Cindi, The fruits I got turned red very early, but needed at least a month to mature after turning red before they actually sweetened up. You may want to let them mature more. Can you get a picture?

Planted one of the two bushes , this one is flowering , maybe I will get berries this year

Great shots!

I am growing these from seeds and two are 4" long. How long before they bear fruit?
I remember having a soup made with dried goji berries but it's been quite awhile since I've had it (my MIL used to make it). There are prepackaged soup mix with goji berries at the Oriental grocery store but have not tried it.

I planted 12 seeds just yesterday. I am excited to try growing these potted as indoor plants. I also want to grow them as a hedge between my neighbor and I. Hoping the bushes will grow prolifically as its reputation so I can have a little bit of shade from the morning sun on that side of the yard. The neighbor has bamboo growing on her side. The bamboo is tall but not very densely growing. And it breaks easily in the winds. The goji should get plenty of sun from the west as nothing blocks it and more from the east when it clears a short, 3' wall.

I'll probably trade some seeds once this batch has proven to germinate well. May even trade plants. I think these are a very interesting bush for the garden, especially if you are into edible landscaping. The thorns should keep them useful to deter theft. Although I'd like to get pictures of anyone that scales the wall and lands in this thorny bush. The quick growth should add both privacy and shade, provided the growth is kept in check with pruning and kept from getting messy.

As an indoor plant, it will be interesting. Great if it can produce fruit well when moved outdoors in the spring. Going to at least give one a try as an indoor experiment.

I have two plants outdoors in the ground. They have grown at a moderate rate but I understand that once established, they can take off at a faster rate of growth.

This is a cutting I stuck in a pot year before last. It bloomed and fruited.

Do they produce fruit the first year? Or is the moderate growth rate too slow to expect fruit for a couple years? This is one reason I'm a big fan of strawberries and blackberries and raspberries and elderberries - all quick to bear their fruit. I ordered two packs of these to sow in the fall, the year my husband died. But then I lost my mind and didn't have a clue where I put all those seeds that came in. My mind was a fog for months afterward and I couldn't find the energy for gardening when spring came. He was the reason I got so heavily into growing herbs. He was spending a fortune at vitamin shops for stuff I could grow. Didn't even know how easy it was to grow some stuff like St. John's wort, Valerian, speedwell, mullein, etc. Started off such small pots, not thinking most would even germinate. Then realizing, "Oh, I can do this!" He wasn't overly excited for me to run in the house frequently shouting, "Look what's growing!"

Of course, there was the many fails of blueberries. That was his favorite fruit that I spent a lot of money every year trying to grow before giving up and suggesting, "How about some nice, full of antioxidants wolf berries?" I don't personally like blueberries, and was saddened that he thought the goji berry was not a good consolation prize.

Odd that I'm still interested in growing a lot of things I grew for him. I don't have cancer, but I do take a lot of drugs for headaches, nausea, sleep, etc. None really work well. Obviously, as I'm lurking the forums quite a bit instead of tossing and turning. I never have liked taking pills of any kind. He would probably be shocked out of his shoes to see the pharmacy of pills I take now. But I'm still convinced I will be much better off to consume bunches of berries and teas. I think he called it, "One of those weeds and twigs freaks."

Which reminds me, I read that goji berry tastes better after the first frost, when they release more sugars? But are they palatable straight from the bush before the first frost? I'm a berry addict. The last berries I planted and never ate was my mulberry tree. It fruited the year I gave up on gardening. But, for several years, I could skip out to the garden in the mornings, bowl in hand, to pick strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries and they were absolutely the best mornings. Picking the elderberries was hard work, because then I was in the kitchen boiling up big pots of elderberry tonic for the year. My roommate says he loves elderberry wine, or was it brandy? I thought they would look great growing up and tall like the neighbor's bamboo on the other side. But then I didn't know if any would fall into her yard. Not sure if her chickens would like that. I don't remember them ever falling in my yard - the bunches were not at all easy to pull from the branches. And the birds totally ignored them. I planted a bunch thinking I had to share with the birds. I could have made tonic for weeks.

Hope I can find some drinks I can make with the goji berries. I love juice, but have to avoid the pulp-less store varieties. But eating them off the vine works well also. I don't mind thorny plants at all, the scratches are worth it as long as they produce enough fruit. I want to grow some of those fall gold raspberries again if I can fit them in somewhere. They were the only raspberries I like. I'd always imagined I would make raspberry-goji juice with them because those raspberries tasted good with everything.

Sorry, rambling again. It rained most of the day yesterday and last night. It is nice that I don't even have to think about going out to water my parched garden. Instead, I'm all relaxed and dreaming gardening stuff before I go to church.

