What Is the Price of Goji Seeds? A Detailed Guide to Growing Methods
Goji is the general term people use for Ningxia goji (Lycium barbarum), Chinese goji (Lycium chinense) and other species in the genus Lycium. The goji that people eat and use medicinally in daily life is mostly Ningxia goji, which has the largest cultivated area in China, spread 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 seed prices and growing methods!
How much is a jin of goji seeds?
The price of goji seeds is about 80-100 yuan per jin, and good-quality seeds are about 120-150 yuan per jin. The price is mainly determined by factors such as seed variety, quality and place of origin. Goji often grows on hillsides, wasteland, hilly land, saline-alkali land, roadsides and around village homes. China's famous goji-producing areas 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. In production, 3-4 jin of seed are used per mu.
Sowing Methods for Goji
1. Seed collection: Pick the fruit from June to November when it turns red. After picking, soak it in warm water at 30-35°C for 24 hours, remove it and rub it, then wash the seeds out in clear 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 seeds are not sown right away, mix 1 part seeds with 3 parts moist sand evenly, put the mix in a wooden box, and place it indoors at 20°C for stratification and sprouting. The following spring, take them out to sow when 30-50% of the seeds have cracked and shown white.
3. Sow at the right time: Sowing can be done in spring, summer or autumn, with late March in spring being best. On the prepared seedling bed, open sowing furrows horizontally at a row spacing of about 25 cm, then scatter the seeds evenly into the furrows. After sowing, cover with fine soil and press down lightly. Cover the bed surface with grass to keep it warm and moist.
Seedling-Stage Management of Goji
1. Breaking the film: After the seedlings survive, the first task is to break the film. For cuttings, simply poke through the film at the cutting by hand; for seed-grown seedlings, use a hard branch to poke through the film where the buds are about to emerge, so the young seedlings are not scalded when the temperature is high.
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 weeding early and weeding thoroughly. Loosening the soil is done together with weeding, and during this period weeding and loosening should be done 2-3 times.
3. Timely bud removal: When side branches grow from the base of the young plant, remove these side branches promptly to prevent them from competing for soil and fertilizer and hindering the growth of the main branch. Young buds can be removed by hand; slightly older young branches can be cut off with pruning shears.
4. Reasonable fertilization: Apply fertilizer once to the seedlings in mid-to-late May to promote root growth, preferably mainly phosphate fertilizer with nitrogen fertilizer as a supplement. 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: Irrigate after fertilizing to meet the growth needs of the high-temperature season, and use good water and fertilizer conditions to promote seedling growth. Both flood irrigation and pouring irrigation work, and thorough irrigation is best. Irrigation should be carried out 4-5 times from summer to before winter.
6. Pruning and training: When pruning, choose one strong branch as the main trunk and cut off all the rest to ensure the trunk is thick and even from top to bottom. For seedlings that reach 60 cm in height, cut off the main trunk branch, and after pruning apply fertilizer once to ensure the nutrient supply for the seedlings.
7. Pest and disease control: For goji at the seedling stage, pest and disease control focuses on prevention. Use 2000-2500 times diluted Jieman solution and 1000-1500 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 the leaves of goji seedlings turn yellow, and after frost the leaves fall off, but no special management is needed; they can overwinter naturally in the nursery and wait to be lifted and planted the following spring.
Growing Methods for Goji
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. Plantation planning: A goji orchard should have a sound irrigation and drainage system, with main canals, branch canals and field canals for conveying irrigation water, as well as drainage ditches, so that water can be supplied in the dry season and drained 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 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 in a shady spot immediately. For seedlings that cannot be planted promptly after lifting, dig a heeling-in trench 15-20 cm deep.
4. Pruning and soaking: Before planting, prune the seedlings once, trimming flat any roots injured during lifting and cutting off branches that dried out over winter. After pruning, dissolve 1-naphthaleneacetic acid in alcohol and dilute it to 15-20 ppm, then soak the seedlings in it for 12-24 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, with topsoil and subsoil placed separately on each side. Apply 100-150 g of compound fertilizer into the planting hole, then fill in the subsoil.
6. Planting method: After mixing the subsoil in the planting hole evenly with the fertilizer, fill in the topsoil, place the goji seedling, and finally firm it with the foot. The planting depth should match the depth at which the seedling originally grew in the nursery. After planting, irrigate once promptly.