Can Dried Goji Berries Be Planted? The Answer Is Here

Goji berries have multiple health benefits and are a food approved by the Ministry of Health for both medicinal and culinary use. Eating them in moderation is good for health, and combined with chrysanthemum and goji tea, they have the effect of clearing the liver and improving eyesight. China has a long history of cultivating goji berries, so can dried goji berries be planted?

1. Can dried goji berries be planted?

Dried goji berries can be planted. Prepare a handful of dried goji berries and soak them in clean water. Wait until the goji berries are fully expanded, then you can take out the seeds inside. After removing them, rinse with clean water and dry them, and they are ready to sow.

2. Cultivation Methods for Goji Berries

1. Seed propagation

Before sowing, mix with moist sand evenly and place at room temperature of 20°C to promote germination. When 30% of the seeds show white sprouts, they can be sown. Spring sowing is the main method. Open furrows at a row spacing of 40cm for drilling, with a depth of 1.5-3cm, cover with soil 1-3cm. After the seedlings emerge, pay attention to watering according to soil moisture conditions.

When the seedlings are 1.5-3cm tall, loosen the soil and weed once, and thereafter loosen the soil and weed once every 20-30d. When the seedlings are 6-9cm tall, thin them to a spacing of 12-15cm, leaving 150,000-180,000 plants per 1hm2. Combine with irrigation to apply fertilizer 3 times in May, June, and July. To ensure seedling growth, promptly remove side buds growing on young plants 40cm above the ground. When the seedlings are 60cm tall, pinch off the growing tips to accelerate the growth of the main stem and upper side branches. When the roots are 0.7cm thick, they can be transplanted out of the nursery.

2. Field management

In May, June, and July, cultivate and weed once. From late October to early November, apply sheep manure, barnyard manure, cake fertilizer, etc. as base fertilizer. Topdressing can be applied in May with urea and in June-July with phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizer. For shaping young trees, in the autumn of the same year after planting goji berries, select 3-5 sturdy growing branches around the upper part of the main trunk as main branches, and cut them back at about 20cm. In the second spring, when new branches emerge from these branches, cut them back at 20-25cm as scaffold branches. In the 3rd and 4th years, following the method of the 2nd year, continue to use vigorous shoots on the scaffold branches to expand, increase height, and fill out the tree crown framework.

After 5-6 years of shaping and training, they enter the mature tree stage. For pruning mature trees, every spring cut dead branches, crossing branches, and root suckers. In summer, remove dense growth and keep sparse growth, cutting away vigorous shoots, diseased and pest-infested branches, and thorny branches. In autumn, carry out comprehensive pruning, tidy the tree crown, and select and retain good fruiting branches.

3. Pruning principles

Remove old and keep new, remove diseased and keep healthy, remove weak and keep strong, so that fruiting branches are evenly distributed within the tree crown. Aim to cultivate more fruiting branches and cut off non-productive branches.

Goji berries are the mature fruit of the Solanaceae plant goji. They are picked when the fruit ripens in summer and autumn, the fruit stalks are removed, and they are placed in a cool place to dry until the skin wrinkles, then sun-dried until the outer skin is dry and hard and the flesh is soft. Then they are dried and stored well, and that is dried goji berries.