Winter Care Tips for Goji Berry Plants
Ever since an earlier article about a couple of Goji Berry plants that I purchased for the garden, there has been a lot of interest and more than a few ideas exchanged on this site related to growing Goji Berries.
Here’s a recent question that I received from Terry regarding winter care for his gojis planted in Southeastern Pennsylvania, along with an update on the Goji Berry plants growing in my garden:
The Perils of Growing Goji Berry Plants Outdoors
“I have an eight-month old Goji Berry plant in my yard, I planted it in spring. Do you think I should dig it up and pot it, and put it indoors for this winter? If I do put it indoors would I need some sort of heat bulb? How much light do you think it would need?”
“It is about 3 feet tall, and lost a lot of it’s leaves, thanks to rabbits! I saw that you had a rabbit attack as well and laughed to myself. Rabbits love Goji leaves.”
“My brother bought a Goji plant online, I forget what nursery, but his plant is doing VERY WELL. It is 4 feet high and about 3-4 wide. It flowered this year but no berries. It is actually has sharp thorns and everything on it. Very nice looking plant!”
Preparing Goji Berries for the Winter Season
Terry, I definitely wouldn’t dig the goji berry plant up to bring it indoors over the winter. Goji Berries are reported to be cold hardy and should survive the winter weather conditions outside in the garden. It would also become a hassle to follow that routine as the plants grow larger over the years, not to mention the disruption to the goji’s normal growth habit.
The only special treatment that I give the goji berries to prepare them for winter is to apply a mulch of straw or shredded leaves around the base of the plant and to provide protection against animals grazing the young plants. As you discovered, rabbits seem to enjoy snacking on goji plants and I wouldn’t be surprised if deer and other critters will also be attracted to the plants during the winter months.
A cylinder of wire meshing staked around, but not in direct contact with the goji berry should be enough to keep the rabbits away. Also don’t mulch right up to the trunk of any young fruit tree or shrub to help discourage rodent activity.
Some gardeners treat goji berries as houseplants and raise them indoors year round, but they will grow better and produce much higher yields when cultivated as an outdoor plant. For indoor care you would not need a heat lamp but a very sunny exposure or some type of supplemental grow lighting would be required.
Goji Berry Plant Update
Sounds like your brother’s Goji Berry growing in Maryland is doing extremely well, has he provided any special care beyond the ordinary to the plant? Maybe next year it will begin to produce berries.
My replacement Goji Berry plants survived a hot and very dry summer, but have not put forth what I would classify as substantial growth. Both of the plants seem as though they are still establishing themselves in their new home in my edible landscape.
The plant that was nibbled down to nothing by the rabbits rebounded to grow nearly four feet in height but is not wide and bushy. I will probably prune it back a little in the spring to encourage more branching.
My second Goji Berry plant also suffered a small amount of animal damage and is bushier but has yet to reach more than twelve inches in height. At this point I’m just hoping that both plants make it safely through the winter this time around.
Other Related Vegetable Gardening Posts:
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
[...] Kenny Point placed an observative post today on Winter Care Tips for Goji Berry Plants.Here’s a quick excerpt:Ever since an earlier article about a couple of Goji Berry plants that I purchased for the garden, there has been a lot of interest and more than a few ideas exchanged on this site related to growing Goji Berries. … [...]
February 15th, 2008 at 2:30 am
I found out the website my brother purchased the goji berry plant from, seems to be doing much better than mine as I said. I can give you the name of the site if you email me, I don’t want to post it. I don’t want anyone to think I am marketing a certain site. I will say that I will probably not buy from the goji berry grower my plant came from again after seeing my brother’s results. His bush has YET to lose its’ leaves…mine all dropped after a couple of cold weeks. Thanks again!
March 8th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I’m most intersted in learning more about growing the goji berry myself. I’m in zone 8b – Central Texas where we experience both drought and heat. Where did you plant yours? I was thinking about putting it on my fenceline, but I’m not so sure that is such a good place. Perhaps about 10′ away would be better. Do you think I need to amend my soil? Does fertilizer help? I guess so. It helps everything else.
Thanks for responding,
Crystal
May 1st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Hi – I have 5 Goji plants that are a year old. They have grown a lot this spring and seem to need staking. Is this recommended?
Thanks!
Joni
May 1st, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Hi Joni, I have staked my plants just to help keep the goji berry plants growing upright. In addition to the stake I also surrounded the plant with a cylinder of fencing wire to keep the rabbits at bay… I learned the hard way that there are critters out there that will eat these young plants right down to the ground just as I shared in a past goji berry update.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Trying to get all of our questions answered seems to be a bit difficult. Just finding growers who can answer those questions seems to be difficult. My guess is that we will become our own experts on this plant through our own experience and that which we share with each other. While goji berries might eventually become drought tolerant, it seems that they might appreciate more water in getting them established in your yard. It might help if we’d all list what zones we all have ours growing in. It sure would help me since our winters are relatively mild compared to others.
