Lonicera japonica. Its flowers and stems are used as medicine. Also flowers used in tea is pretty common. Is tea a food or medicine? Are you drink honeysuckle tea everyday or are you take honeysuckle medicine everyday
Remember one thing, there is another classification: nutrition supplements. I think we all know Herbalife. Then there are quite a few other brands. What do they make? food? no. Medicine? no.
Also where should Ginseng belong? Clearly not food, not medicine too.
They all belong to nutrition supplements. You probably put one slice of Ginseng in your tea. But you are not going to eat one whole Ginseng at a time.
When I visit a Chinese supermarket, I can see all the above, Ginseng, Goji, Gold & Silver flower, Royal Jelly etc. at the special counter with other medicine. Not at the regular store food aisles. So somehow most of the store owners treat them as close to “medicine” as opposed to “food”.
Ppl listen up! The first few goji i bought were crimson star variety, its the only kind this private seller had. All our family loves their good size, tasty, no tart or bitter feel berries and even practically no thorns with very long producing season.
So i went and bought 3 other kinds from local nursery and the 2 of them that already gave fruit i threw away - absolutely horrible. The last one (supposedly the most original tibeth variety) will have to wait till next year to test. So i am so happy that by luck i bought the tasty kind first. Not sure if there are other good tasting kinds but i will be going back to thay guy this winter to stock up on crimson star. … thats my story, hopefully it helps…
I planted a goji about 6 years ago. Darn thing seems to like blooming in autumn. Never seen a berry on it, probably because of its very late blooming.
I grew 5 plants from seed from a crimson star last year and they are doing well, it no berries yet. I also added a sweet life berry this year, though I may have to reconsider where I planted it as it is mostly buried (though to move it I must shovel prune something else.
Scott
Btw… I like Goumi fruit fresh. My plan for this summer was to harvest and freeze these, but things here prevented that this year.
We bought a small goji bush from a local nursery (Tracy, CA) two years ago. I do not remember whether the cultivar name was indicated (probably not). First year it did ok, but really started to thrive when we put it on drip irrigation earlier this summer. A few weeks ago we noticed quite a decent amount of small, yellow to orange colored berries on the bush. We tried a few of them, and they were kind of bland and a little bit astringent – not terrible, but not something you would enjoy eating. Turns out, those were unripe, since last few days we see larger, more red colored berries. The taste is quite agreeable, much sweeter than before and not astringent any more. These goji berries definitely cannot compare in taste to, say, raspberry or cherry, but I enjoy eating a handful while walking by the bush in the garden.
FYI, Burpee carries the Sweet Life Goji and they are offering free shipping for another day or so.
I’ve been considering ordering one from them, but was curious if I can over winter this goji in my GH and then plant it outside next spring? Do Gojis have winter chill requirements?
I planted one a couple of years ago and it is doing ok in NW FL Zone 8b. Birds ate all of the berries last year. I do see a bb gun being used next spring in my future.
Funny, I tried a Google search for relative antioxidant values of various berries compared to Goji, with the intent to show it here and say something like, I’d rather eat 1.5X the amount of blueberries, or 3X the amount of raspberries, or whatever the ratio is. People get hung up about the concentration, and seem to neglect palatability and convenience when comparing these things.
Unfortunately, various sources are all over the place on the relative values. That is compounded by the ones that compare fresh fruit to dried fruit.
I was at Home Depot the other day and saw that they had some Goji’s left from Proven Winners. They were ripe (I think), so I picked one and ate my first ever goji berry. It was horrible. Tasted like a hot pepper. It was actually spicy. Maybe I picked it too early? They were full red. I thought they were supposed to be sweet.
Ross, Do you know if it was Lycium barbarum or Lycium Chinense? I’ve been growing Lycium Chinense for several years. It’s been slow growing and unhealthy. The few berries I’ve gotten have not been spicy but were bitter with no sweetness. Perhaps it was because the plants were struggling to survive. I’ve been watering and fertilizing them more this year and they look a little better. If they don’t show healthy growth next year with edible fruit, I’m removing them.
I’ve purchased dried berries in the store and they were OK but far from delicious. My wife did like them.
I think it was Sweet Lifeberry. I’ll have to go back to taste another one and check the tag to be sure. Lowes has them in shady spot, and it doesn’t look like it’s doing well at all, so maybe that’s a factor.
Therefore this can be called food. But I prefer steak and potatoes as my food not Goji berries 
Truely, most common fruits and veggies, herbs, weeds, plants, mineral have medicinal property. To make it is event more complicated, for example, an apple. red apple and green apple has different warm and cool medicinal property 
. I once asked someone, what about hybrid of red and green apple? I guess the whole thing goes back to thousands of years, at that time, there is not that many apple varieties as we do now, study needs to be continued…
or are you take honeysuckle medicine everyday 
