How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Goji Berry

The goji berry is a very cheerful-looking bright red fruit that packs a powerhouse punch of nutritional benefits, great for your health! Jammed with Vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, and B6 plus antioxidants, this little fruit does a lot of work for how little food it is! With its recent rise to fame, more and more people are looking to add the goji berry to their home gardens. 

This tart yet nutritious fruit grows on a shrubby set of branches that the savvy gardener could prune into trees. It produces a beautiful small purple flower that dangles from its limbs and attracts bees. Once pollinated, it grows into a light green fruit which eventually turns to bright orange, then a deep red juicy fruit. 

Originally common in China, it’s now grown across the world in zones 3-10. It is winter-hardy that can tolerate temps all the way down to just -15°F (-26°C) once established. It is a wonderful addition to any homestead or small backyard green patch. 

What is a Goji Berry?

The goji berry, known by its botanical names Lycium barbarum or Lycium chinense, is a sour little fruit that many consider to be a superfood. Known by many names ranging from wolfberry to Chinese boxthorn, matrimony vine, and more, this perennial will take several years to first produce its berries. You can speed up the process by planting a mature goji berry purchased from a local nursery and only wait one growing season. If starting from seed, this plant can take up to three years to produce your first crop of goji berries. 

Native Area

A member of the Solanaceae family, the same family as tomatoes, it originates in China. Only the berries on this tall, leggy shrub are eaten, but it can be used as an ornamental addition to the garden, or as a hedge.

Characteristics

It produces long branches with small thin leaves, purple flowers, and small bright red fruits that dangle from the limbs like bells. 

Once established, goji berries are pretty frost-hardy and can actually tolerate temperatures down to -15°F (-26°C). Once early summer comes, this pile of sticks will spring back to life! Gorgeous purple flowers appear in late spring and early summer and quickly are pollinated to become growing green berries. Later in the summer, the fruits turn a bright red color and are ready to be picked. 

Keep an eye on your berries: this vigorous and leggy bush can be invasive, as the roots can send out suckers to extend their domain. Seeds too easily germinate and sprout up, creating a wild grove of branches that need to be well pruned each year to let in light and keep the goji berries manageable. 

While the goji berry can get rather large, it can still be grown in containers if they’re wide and deep enough. Try going with a pot at least 24″ across and 24″ deep. This is a great option especially if you have poorly draining soil. 

Planting

When starting goji berries from seed, plan to start the seeds in the spring, but wait an entire year before planting it out into its permanent home. While young, these sprouts need to be protected from any frosts that their mature peers can easily tolerate. 

You can also find potted goji berries that you can order online from the Epic shop for planting straight away.

If transplanting a two-year-old bare root type, aim to get it in the ground at the end of spring. Before transplanting, soak the roots for at least an hour before placing them in a hole twice the size of the root ball that’s been amended with compost or rotted manure. If you’re planting several bare-root goji berries, try to place them three to five feet apart in rows that are six to eight feet apart. Remember that the goji berry becomes a rather bushy shrub! 

If your soil has problems with drainage, now would be the time to dig up much of the surrounding dirt and mix in an amendment like vermiculite to improve porosity. 

How to Grow

Goji berries, when left to their own devices, can easily become a thicket of spindly long limbs. A few tips and tricks will help to keep them manageable and bring in larger harvests on a more regular basis. While growable in zones 3-10, these berries can fit into almost any garden and will produce fruit for up to 15 years if managed well. 

Light

Find a nice and sunny location in your garden that will be the forever home of your goji berry. When planting, think about how large the full-sized bush will get, and make sure that even at full size, it will have full sun, it suffers even in partial shade. 

Water

Goji berries are very drought-tolerant once well-established. In the early years, monitor soil moisture to ensure that the ground around it doesn’t dry out. However, it needs relatively little water in subsequent years. Occasional slow, deep waterings using a soaker hose or drip hose are ample moisture.

Water one inch of water every other week during the summer months, and monitor the ground moisture levels using the finger test. During other months, unless the finger test comes back as completely dry, your goji berries should not need any more water. 

Soil

Goji berries are not very particular about their soil needs. They are able to adapt to most soils as long they do not develop “wet legs”. Avoid overwatering, and make sure that you’re planting it in well-drained soil. 

If you’re growing your goji in a container, aim for a loamy to sandy soil with a pH between 6.5-7.5. However, if it has good drainage, you should be on the right track. 

The one element goji berries cannot tolerate is salinity. If you’re planting near the ocean, or in an area with high saline in the soil, you might want to try growing in containers with soil from elsewhere instead of inground. The goji roots suffer when they come into contact with salinity. 

