Goji baby help please

I asked a friend to baby-sit my baby goji berry shrubs which I'd started from seed, for a month while I was out of province. She emailed me worried that they're getting rather tall and is wondering if they should be pruned:


A quick look on the web didn't give me any results that dealt with such young plants. If any of you wonderful permies have experience with this, or know someone who does, *please* advise.

1. Should they be pruned at all?

2. If yes, where abouts? How many inches up? Or how many leaves up?

3. Will they make it another 2 weeks with nothing done to them? My concern will be braking them when they have to take a car ride home when I'm back.

Yes, I know that part of the problem is that they're probably not getting enough light despite being under grow lights. I'm actually hoping to harden them off a bit and then get them in the ground as soon as possible come the middle to end of January as my climate is fairly gentle. The trouble is that some years we can get bad freezes and I didn't want to risk this while I was too far away to give the babies a little extra care.

Neat Goji seedlings!

I wouldn't prune them until they go dormant after being planted. A non dormant pruning on new seedlings can take a lot of there limited energy away, but a dormant pruning will help reduce transplant shock and encourage new growth with the new growing season. Hope they turn out well!

Steve

Steve Thorn wrote:Neat Goji seedlings!

Thanks Steve - yes, I can't believe how some have taken off, and some are just hunkered down with leaves but no tall growth.

I've sent the info you posted to my plant baby-sitters, to let them be.

Thank you so much for your response.