Goji Berry Seeds: Latest Prices and a Detailed Guide to Growing Methods

Goji berry is the general term for species in the genus Lycium, such as Ningxia goji (Lycium barbarum) and Chinese goji (Lycium chinense). The goji berries people eat daily and use medicinally are mostly Ningxia goji. Ningxia goji has the largest cultivated area in China and is distributed across the country's northwest region, while the common type in other areas is Chinese goji and its varieties. Now let's take a look at goji berry seed prices and growing methods!

How much does a jin of goji berry seeds cost?

The price of goji berry seeds is about 80 to 100 yuan per jin, while good-quality seeds are about 120 to 150 yuan per jin. The price is mainly determined by factors such as seed variety, quality and place of origin. Goji berry often grows on hillsides, wasteland, hilly land, saline-alkali land, roadsides, and around villages and homes. The famous production areas for goji berry in China are Ningxia and Qinghai. In China, besides growing widely in the wild, it is also cultivated in various places for medicinal use, as a vegetable, or for landscaping. For production, 3 to 4 jin of seed is used per mu.

Sowing Methods for Goji Berry

1. Seed collection: Pick the fruit from June to November when it turns red. After picking, soak it in warm water at 30 to 35 degrees C for 24 hours, remove it and rub it, then wash the seeds out in clean water. Remove the flesh and skin, take out the mature, plump seeds that sink to the bottom, and sow them after drying.

2. Seed storage: If goji berry seeds are not sown right away, mix 1 part seeds with 3 parts moist sand evenly, put them in a wooden box, and place it indoors at 20 degrees C for stratification and sprouting. The following spring, take them out for sowing when 30 to 50% of the seeds have cracked and shown white.

3. Timely sowing: Sowing can be done in spring, summer or autumn, with late March in spring being best. On a prepared seedling bed, open sowing furrows horizontally at a row spacing of about 25 cm, then spread the seeds evenly into the furrows. After sowing, cover with fine soil, press lightly, and cover the bed surface with grass to keep it warm and moist.

Seedling-Stage Management of Goji Berry

1. Breaking the film: After the seedlings survive, the first step is to break the film. For cuttings, simply poke through the film by hand at the cutting. For seed-grown seedlings, use a hard twig to poke through the film where the buds are about to emerge, so that high temperatures do not injure the young seedlings.

2. Weeding and loosening the soil: When the seedlings reach about 30 cm in height, carry out the first loosening and weeding. Weeding should follow the principle of early and thorough removal. Loosen the soil together with weeding, and during this period carry out weeding and soil loosening 2 to 3 times.

3. Timely bud removal: When side branches grow from the base of the young seedlings, remove these side branches promptly so they do not compete for soil and nutrients and hinder the growth of the main branch. Young buds can be removed by hand, while slightly older young branches can be cut off with pruning shears.

4. Reasonable fertilization: Fertilize the seedlings once in mid-to-late May to promote root growth, preferably mainly with phosphate fertilizer and supplemented with nitrogen fertilizer. Apply 10 kg of ammonium phosphate and 5 kg of urea per mu. Mix the fertilizers evenly and broadcast them around the plants.

5. Timely irrigation: After fertilizing, irrigate to meet the growth needs of the hot season, using good water and fertilizer conditions to promote seedling growth. Both flooding irrigation and pouring irrigation are fine, and thorough irrigation is best. Irrigation should be carried out 4 to 5 times from summer until before winter.

6. Pruning and training: When pruning, choose one robust branch as the main trunk and cut off all the rest to ensure the trunk is thick and uniform from top to bottom. For seedlings reaching 60 cm in height, cut off the main trunk branch. After pruning, apply fertilizer once to ensure nutrient supply for the seedlings.

7. Pest and disease control: Pest and disease control during the goji berry seedling stage focuses on prevention. Use 2000 to 2500 times diluted Jieman solution and 1000 to 1500 times diluted 10% imidacloprid, spraying once every seven days around mid-October, for 3 consecutive sprays to control aphids, gall mites and rust mites.

8. Overwintering of seedlings: In late autumn, goji berry seedling leaves turn yellow, and after frost the leaves fall off, but no special management is needed and they can overwinter naturally in the nursery, waiting to emerge and be planted the following spring.

Growing Methods for Goji Berry

1. Site selection: When establishing a plantation, it is best to choose light loam, sandy loam or loam with deep soil and good aeration. The soil organic matter content is best above 1%, and the groundwater level should remain below 1 m.

2. Orchard planning: A goji berry orchard should have a sound irrigation and drainage system, with main canals, branch canals and field ditches for bringing in water for irrigation, as well as drainage ditches, so that watering is possible in the dry season and drainage in the rainy season. Roads extending in all directions should be set up around the planting area for convenient transport.

3. Lifting seedlings and heeling in: The planting time for goji berry is about late March to mid-March. When lifting seedlings, keep the main root intact and damage the side roots as little as possible. After lifting, place them immediately in a cool place. For seedlings that cannot be planted promptly after lifting, dig a 15 to 20 cm deep heeling-in trench.

4. Pruning and soaking: Before planting, prune the seedlings once. Trim flat any roots injured during digging and cut off branches that dried out over winter. After pruning, dissolve naphthaleneacetic acid in alcohol and dilute it to 15 to 20 ppm, then soak the seedlings in it for 12 to 24 hours before transplanting.

5. Digging holes and fertilizing: Before planting, mark out and dig planting holes at a plant spacing of 1.5 m and a row spacing of 2 m. The planting holes should be 40 cm long, 40 cm wide and 40 cm deep. Place topsoil and subsoil separately on either side. Apply 100 to 150 g of compound fertilizer into the planting hole, then fill in subsoil.

6. Planting method: After mixing the subsoil in the planting hole evenly with the fertilizer, fill in topsoil, place the goji berry seedling, and finally firm it with your foot. The planting depth should match the depth at which it grew in the original nursery. After planting, irrigate once promptly.