How can goji berries be cultivated to achieve both high yield and premium quality?

Goji berry is a perennial deciduous shrub of the genus Lycium in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Its leaves, fruit, roots and bark all have extensive medicinal value. It has strong stress resistance and tolerance to fertilizer and water, and is suitable not only for planting in arid, sandy wasteland and saline-alkali land, but is also an excellent tree species for courtyard economies; its fruiting period is long, and plants set out in the current year can still bear fruit up to 50 years later, reaching full fruiting stage in 3 to 4 years, generally producing more than 3000 kg of dried fruit per hectare; its fruit contains a variety of organic compounds and nutrients and has effects such as tonifying the kidney, nourishing the liver, brightening the eyes, invigorating blood circulation and fighting cancer.

1. Select good varieties. There are many goji varieties; in ** alone there are nearly 10. To achieve premium quality and high yield, good selection work should be done. In the first and middle ten days of the month, from plants of the Maye or Damaye varieties that have green leaves, short and thick fruiting branch internodes, few thorns, vigorous growth and no pest or disease damage, pick ripe fruits that are large, bright red and relatively high in sugar content and keep them as seed. Rub the harvested fruits to a pulp, add clean water and wash, skim off the skin and flesh, filter off the juice, then wash the seeds clean and dry them in a dry, ventilated place for later use. Alternatively, from plants of these varieties, select branches that have short internodes, proper color, vigorous growth, plump buds and no pests or diseases, cut them into 20 cm lengths and keep them for raising seedlings by cuttings. You can also dig up root-sucker plants directly around the base of superior variety trees and set them out for planting.

2. Grow strong seedlings. Choose fertile sandy loam as the nursery, apply 60,000 to 75,000 kg of organic fertilizer per hectare, and irrigate well. Make small beds with an area of 10 to 20 sq m, and sow on flat beds in April at a sowing rate of 1500 to 2250 g. Open furrows 4 cm wide and 1 cm deep on the bed surface, mix the seed evenly with 10 times its volume of fine sand and scatter it into the furrows, cover with 0.5 cm of fine moist soil, firm it down, then cover with moist chopped straw to prevent loss of soil moisture. The plant spacing is 10 cm x 40 cm, keeping more than 225,000 seedlings per hectare. Strengthen water and fertilizer management, loosening of soil and weeding, and thinning and final thinning of seedlings. When the seedlings reach 60 cm in height, remove all young shoots below 50 cm; when they reach 75 cm in height, pinch out the growing tips to fix the shape, and strong seedlings will have been produced.

3. Reasonable close planting. From late March to early April, use the method of planting on ridges with furrow irrigation on both sides, with a plant spacing of 1.5 m x 2 m, planting about 3300 plants per hectare; dig pits 40 cm x 40 cm x 40 cm, put into each pit 2 to 3 cm of thoroughly decomposed farmyard manure mixed with mature soil, cover the manure with 10 cm of fine mature soil, then set an upright, vigorous goji seedling with 3 to 5 fibrous roots into the pit, cover with soil, firm it down, and irrigate promptly to increase the survival rate.

4. Intertillage and weeding. Carry out spring plowing and autumn plowing in April and September respectively each year, to a depth of 20 cm. From May to July, carry out intertillage and weeding 4 to 6 times, to a depth of 6 to 8 cm. This helps eliminate pests, diseases and weeds, loosen the soil, and ensure normal growth and development of the goji plants. Except that in the year of planting, melons, sugar beets or short-statured crops may be intercropped in the orchard, intercropping with other crops is strictly prohibited afterwards.

