goji berry

Photo: Paul Gross (paul144) and Richard Zhang — Public domain · source

Survives zone 5 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Goji — sweet-tart and faintly tomato-like fresh, but the berries bruise and blacken within hours of picking, which is why the crop is almost always sold dried.

Hardiness

Zone 5–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Arching, sprawling shrub 1–3 m tall and as much across, best trained on a wire or hard-pruned; containerable

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Temperate

Native range

North-west China and the dry country of Central Asia — Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang — on saline flats, riverbanks and field margins. The Ningxia crop is the origin of virtually all commercial goji.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

Fast — 1–2 m of arching cane in a season, and it fruits on the current year's wood

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate or in small clusters, narrow lance-shaped to elliptic 2–7 cm, grey-green and slightly fleshy, on arching, sparsely spiny shoots. The young leaves are eaten as a green in China.

Root system

Deep and wide-spreading with strong suckering laterals — the root system of a genuine desert plant, tolerant of salt, alkalinity and drought. Suckers appear well away from the parent, which is worth planning for.

Fruit description

Bright orange-red ellipsoid berries 1–2 cm, ripening over a long summer-to-autumn season. Sweet-tart and vaguely tomato-like fresh — pleasant but unremarkable, and the flesh bruises and blackens within hours of picking, which is exactly why the crop is sold dried. Dried, it turns chewy and raisin-sweet.

Propagation

Semi-hardwood cuttings in summer, or hardwood cuttings in winter — both root easily and keep the variety. Seed germinates readily but seedlings vary widely in fruit quality, so named clones are the sensible route.

Pollination

Self-fertile — a single plant crops. Insect visits still improve set, and hand-shaking a container plant is worth doing.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.