Growing goji questions

Namaste, Shalom, ¡Órale! and welcome to the forum!

I have a question, though it is about goji... not really an "herb" per se, but I wonder if you know about growing this in climates such as ours (Piedmont of Virginia). I know it prefers desert-like environments. I've made several attempts and they die!

Any ideas what is going wrong? It could be our acidic clay...

I'm eagerly reading all posts here, as I grow herbs for sale in the farmers market and need all the info I can get! I'm there spreading herbal info as much as I can, and providing good quality dried herbs and herb mixtures for people, also smudge which I gather in the West.

Good thing you are doing, spreading info about herbs!

Hello Victor,

I did start to grow Goji just a couple years before moving off a property in the Pacific NW and it was growing great there. Simply put a small plant I had purchsed in the ground and it was growing great. I am not sure about your area. I suggest calling one of the companies that sell it and asking them about your area specifically.

Victor Skaggs wrote:Namaste, Shalom, ¡Órale! and welcome to the forum!

I have a question, though it is about goji... not really an "herb" per se, but I wonder if you know about growing this in climates such as ours (Piedmont of Virginia). I know it prefers desert-like environments. I've made several attempts and they die!

Any ideas what is going wrong? It could be our acidic clay...

I'm eagerly reading all posts here, as I grow herbs for sale in the farmers market and need all the info I can get! I'm there spreading herbal info as much as I can, and providing good quality dried herbs and herb mixtures for people, also smudge which I gather in the West.

Good thing you are doing, spreading info about herbs!

I grow goji's in my yard in the midlands of SC. They currently thrive in a sandy spot with very shallow soil due to there being an old septic tank about a foot under it. My plants completely defoliate every summer. They fruit in the fall and spring, and they seem to thrive all winter long.

Could it be that maybe your plants aren't really dying, but are just going dormant?

They are horribly ugly without leaves, and I have contemplated cutting them down many times; but I always keep them because of how many great birds they attract!

I have another goji plant growing in much more fertile deep soil, but it has an acidic clay base. It is growing slower than the other one, and it also defoliates in the summer.

Mine really took off. It's rare to plant a perrenial and get a bumper crop the first year. It happened with goji.

It's in a raised bed that has plenty of aged horse manure in it. Bermuda grass also competes in the same bed. Central texas zone 8a. Alkaline soil.

What i planted out in open didnt make it. Too much deer pressure....

Victor Skaggs wrote:Any ideas what is going wrong? It could be our acidic clay...

Yes, this could be a good reason. In my experience (also acidic) and also from what I've been reading, goji really much prefers alkaline soil.

Crt Jakhel wrote:

Victor Skaggs wrote:Any ideas what is going wrong? It could be our acidic clay...

Yes, this could be a good reason. In my experience (also acidic) and also from what I've been reading, goji really much prefers alkaline soil.

My healthy Goji's are planted in the same row as my blueberries and a fig tree, and they all do great. I also let the bermuda/st augustine lawn grow right up to the base of the plants(Blueberry and Goji.)

I've read somewhere that blueberry roots can harvest all the nutrients they need without acid soil by forming symbiotic relationships with the microbiology living with the grass roots.

Maybe this holds true for the Goji too? The pH of the soil in question is 6.0.

Our soil is in the pH range of 4.5 - 5. The goji experience really hasn't been very impressive. Blueberries are doing well though.

From what I know the only successful goji farm in Slovenia, my country, is in the Karst region -heavily lime-based.

Just so that you can inform about goji... though they can be useful for some people as medicine, it is better to let know people that, as a food, they are solanaceae, and some people are sensitive and don't know goji is one!

And the goji berry is part of the high oxalate foods.