How to Grow Your Own Organic Goji Berries

Organic goji berries can be grown in your backyard or small acreage because they are one of the few exotic “super” berries that we can grow here in North America from hardy zones 4 through 9. In fact, there are goji berries growing right now in the Utah desert that gets serious frosts. While organic goji berries can be grown from nursery stock, you can grow your own organic goji berries from seeds you get from the dried berries in health food stores. Once established, the vines spread by underground runners, and you can replant the shoots that push up from the ground to grow a plantation of organic goji berries or sell the starts to others.

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Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Plant the seed. Obtain dried organic goji berries from a health food store. Every berry contains around 20 seeds, so you won’t need many for planting. Soak the organic goji berries (or berry!) overnight in water, then press the berry while it’s still in the water between your fingers to release the seeds from the berry pulp, allowing the viable seeds to sink to the bottom. Then plant one or two seeds in a two gallon planting pot with drainage holes filled with organic potting soil that has an alkaline pH of 7.6 to 8.2. Ask the nursery or garden center what amendments to add to the organic potting soil for it to have this pH if you don’t know how. Goji seedlings don’t transplant very well, so you want to put your seeds into a container where they can grow undisturbed for a year. If both sprout, thin to just one.

2. Nurture for up to a year. Put the pots in a sunny location that gets at least six hours of sun, and nurture by watering regularly (never overwater or let the soil get soggy). Protect the pot from hard frosts and freezing temperatures with a blanket around the pot if you get cold winters. Once in the ground, your established organic goji berries will be stronger and more insulated from cold, but while still young and in pots above the ground, they may need protection.

3. Plant in the field. Plant your organic goji berries in organic soil in a field in springtime where they will continue to get at least six hours of sun and where they will be very well drained. Make sure you plant at the same depth as the plants were in the container. If planting multiple organic goji berries, remember they grow up to ten feet wide and tall, so consider this when choosing your spacing. Water if natural rainfall is sparse but again, don’t overwater. Once or twice a year, mulch with organic compost.

Tips & Warnings

• As growing organic goji berries in North America progresses, there may be more specific goji varieties available from nurseries that have been tested for nutrients or grow especially well in certain hardiness zones. You may prefer growing organic goji berries from these sources rather than from seeds.
• Check with your local agriculture extension agent to make sure goji plants (also called wolfberries) aren’t considered an invasive species in your area, as they do tend to spread easily and rapidly.
• Organic goji berries for personal use are easy to grow. In order to sell anything organic legally, one must get proper certification.
• Author disclaims liability. Article is for educational purposes only.

[SarahElizabeth]

on 11/25/2009 Very interesting... thanks for sharing this. I may want to try to grow my own organic Goji berries sometime in the near future. 5*