Temperature

A well-established shrub won’t need to be moved when winter comes unless you’re somewhere that gets below -15°F (-26°C). Keep young first-year shrubs away from any frost and bring them inside until spring temperatures return or provide winter protection. Conversely, if you live in an area over 100°F (38°C), cover with shade cloth when temperatures reach that high. 

Fertilizing

While goji berries don’t need a lot of food, add nitrogen at least twice during the growing season, ideally during the flowering and fruiting phases. Add two inches of compost or mulch around the base after it has fruited. With goji berries, less is more. This hardy grower has a deep taproot that, over time, will extract much of what it needs from the soil it’s planted in. 

Maintenance

When left on their own, goji berries will produce long branches up to 12 feet tall and turn into thickets of growth that can be hard to harvest. In order to turn your goji bush into something manageable on par with other fruit trees, you’ll need to prune your goji berry on an annual basis.

The benefits of pruning will make your fresh goji berries reachable come harvest time, as well as encourage bushier growth. It can even be pruned into the shape of trees. As your goji dislikes much shade, pruning also opens up the bush to more sunlight further encouraging a larger harvest. 

Pruning goji berries is not a precise science and can be customized to each individual garden. The two main goals of pruning are to keep the branches of the goji bush short enough to be within reach and to encourage lateral fruiting stems. To do this, cut any limbs that grow beyond six feet long. Additionally, cut away branches blocking light to encourage maximum light penetration into the leaves. Remove dead and damaged limbs, and any suckers growing where you don’t want a future bush. 

Propagation

There are two methods for adding a goji berry to your garden. It’s possible to grow goji berries from seed or add a one to two-year-old potted or bare root to your garden. Starting from seed will most likely result in production in two to three years. If adding a bare-root or potted version, you may see a crop during the initial fall after planting. 

If growing from seed, place seeds at eighth of an inch deep in potting soil or seed starting mix and keep in a warm and sunny place. It’s possible to germinate and grow your plants under grow lights for the initial six to nine months. The seeds germinate relatively quickly and need to be kept evenly moist. Keep in mind, if growing from seed, there is some variability within seeds and you may find slight differences in your berries. 

Harvesting

Goji berries are delicate and easily bruised. If they weren’t so good for our health we may not grow them otherwise! As they quickly deteriorate, try to know how you will use this food before you harvest it. 

These berries will slowly ripen over a long summer, they start out as light green, turn to orange, and then a deep red. When the berries are a deep red color, you know it’s time to pick them! Don’t be surprised however when the berries prove to be sour or tart. That’s what they’re supposed to taste like. While the tartness may seem strange given how popular these berries are, remember these berries’ use lies in their health benefits.

To pick, gently pluck the berry off the bush with your fingers. Avoid using any tools that would pick several at once as that may bruise the fruit. After harvest, add organic mulch that will begin to break down and add nutrients to the surrounding soil. 

Storage

Most goji berries sold in the United States are dried because they are delicate and fragile when fresh. They’re often imported and sold in Asian markets. Sun drying or dehydrating your berries for long-term storage is relatively easy.

However, juicing is becoming increasingly popular and some people are growing gojis just for their juice. Many of the nutrients available in the berries can be squeezed out and consumed in juice form. Trying freezing the juice if you’re juicing large quantities at a time. It may be helpful to add another sweeter ingredient as well to mask or at least offset the tartness of the goji berry. 

Extracting seeds from goji berries is fairly easy. Either start with a dried berry or wait for your berries to dry out. Gently cut it open and with your fingers roll the tiny seeds out of the fruit and onto a plate. These seeds can then be stored or germinated. 

Common Problems

Goji berries are a fairly easy crop to raise and don’t suffer from many diseases. Their biggest issues come from uneven watering or days with temperatures hovering over 100°F (38°C). 

Growing Problems

Goji berries are sensitive to too much moisture and are drought-tolerant growers. With these berries, less is more! To ensure that the right amount of moisture gets to the roots, try sticking your finger into the ground around the base and feeling for moisture. If wet soil easily sticks to your finger, then there is too much moisture, and a problem called blossom end rot can affect the berry. 

Pests

Ants and aphids often will show up on your goji berries. They can damage leaves and transmit diseases. They can be hosed off. Also, for the ants, could you try leaving ant traps around the base of the branches to keep them from invading? 

Spider mites attack the leaves and cause them to fall. If this happens too early in the season, this can hurt berry growth. Apply insecticidal soap or neem oil before the infestation grows and keep an eye out for their re-emergence. 

Diseases

Powdery mildew is the main disease you may find attacking your berries. This disease appears as a white powder-looking film over leaves, limbs, and fruit. As this disease thrives in the shade, effective pruning can prevent this. However, if it appears, try spraying with a sulfur solution to kill this fungal disease. Common neem oil can act as a preventative measure.

Frequently Asked Questions