5. Fertilizer and water management. Goji fruiting is divided into summer fruit and autumn fruit, so fertilizer and water have a great influence on the yield and quality of goji, and should be taken seriously. For goji older than three years (full fruiting stage), the annual fertilizer application per hectare (8 to 9 times) must guarantee 350 kg of urea; 3000 kg of diammonium phosphate or triple superphosphate; and more than 37,000 kg of high-quality barnyard manure. Apply as topdressing separately before sprouting, flowering and fruit swelling, and apply one basal fertilizer in autumn. According to the age of the tree, dig pits or ring-shaped trenches 20 to 30 cm deep at a distance of 20 to 60 cm from the trunk, apply the fertilizer into the pits or trenches, cover with soil after application, and irrigate promptly. In addition to deep soil fertilization, foliar spraying also has a clear effect on increasing the thousand-grain weight of the fruit. Spray 4 times during the first fruiting period in June to July, and 2 times during the second fruiting period in August to September. Each time apply 750 to 1500 g of potassium dihydrogen phosphate per hectare plus 750 g of urea, diluted in 750 kg of water; at the bud stage spray 15 vials (5 ml) of Yemianbao per hectare plus 750 kg of water. In addition to irrigating promptly after topdressing and irrigating after each fruit picking, generally irrigate about once every 12 days, and once every 7 days during the picking period, with about 600 to 900 cubic m of water each time, so that summer water is applied thoroughly and winter water is applied well.

6. Training and pruning. Training, pruning and pinching of goji play a great role in regulating reproductive growth and vegetative growth. Current-year and two-year-old fruiting branches have the strongest fruiting capacity, and perennial and two-year-old spring branches are the best. Grasping these fruiting habits has an important guiding role for reasonable pruning. Pruning principles: pruning includes two parts, training and branch cutting. Adopting reasonable pruning can effectively improve the ventilation and light conditions inside the canopy, and plays an important role in accelerating the formation and expansion of the canopy and balancing tree vigor. It makes the tree grow vigorously, enhances resistance, increases fruiting branches, makes new shoots grow vigorously, prevents excessive vegetative growth and premature aging, regulates the relationship between growth and fruiting, and promotes flower bud differentiation. This enables young trees to fruit early and bear heavily early, makes mature trees high-yielding and stable-yielding, extends the full fruiting period, and improves fruit quality. After training, goji tree forms can mainly be divided into the sparse layered form, the natural open-center form, and the natural clump form. The pruning requirements differ for different tree forms and for the same tree form at different ages. But in any case, in the year after planting, reasonable training should be carried out according to the intended tree form, so that the trunk, main branches, secondary branches and small branches are clearly layered. A goji plant can roughly be divided into 3 to 5 layers, with 25 cm between layers, the tree body semicircular, the tree about 1.6 m tall and the canopy about 1.5 m wide. It is required to cultivate more fruiting branches and cut off non-productive branches, grasping the three-remove, three-keep pruning principle, namely remove old and keep new, remove diseased and keep healthy, remove weak and keep strong, so that fruiting branches are evenly distributed within the canopy. Operation process: in the year after planting, carry out reasonable training according to the growth of the seedling.

