How to Grow Goji Berry as a Small Potted Plant? A Detailed Guide to the Planting Method

Goji berries are nutritious and can be used to make tea, cook porridge, and so on. If grown as a potted plant, its fruit remains bright red until late autumn, beautiful and elegant. So, how do you grow goji berry as a small potted plant?

1. Growing environment

Goji berries like a sunny environment. For indoor potted goji berries, choose a sunny spot for care. Goji berries are not demanding about soil; a well-drained calcareous sandy loam is best, and clayey and waterlogged soils should be avoided.

2. How to water

Water goji berries by letting the soil dry out before watering thoroughly. During the high-temperature dormant period in summer, the plant's growth stalls and most leaves drop, so watering should be reduced. Goji berries are drought-tolerant and afraid of dampness, so never let water accumulate.

3. Fertilization method

Usually apply a liquid fertilizer mainly of phosphorus and potassium once about every week. In winter, apply well-rotted base fertilizer, and during the peak flowering period apply 2-3 topdressings of nitrogen fertilizer. When repotting each year, apply enough base fertilizer, and add phosphorus and potassium fertilizers such as superphosphate as base fertilizer.

4. Making the bonsai

Goji berry bonsai shaping is mainly done by coarse wiring and fine pruning. The trunk can be shaped into many forms, and branches are mostly trained into flat or coiled shapes. Use metal wire for wiring, and loosen it when it starts to cut in. If the trunk has not set its shape by then, it can be wired again. Generally, the shape can be set after 1 year of wiring. Wiring is mostly done before buds appear on the branches or after the sprouted branches have become semi-lignified. Once shaped, pruning is mostly used to maintain the tree form. During vigorous growth, water sprouts can be cut off at any time to ensure sufficient nutrients for fruiting. In late summer and early autumn, defoliate and apply several more dilute liquid fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium, so that flower buds and new leaves grow out at the same time; flowering and fruiting accompanied by new leaves is good for ornamental value.

5. Propagation method

Goji berries are mainly propagated by cuttings and division, and both are simple and easy. Cuttings can be taken in spring and autumn. Choose vigorous water sprouts or healthy vegetative branches, cut them into 12-15 cm lengths, with the upper end cut flat and the base cut into a horse-ear shape. The seedling success rate can generally reach more than 80%-90%. The division method is mostly done in early spring by peeling off root shoots and transplanting them, then watering adequately; the seedling success rate is very high. A sowing method can also be used; seedlings grown from seed can flower and fruit in 2-3 years.

6. Pest and disease control

The disease goji berries are prone to is powdery mildew, which can be controlled by spraying a 1500-fold dilution of 70% thiophanate-methyl, or by spraying 50% sulfur powder in the early morning before the dew dries. The main pest is aphids, which can be killed by spraying a 1000-fold dilution of 40% dimethoate.