A Detailed Guide to Goji Berry Tree Propagation Methods and Seedling Techniques

The goji berry tree is a multi-branched shrub plant of the genus Lycium in the Solanaceae family. It often grows on hillsides, wasteland, hilly terrain, saline-alkali land, roadsides, and around village homes. It can be used in gardens as hedges, as bonsai with tree stumps, and as a shrub for soil and water conservation. Its fruit, the goji berry, together with Qiongzhen lingzhi, Changbai Mountain ginseng, and Dong'e donkey-hide gelatin, is known as one of the Four Treasures of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Now let us take a look at goji berry seedling cultivation techniques!

Goji Berry Cutting Propagation

In spring, before the plants begin to sprout, select plants with large fruit, high yield, and good quality, cut 1-year-old branches with a diameter of 0.5 cm, and cut them into 15-20 cm long cuttings. Quickly dip the lower cut end in 0.05% rooting powder or 0.05-0.1% indolebutyric acid solution for 10-15 seconds, let dry, and then insert the cuttings. When inserting, open furrows on the prepared seedbed surface at a row spacing of 40 cm, with a furrow depth of 15-20 cm, and insert cuttings at a plant spacing of 10 cm, with the cuttings exposed about 1 cm above the soil surface. After insertion, build a shade frame, keep the seedbed moist frequently, strengthen cultivation and weeding, and apply appropriate topdressing. When the seedlings reach 80 cm in height, they can be lifted from the nursery for field planting.

Goji Berry Division Propagation

Division and transplanting are mostly carried out in early to mid-March to April. Directly take root-sucker seedlings from the goji berry orchard for transplanting. After digging up clustered plants, cut off most of the branches, divide and plant them, water immediately, and keep the soil moist frequently. They root very easily and can flower and bear fruit in the same year. Goji berry division propagation saves labor, but the quality of the variety is difficult to distinguish. To avoid this shortcoming, you can take and transplant the sucker seedlings growing on the horizontal roots at the lower part of the mother plant's root crown or within 3-7 cm from the mother plant.

Goji Berry Seed Propagation

1. Seed selection and collection: In the planting area, select robust plants over 6 years old with large, red fruit and no pests or diseases as mother plants for seed collection. From June to November, when the fruit turns red, pick it promptly. Soak the picked fruit in 30-35°C warm water for 24 hours, remove and rub, and wash out the seeds in clean water. Remove the pulp and skin, take out the mature, plump seeds that sink to the bottom, and dry them before sowing. If not sowing immediately, mix 1 part seeds with 3 parts wet sand evenly, put them in a wooden box, and stratify them indoors at 20°C to promote germination. The following spring, when 30-50% of the seeds have cracked and shown white, take them out and sow.

2. Timely sowing: Sowing can be done in spring, summer, and autumn, with sowing in late March in spring being the best. On the prepared nursery seedbed, open sowing furrows horizontally at a row spacing of about 25 cm, with a furrow depth of 2-3 cm and a sowing width of 5 cm. Then evenly scatter the seeds into the furrows, cover with fine soil after sowing, press lightly, and cover the seedbed surface with grass to preserve warmth and moisture. The seeding rate is 150-200 grams per mu.

3. Seedling stage management: Water frequently after sowing to keep the seedbed soil moist, so as to facilitate seed germination, seedling emergence, and seedling growth. After the seedlings emerge, remove the grass covering the seedbed. Thereafter, carry out cultivation and weeding 4-5 times. Thin the seedlings in conjunction with cultivation and weeding. The first thinning is when the seedlings are 5 cm tall, removing weak seedlings and keeping seedlings at 5-6 cm. The second thinning is in early to mid-July, removing the weak and keeping the strong, with final spacing of 10-15 cm. At the same time as thinning and final spacing, apply 1000-1500 kg of diluted human and livestock manure per 667 sq m each time to promote robust seedling growth. When the seedlings grow to 30 cm in height, promptly remove the side branches growing from the base of the seedlings. When the seedlings reach 60 cm in height, pinch off the tops to accelerate the thickening and growth of the main trunk and main side branches. Seedlings raised in spring can be lifted from the nursery and planted after autumn. Seedlings raised in summer and autumn should be given one irrigation of sealing ice water in winter, and lifted from the nursery and planted after autumn the following year.