I’ve just learned to plant goji berries on 8′ centers (if anyone has other info, PLMK) and keeping them pruned down to 6′ tall/wide. Apparently, making it easier to harvest when the time comes. I plan to put tomato cages around mine in the beginning because they do appear to need staking – my tallest one is staked for support.. I had considered stringing wire from one to another so they could be trained to vine like that, but have reconsidered that and plan to grow them more like a bush with pruning.
I have some that I started last Fall from seeds. The tallest is 18″ and were planted in good potting soil mix. I hope to plant them later this summer if possible because I’ll be working to amend the soil for the next couple of months. I have some that I started a couple of months ago which have amazed me. Two are between 2″ and 5″. What has surprised me is that I hear about goji berries not blooming till they are older and not setting fruit till the following year. I think these were accidentally fertilized when I was feeding my blooming plants because they have set blooms. Even at 2″ height. A Master Gardener friend recommended removing the blooms because of the stress it might be putting on such a young plant. I plan to chat with her more about that because I know they won’t set any fruit for the next couple of years. But, this makes me aware that feeding them might be a good idea.
I look forward to getting more information as this site grows.
Crystal
May 21st, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I live in Southern California. I planted a Goji plant three years ago. It is about five feet tall. The blooms are small and it has had a few berries but the largest are maybe 1/4 inch long. Am I too impatient or will they just not grow well here. We get at the most 300 chill hours a winter here. Anybody have any success in a similar climate?
Kim
July 27th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I was thrilled to find Goji plants in 3″ pots at Lowe’s Garden Center for $3.45!!! Didn’t even know they were available, and had purchased some of the dried fruits. These alrady have tendrils about 18″ long, and the base stem is about 2 to 3″… 3 look like they could go in a large hanging basket, or pot. I live in Texas so am going back for a couple more to train up a tree in the sun, and contain them with chicken wire.
You never know what “rare” plants you’ll find at common stores… last year it was a Rangoon Creeper at HEB grocery… have never found another one and they smell like heaven!
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Crystal, as far as I know from experience, goji flower and fruit in the first year. Mine suffered attack from a kind of leaf beetle and also from dusty mildew, but they still fruited abundantly in the first year. These are tough plants which do their thing without much assistance. Incidentally, hover flies seem particularly fond of the goji flowers.
September 13th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
I have 6 Goji plants I bought two years ago. I live in N.E. Washington state, my planting zone is 5. I bought my plants from Timpanagos Nursery,out of Utah. They also sell some extremely good liquid fertilizer for the gojis, which help them bloom and grow exceedingly well. Their phone support is sadly, pretty non-existent.
I got information from a local nursery on how to winter over my gojis. I first cut my plants down in the late fall to about 12 inches or a little less. Then I took 5 gallon buckets and cut out the bottom, set them over the plants and pushed them down into the dirt a bit, them absolutely stuffed them clear brim full of clean straw. Then, I took heavy plastic sheeting and cut large squares out of it, took large zip ties and fastened the plastic over the tops of the buckets, fastening it around the outside of the buckets with the zip ties.
I actually had to fasten 2 ties together to get around the bucket. Make the plastic squares large enough to reach the ground around the bucket and heap up more straw around that. My plants made it through my winter just fine. We have a lot of snow and some time in Dec and Jan when it gets a ways below zero. It works great, but now that they are taller, I’m wondering what to do this winter!
Any suggestions? I don’t want to cut them back like that every year, unless it won’t hurt to do that. I have planted mine in my regular vegetable garden. My garden frys in the summer and so I keep straw around the bottoms to help hold in the water. They do fine. Any help on the wintering question would be greatly appreciated. Thanks…
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I am thinking of protecting my goji berries by making an enclosure out of bales of hay. I am in Minnesota (zone 4) and am just worried about the very cold days in January and February.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:44 am
I have started my goji berries inside in a hydroponic set up. They should be ready for planting in the spring. They are doing very well and have missed the period we experienced before when they were planted directly in soil. Using the soil method they got very spindly about 2 weeks after sprouting and fell over, needing support and much tlc to get them going. In the hydroponic set up they are doing much better but this time the germination rate was about 50% compared to the 100% germination experienced in the soil growing. My question is this, has anyone tried to grow them in a 4a to 4b growing zone. It will get down to 35 below in the winter sometimes but 20 below is common. Also any idea as to the length of the growing season needed in order to get mature berries?