Three tree-form training methods. Sparse layered form: set the trunk at a height of about 50 cm, with a central trunk, and remove all buds or branches sprouting below the top 20 cm. At the top 20 cm, select and keep 3 main branches, each about 10 cm apart, as the first layer, keep 2 to 3 secondary branches on each main branch, then the following year select and keep 2 to 3 more main branches upward on the trunk as the second layer, likewise keeping 2 to 3 secondary branches on each branch, and so on, for 3 to 5 layers. The topmost layer of main branches and secondary branches may be reduced by one. The tree reaches about 1.6 m in height and about 1.5 m in crown diameter; this tree form takes shape early, is thick and strong, and carries a large fruit load. Natural open-center form: set the trunk at a height of 20 cm, with no obvious central trunk; select and keep 3 main branches at the base of the trunk, each about 15 cm apart with an angle of about 30 degrees, keep 2 to 3 alternately distributed secondary branches on each main branch, each secondary branch about 30 cm apart. On the main and secondary branches, select and keep several slanting small branches; the tree form can be formed in 2 to 3 years. This tree form has good ventilation and light penetration, fruits early, and gives high yield and good quality. This training method is easy, requires little pruning, and is convenient to manage. Natural clump form: no central trunk, with 3 to 4 main branches growing directly from the ground, each main branch alternately furnished with 3 to 4 secondary branches; except that the first secondary branch is 40 to 50 cm from the base of the main branch, the other secondary branches are each about 30 cm apart; on the main and secondary branches, select and keep small fruiting branches. This tree form has good ventilation and light penetration and helps make full use of space to achieve three-dimensional fruiting. Pruning and training cannot be separated. Branch cutting is further divided into autumn pruning, spring pruning and summer pruning. The pruning requirements differ for one-year-old, two-year-old and three-year-and-older goji and should be strictly grasped. Autumn pruning: the time is from mid-October to mid-November; according to the three-remove, three-keep requirement, cut off non-productive branches and renew fruiting branches. This can increase the plant's nutrient reserves and raise the next year's fruit yield. Spring pruning: the time is from late March to early April; it mainly makes up for deficiencies in the previous autumn pruning, cutting off branches that dried up over winter and thorny branches; where branches are dense, thin them out, further improving the light conditions inside the canopy. For two-year-old goji, when spring pruning one-year-old branches, leave main branches 30 to 40 cm long, secondary branches about 20 cm long, and small branches in gaps on the main and secondary branches 8 to 10 cm long; branches where the gaps are larger, the key to the fruiting rate is mainly to select and keep two-year-old branches. Leave main and secondary branches 40 to 50 cm long, and small branches 20 to 30 cm long. On secondary branches, leave a small branch about every 15 cm to cultivate fruiting branch groups. Through pruning, the canopy of the plant has been fixed in shape. Summer pruning: the time is from June to August; mainly cut off sprouts, root suckers and excessive water sprouts below the cut and saw wounds and on the main branches, trunk and roots, to reduce nutrient consumption. But note that auxiliary fruiting branches kept to fill space should be retained as main branches. When newly planted goji send out secondary branches, or when new branches sent out by old goji reach 40 to 60 cm, or when branches growing in canopy spaces reach 20 to 30 cm, pinch out the growing tips and cut the shoots promptly; remove buds and sprouts in advance from excess branches growing around, so as to concentrate nutrients and promote flowering and three-dimensional fruiting inside and outside the canopy. This also prompts these branches to send out more new branches from their middle and lower parts, cultivating more fruiting branch groups, which has a clear effect on raising the current year's goji yield and a very good effect on extending the goji fruiting years.

7. Pest, disease and bird damage control. Goji diseases include phytophthora blight, anthracnose, root rot, black rot, leaf mold and gummosis. Insect pests include the goji leaf beetle, gall mite, flea beetle, psyllid, aphid and red spider mite. Harmful birds include black birds and sparrows. Main measures are strengthening orchard management to promote tree growth; strengthening watching and protection when the fruit ripens; cleaning the orchard and protecting and using natural enemies. If pests and diseases occur seriously, high-efficiency, low-toxicity, low-residue pesticides such as acaricide, omethoate, dichlorvos, zineb and Bordeaux mixture may be chosen for control.

8. Harvesting and processing. Harvesting should be done whenever the fruit ripens, picking gently and placing gently, touching the branches as little as possible, and avoiding fruit falling to the ground. Baskets for holding goji may only be filled 20 to 30 cm deep, must not be squeezed, and the fruit should be promptly soaked and washed in a 3% to 4% sodium carbonate aqueous solution. Spread the soaked goji fruit promptly onto bamboo curtains previously made 1.2 m wide and 2 m long, in a layer 1.5 to 2 cm thick. Note that at this time it should not be turned; when it rains, cover with plastic sheeting to prevent rain from falling on the goji fruit, until it is sun-dried, so as to raise its commercial value. After the goji fruit is sun-dried, remove impurities, then grade and package it.