Introduction to Goji Berry Tree Cultivation Techniques

Introduction: Since ancient times, people have paid attention to health preservation and nourishment. Items with traditional Chinese medicine ingredients can regulate the various mechanisms of the body, so that the functions of all parts are adjusted and unified, achieving the most complete state of body and mind. Common practical items for regulating body and mind include silver ear mushroom, lotus seeds, and goji berries. They can clear heat and reduce internal heat, and also nourish yin and tonify deficiency. Among such nourishing items, those of high quality are expensive, so many people are willing to grow them themselves, and some people with a business mind have discovered business opportunities and grow goji berry trees. The editor will introduce the cultivation methods of goji berry trees for everyone.

1. Direct seeding afforestation: Two methods can be adopted, drilling or hole sowing. Sow from late March to April in spring after the soil thaws, the earlier the better. Sowing depth is 1-3 cm. During the seedling stage, the aboveground part of goji berries is low and easily eaten by livestock and pulled up by the roots, so grazing must be prohibited after sowing.

2. Seedling raising and transplanting: Seedlings can be raised in all four seasons, but spring and autumn are best.

3. Cuttings and layering: The root sprouting ability of goji berries is particularly strong. Cuttings and layering in spring and autumn both root easily. You can soak goji berry branches growing on wasteland for 2-3 days, cut them into cuttings 0.5-1 cm thick and 30-50 cm long, and insert them.

4. Tillering propagation: In order to increase coverage area, cut off the trunk above the root crown of 2-year-old goji berries, and in the second year many young branches will sprout. Or cut off the main root of the goji berry, and many young branches will sprout from both ends of the cut main root, increasing coverage. The best time to cut the root is spring.

[Seed propagation]: Select excellent varieties, using mature fruit with large size, bright color, and no pest or disease spots. After picking in summer, soak in 30-60°C warm water, rub the seeds, wash clean, and dry for later use. Before sowing, mix evenly with wet sand (1:3), place at 20°C room temperature to promote germination, and sow when 30% of the seeds have shown white, or soak the seeds in clean water for a day and night before sowing. Sowing can be done in spring, summer, and autumn, mainly in spring. Spring sowing is from late March to early April. Open furrows at a row spacing of 40 cm for drilling, with a depth of 1.5-3 cm, cover with soil 1-3 cm. After the seedlings emerge, pay attention to watering according to soil moisture conditions. When the seedlings are 1.5-3 cm tall, loosen the soil and weed once, and thereafter loosen the soil and weed once every 20-30 days. When the seedlings are 6-9 cm tall, thin to final spacing with a plant spacing of 12-15 cm, keeping 150,000-180,000 plants per 1 ha. Combine with irrigation to apply topdressing 3 times in May, June, and July. To ensure seedling growth, promptly remove the side buds growing 40 cm above the ground on young plants. When the seedlings reach 60 cm in height, pinch off the growing tips to accelerate the growth of the main trunk and upper side branches. When the root thickness reaches 0.7 cm, they can be lifted from the nursery for transplanting.

High-quality goji berries on the market are rather expensive, and goji berries are the best item for regulating and tonifying the body. If you cultivate goji berries yourself, you can eat goji berries for a long time and also benefit relatives and friends, sharing the blessing together. Goji berries can be brewed with water to reduce internal heat and cool the body, and can also be used as a seasoning to enhance freshness in cooking. At the same time, they can be eaten, going down lightly. However, the cultivation techniques of goji berry trees are also relatively complex, requiring the processes of transplanting, cuttings and layering, and propagation. During cultivation, you must consult experts and continuously maintain the seedlings to be able to grow flourishing goji berry trees.