Mine produced a few berries the first year. They should produce a full crop by the second year. I am not sure about your climate. Once established, I believe the plants are very drought-tolerant.

(edited to correct spelling)

Ah! Great that they will fruit the first year so I can at least taste them this fall. That will help me decide how much to trim them. If I have to combine them with other berries or sugars, I'd keep them trim. If they satisfy the taste buds right from the bush, I won't trim as much. I am a bit concerned they don't produce many berries for a plant that has a tendency for invasiveness. But I'm also thinking I may let some grow by my other neighbor's fence. Plenty of room there for them to spread and give a nice hedge. Although I stand at that fence to talk to the neighbors a lot, I'd rather have more berries.

Hi, Tee and Cheshire, Sadly my plants never produced enough fruit to even come close to justify keeping them. Just a few fruits a year and that's only in good years. It's good to see you are getting some fruit so soon. I think that mine just might be one that is just not productive. I do see pollinators, so I know that is not an issue.

The vines do need something to support them if you want to use them as a hedge. They can get tall since the individual stems run long, but they fall over and spread out, much like a blackberry bush will do. The only difference there is that they get larger than the blackberries. They also tip root very easily.

As to invasiveness, I've been trying to remove mine for three years now. Last year I started using RoundUp on them, because digging them up wasn't working.

Wish you both luck with yours.

That's too bad. Perhaps it's the climate. They do well.

I think I remember reading that the goji love the sun and heat. I have plenty of that here. But we don't get enough rainfall, which might help to keep them manageable. I plan to water them well to get them established. Next year they won't get as much water.

I haven't decided yet how to fence them. The thorns might not allow for using the weave method, which often works for me when maintaining plants that tend to tip over like tomatoes, peppers, and okra. Elderberries will tip over. When they flower, they are upright. But the ton of berries tips them over. I had to trim severely in the winter after harvesting. Same with blackberries. I'm assuming the goji are similar, although they don't really have clusters of fruit, so the canes must be weak for the small amount of individual berries in SongofJoy's picture earlier. Either that, or while they have extensive roots, they aren't really strong.

I think I might try a raised bed or box planter with fencing attached on the sides. I do have a wall where I planned to plant them in ground, but as it is only a 3' wall that I noticed this morning is not as sturdy as it could be. I'd like the fence to be at least 7' tall to allow it to grow up and I can keep it at that height. That location should also keep the pigeons away that like to fly along the wall to get to where the neighbor's chickens are fed. The sparse bamboo along that wall doesn't deter them enough. The bamboo isn't strong enough to let the goji climb those. Some of the bamboo is now at least 20' high so it is a shame they aren't sturdy enough to use for supporting the goji.

Resurrecting an old post here. I've managed to start a few goji berries from seeds in the past month. I've moved them up to paper pots temporarily from a nursery 4-pack because I know their root growth is tremendous. Hopefully, I'll grow them on in 5-gallon buckets per some Peaceful Valley info I read so that I'll be able to keep them indoors their first winter. I made a mix for them of Pro-Mix premium, traction sand and perlite as I've read that they like good drainage. I have not fertilized them yet but will do so with a little fish emulsion. It's my understanding that they like a higher pH - above 7 - and I'm wondering what I can use as a source of calcium carbonate other than buying a whole bag of lime or whatever. I will test the pH first but want to have my info all lined up. Thanks!

Our soil is very acidic and our gojiberries do perfectly fine without any amendments other than compost.

Thanks for that info. I have oak leaf-based compost here and would have thought that it might be a no-no for goji berry plants. I've read that they don't need much (if anything) in the way of applied nutrients. These will ultimately be planted in the ground in SE MI - some sand, some clay.

They are definitely one of the easiest plants to grow!

Dave, how are yours doing regarding fruiting? Mine never fruited much in my zone 5 climate. Lots of flowers, but very few fruits. I tried to grub them out over several years, without much success. They grow like weeds and not only are easy to grow, but difficult to get rid of once well established. Note also that cuttings start readily in water

I got quite a few fruits in 2014. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what causes them to fruit and I haven't figured it out yet. I have several in the ground and one of them produced quite a bit while the others (nearby, same soil and planted at the same time) produced nothing.

I also had one in a gallon nursery pot produce a huge amount all the way down the stems, while the others right next to it flowers but produced no fruit! These are all clones of each other taken from cuttings from a single plant.

From what (little) I've read, the flowering without fruiting is not uncommon but I haven't read of reason. It will be intersting to see the variability of seed-sown plants. Some say to start the trees out with a little nitrogen in the spring but then switch over to phosphorus only (no nitrogen) as the season warms up. I'd rather not use anything except that for this year, they'll be growing in potting soil. I will add some compost but maybe not a lot. I wonder what's used in China/Tibet on the pics of groves that I've seen.