What to Do When a Goji Tree Gets Pests? A Few Control Methods to Teach You

The goji berries that people consume daily and use medicinally are mostly the fruit of Ningxia goji (Lycium barbarum), which has the largest cultivated area in China and is mainly distributed in northwest China. When planting, if the goji tree gets pests, what should you do?

1. What to do when a goji tree gets pests?

First, you need to distinguish clearly what kind of pest it is, then choose the appropriate pesticide for spraying. If it is the goji fruit fly, you can spray with 80% dichlorvos emulsifiable concentrate at 1000 times dilution or 40% dimethoate emulsifiable concentrate at 1500 times dilution; if it is goji aphids, you can spray with 40% dimethoate emulsion at 2000 times dilution.

2. How to tell good goji berries from bad ones

1. Color

Fresh goji berries vary in color depending on the place of origin, but the color is very soft, glossy, and the flesh is plump; while dyed goji berries are mostly old stock from previous years, and from appearance the flesh is rather poor, lusterless, yet the exterior looks very bright and tempting, so when buying goji berries you must not be greedy for “color”.

2. Shape

Since ancient times, Ningxia goji has been regarded as the genuine regional medicinal material, with the highest medicinal value. Most Ningxia goji berries have a small white dot at the tip, which goji from other places does not have; the proportion of Ningxia goji with a white dot at the tip can reach 85%. When placed in water, 90% of Ningxia goji berries do not sink, and whether used for brewing tea or making soup, they float on the surface of the water.

3. Smell

For goji berries that have been fumigated with sulfur, you only need to grab a handful, cover them with both hands for a while, then put them under your nose and smell; if you can detect a pungent, irritating odor, then you can be sure they have been fumigated with sulfur.

4. Taste

Ningxia goji is sweet, tasting especially sweet, but after eating it there is a slight bitterness in the throat; while goji from places such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang is so sweet it is a bit cloying, goji soaked in alum will have the bitter taste of alum when chewed, and as for goji treated with sulfur, the taste is sour, astringent, and bitter.

If “goji” refers to the commercial product “goji berries”, then it basically refers to the dried ripe fruit sourced from Ningxia goji (Lycium barbarum); if “goji” refers to wild goji plants from regions other than the northwest, then it is basically Lycium chinense or Lycium barbarum from the north.