Goji Berry Sowing and Seedling Raising Techniques

Seedling raising by sowing, that is, sexual reproduction. It uses seeds to propagate seedlings. The advantage of this method is that a large number of seedlings can be produced in a short period, meeting the urgent need for seedlings in production, and it is low in cost and easy to master. The disadvantage is that the seedlings produced vary greatly, the excellent traits of the mother tree cannot be maintained, and fruiting is late with poor quality. However, considering the need for large quantities of seedlings in current production, although this method has disadvantages, it still has certain application value.

Seed preparation: There are many goji berry varieties, but Ningqi No. 1, Ningqi No. 2, and Damaye are relatively good. Therefore, in production, seeds should be taken from large fruits of the above excellent varieties. Small fruits with mixed quality should not be used for seed production, to prevent reducing seed quality. Extracting seeds: Extracting seeds from goji berry fruit can be divided into the following steps: 1 Fruit soaking. If using dried fruit for seed production, the dried fruit should be soaked in water until the skin swells and is easy to rot. If using fresh fruit for seed production, soaking is not necessary. 2 Crushing the fruit. Crush the swollen fruit or fresh fruit so that the seeds are completely separated from the pulp. 3 Washing. After crushing the fruit, add an appropriate amount of water for washing, pour out the juice, skin, and floating empty or shriveled seeds and other impurities. After several washings, what sinks to the bottom of the basin is plump seed. 4 Drying the seeds. Spread the plump seeds out to dry in the sun. After drying, store in a cool, dry place for later use. Generally, each kilogram of dried fruit can produce about 0.1 kg of seed. The germination rate of seeds decreases with the extension of the storage period? Therefore, seeds stored for too long should not be used? Sowing time: Goji berry sowing can be carried out in spring, summer, and autumn, but in production it is more common in spring. After spring sowing, under suitable temperature and humidity conditions, the seeds germinate and emerge, and after the seedlings emerge they also have a longer growth period, and can be lifted from the nursery and planted in the same autumn or the following spring. Goji berry seeds are small, with a thousand-grain weight of about 1 gram, and only 0.2 kg is needed per 667 sq m for sowing. Sowing methods: Divided into two methods, water sowing and dry sowing. 1 Water sowing. When sowing, mix the seeds with 10 times their volume of fine sandy soil evenly, then use a hoe to open sowing furrows 0.3-0.5 cm wide on the prepared nursery land at a row spacing of 40 cm, and sow in drills along the furrows. After sowing, cover with soil about 0.3-0.5 cm thick, or do not cover with soil and press slightly with the foot so that the seeds are in close contact with the soil, then irrigate once with a shallow flood. After 2-3 days, when the surface is not wet, irrigate again. Before the seeds germinate and emerge, water frequently to keep the surface moist, which is beneficial to seed germination, emergence, and seedling growth. This method produces fast, uniform emergence with a high emergence rate, and is simple to operate. 2 Dry sowing. The difference from the water sowing method is that after sowing, soil is covered according to soil properties and moisture conditions, with a thickness of 1-2 cm. For sandy soil with poor moisture, cover more soil. For clay soil with good moisture, cover less soil. After covering with soil, do not irrigate immediately. If the weather is dry after sowing and the soil moisture is poor, and no sprouts appear for a relatively long time, you can also irrigate shallowly with a small amount of water to promote seed germination and emergence. In order to make the seeds emerge earlier after sowing, the seeds can be pre-germinated before sowing. Mix 1 part seeds with 10 parts fine wet sand, mix evenly, place indoors at about 20°C, cover with plastic film on top, spray water once a day, and maintain good temperature and humidity. Generally, sow when half of the seeds have shown white (germinated). When sowing in summer with suitable temperature and humidity, they can germinate and emerge after one week.