Detailed Guide to Goji Berry Cultivation: Planting Methods and Management Essentials

In our country, goji berry has a long history as both medicine and food, and is a precious Chinese medicinal herb renowned at home and abroad. As early as in the "Shennong Bencao Jing" it was listed as a superior grade, described as “taken over a long period it lightens the body and prevents aging, and endures cold and heat”; it has the effect of delaying aging and resisting senescence, and is also known as “Que Lao Zi”. Below, the editor will explain for everyone the cultivation techniques of goji berry.

1. Seed propagation

Select superior varieties, soak and wash them in warm water at 30-60°C, then dry them for later use. Before sowing, mix with moist sand and stir evenly, place at 20°C room temperature to promote germination, and when 30% of the seeds have sprouted white, 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 seedlings are 1.5-3cm tall, loosen the soil and weed once, then loosen the soil and weed once every 20-30d. When seedlings are 6-9cm tall, thin them to a final spacing, with a plant spacing of 12-15cm, keeping 150,000-180,000 plants per 1hm2. Combined with irrigation, apply topdressing 3 times in May, June and July. To ensure seedling growth, promptly remove the lateral buds growing on young plants at 40cm above the ground. When seedlings are 60cm tall, pinch off the growing tips to accelerate the growth of the main trunk and upper lateral branches. When the roots are 0.7cm thick, they can be lifted from the nursery for transplanting.

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 urea in May and phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizer in June-July. For shaping young trees, in the autumn of the same year after planting goji berry, select 3-5 robust-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 framework branches. In the 3rd and 4th years, following the method of the 2nd year, continue to use the water shoots on the framework branches to expand, heighten and fill out the tree canopy framework.

After 5-6 years of shaping and training, it enters 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 water shoots, diseased and pest-infested branches and thorny branches. In autumn, carry out comprehensive pruning, tidy the tree canopy, and select and retain good fruiting branches.

4. 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 canopy. It is required to cultivate more fruiting branches and cut away non-productive branches.

Goji berries are generally picked in summer and autumn when the fruits are ripe. Remove the fruit stalks, place in a cool place to dry until the fruit skin wrinkles, then sun-dry until the outer skin is dry and hard and the flesh is soft, and it is ready. In rainy weather, they can be dried over a low fire.