Shrub · Solanaceae
Goji Berry
Lycium barbarum
Give it full sun, lean alkaline soil, and room to sprawl, and this tough nightshade pays you in bright red superfood berries.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 4–7
3–12 ft · 0.9–3.7 m
Overview
Goji berry is a hardy nightshade shrub whose ripe fruit hangs in small, bright red ovals, the same berries dried and sold on health-food shelves. It comes from China, where it has been cultivated for centuries, and the plant behind that delicate-looking fruit is genuinely tough. It holds up to cold as deep as -20°F (-29°C) and to summer heat, drought, and poor ground.
Its frame is all length and lean, a mass of long arching canes that reach 3 to 12 feet (91 cm to 3.7 m) and bend under their own weight, rooting and suckering where the tips touch soil. The stems are thorny along their length. In late spring the shrub opens small purple flowers, and about 35 days on those give way to the ripening red berries, which keep coming from midsummer into late fall.
Up close the plant reads as loose and wiry rather than dense, easy to grow and quick to fill space. It fruits with little fuss once settled, but the same free suckering and self-seeding that make it vigorous have let it turn weedy in some regions. Set where its spread won't become a problem, it carries fruit for years.
Care
The short version: strong direct sun, spare alkaline ground with good drainage, one inch of water across the week, plus a single yearly cut-back that keeps the long thorn-studded canes in hand.
Light
Goji wants full sun, and the fuller the exposure the deeper it fruits and the cleaner its leaves stay in hot, bright light. It will take some partial shade, but light shade thins the crop of berries and lets a pale mildew film settle over crowded foliage.
Water
Give about 1 inch of water a week and let the top half of the soil dry between drinks. New transplants want steady watering as their roots take hold, while established plants ride out drought. What sets it back is waterlogged ground or hard swings from soaked to bone dry.
Soil
Plant in well-drained light loam, though goji takes a wide range of ground. It leans to the alkaline side, a pH of 6.8 to 8.2, the reverse of most berries, which is why acidic soil leaves it struggling.
Temperature
This is a genuinely tough shrub, hardy across a wide span from -20°F to 100°F (-29°C to 38°C). Its canes ride out hard winters and blazing summers alike, part of why the plant naturalizes so readily once rooted in the ground.
Humidity
Goji likes it on the dry side, around 20% to 50% humidity, matching the hot, arid country it comes from. Damp, still air is what raises the white powdery mildew on its leaves, so moving air does more good than any effort to add moisture.
Feeding
Feed a balanced 16-16-16 fertilizer through spring and summer, timed to budbreak, flowering, and fruit ripening. Roughly 4 to 5 tablespoons per 10 square feet a year, split into three feedings, is plenty for a plant this undemanding.
Pruning
Leave the young shrub alone its first year. After that, prune during dormancy to cut out weak or damaged branches and shorten the laterals 6 to 18 inches, then pinch the growing terminals back 2 to 3 inches in early summer to force branching and keep the thorny, arching canes from sprawling out of hand.
Repotting
Goji is a ground plant, not a container one, so repotting rarely comes up. If you do grow it in a pot, move it up when you see roots circling the walls, water running straight through, or top growth that has stalled.
Size & spacing
Expect a big, arching shrub from 3 to 12 feet (91 cm to 3.7 m) tall with an even wider sprawl of 4 to 8 feet (120 to 244 cm). Give it that much room from the start, because the long canes lean, sucker, and fill space fast.
When to plant
Goji is a cold-hardy perennial shrub for zones 4 to 7. Start seeds indoors in late winter, or set out plants after the last spring frost once the soil has warmed, then look for the purple flowers in late spring and the red berries ripening from midsummer into late fall.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Sow: 8 to 10 weeks before last frost (seed); or propagate from cuttings or suckers
- Plant: after last spring frost once soil has warmed
- Harvest: purple flowers in late spring; berries ripen mid-summer to late fall, about 35 days after full bloom
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 4–7
Temperature: down to -34°C
Troubleshooting
Goji is a rugged plant with few real troubles, and nearly all of them show first in the leaves, in the color and shape of the foliage. Learn the small handful of pests and the one common disease below, and you can read the leaf and step in early. Match what you see, then act before it spreads through the bush.
Knobby yellow-green blisters and buckled leaf blades
When the leaf surface rises into green to yellow warty blisters and the foliage thickens and curls out of shape, the goji gall mite is at work inside the tissue, a pest too small to see. The galls stud the leaves like tiny beads and leave them puckered. Prune out the worst of that deformed growth and burn it, then coat the buds with horticultural oil or sulfur as they break in spring.
Fix:
- Prune out and destroy heavily galled growth
- Apply horticultural oil or sulfur per label as buds break
- Remove and dispose of fallen infested leaves
Chalk-white dust filming the leaf surfaces
A chalky white bloom dusting the leaves and shoots is powdery mildew, and it smears away to nothing under a fingertip. It settles over the foliage in cool, humid spells, sometimes with the leaf beneath yellowed or warped. The plant sheds it once hot, dry sun returns, so thin the crowded stems for airflow, water low at the base, and save a labeled fungicide for a coating that keeps spreading.
Fix:
- Improve air circulation by thinning crowded stems
- Avoid overhead watering
- Apply a labeled fungicide or sulfur if severe
Gluey, coiled shoot tips flecked with minute insects
Leaves gone tacky and glossy with curled, inward-rolling tips point to aphids clustered thick on the tender new shoots, though spider mites and potato leafhoppers can leave the same sticky, distorted look. Turn a leaf and the underside shows the soft-bodied insects, a varnish of honeydew, or a haze of fine webbing. A hard jet of water blasts them from the stems, insecticidal soap mops up the rest, and ladybugs pick off the stragglers.
Fix:
- Dislodge with a strong jet of water
- Apply insecticidal soap or horticultural oil to affected growth
- Encourage natural predators such as ladybugs
Toxicity
The ripe red berries are a famous superfood, safe to eat fresh, cooked, or dried, so the fruit is nothing to fear. The green foliage is the catch: as a nightshade, the leaves and unripe parts carry trace alkaloids that make them a mild caution for cats, dogs, horses, and other animals that graze. Watch the sharp thorns riding the length of the stems too.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Safe for
People
Cats Mild
The plump ripe berries are harmless to a cat, but the green leaves carry trace nightshade alkaloids. A cat that mouths the foliage may drool a little or turn a mild upset stomach, so keep it away from the leafy growth.
Dogs Mild
A dog that snaps up a fallen red berry is fine, yet chewing the green leaves or stems can leave it with mild drooling or a touch of digestive upset. Keep grazing on the foliage to a minimum.
Horses Mild
The green foliage poses only a low risk to horses, where the trace alkaloids in the leaves may bring mild stomach discomfort if the bush is browsed. The berries themselves are no concern.
Rabbits Mild
The ripe berries can be shared freely, but the leaves and unripe green parts hold the same trace alkaloids and can unsettle a rabbit's sensitive gut. Treat the foliage as a rare nibble at most.
Livestock Mild
Cattle, goats, and sheep can browse around the thorny bush without much trouble, though heavy grazing on the leaves may bring mild digestive upset from the nightshade alkaloids held in the foliage.
Birds Mild
Birds strip the ripe red fruit without harm and scatter the seed as they go. The trace alkaloids sit in the green leaves, so the only caution is around the foliage rather than the berries.
People Ripe fruit safe
The bright red ripe berries are a celebrated superfood, eaten fresh, cooked, or dried with no concern. The green leaves and unripe parts hold trace alkaloids and are left alone, and the sharp thorns on the stems call for care.
Stems carry sharp thorns that can scratch people and pets, and the leaves and unripe parts contain only trace solanaceous alkaloids, so discourage pets from grazing foliage.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Goji comes under a handful of named cultivars, and a known name secures predictable fruit that seed-grown plants cannot promise. These are the ones you are most likely to meet.
Crimson Star (Ningxia #1)
A widely grown cultivar that sets its first fruit 1 to 2 years after planting and comes to full production in 3 to 5 years.
Phoenix Tears
A productive selection prized for the dense, heavy crop of berries it carries.
Wolfberry Agrodevco
A selection that carries its own cultivar name, aimed at garden plots and smaller plantings.
How to propagate
Goji multiplies several ways, from slow seed to the freely rooting suckers along its canes, and the method you pick sets how soon the red berries come and whether the plant comes true to its parent.
SeedEasy
Start indoors in late winter to spring · 2 years to first fruit, full production in 3 to 5 years
Goji sprouts readily from seed started indoors in late winter or spring, but the young seedlings come up variable in form, and first fruit waits about 2 years with a full crop in 3 to 5 years. For a known cultivar and dependable berries, a named plant is the surer start.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Softwood cuttings in early summer or hardwood cuttings during dormancy · Several weeks to root, fruiting within a couple of years
Soft green shoots taken as softwood cuttings in early summer, or firm hardwood cuttings taken during dormancy, root over several weeks and fruit within a couple of years. Cuttings come true to type, so this route keeps a cultivar's traits intact.
DivisionEasy
Dig and transplant suckers in dormancy · Establishes quickly once moved
A mature plant throws up rooted suckers freely after about 3 years, and lifting those during dormancy makes the simplest new plants. Dug and moved then, they settle in fast.
Myths
A nightshade shrub like goji can only bear poisonous berries.
The ripe red berries are eaten the world over as a superfood, fresh, cooked, or dried. Only the green leaves and unripe parts hold trace solanaceous alkaloids, and even those are a mild caution rather than a real danger. The fruit is safe to eat.
Goji needs rich, acidic soil to thrive.
It springs from slightly alkaline ground and sits happiest at a pH of 7 to 8. Acidic soil actually holds it back, so leave aside the soil acidifier you would spread for blueberries.