[shefra]

danmac can you tell me where you got the organic liquid seaweed fertiliser? I'm based in kerry also.

[danmac]

Getting close to 1 foot tall with some of the gojis.


Shefra, sorry I didn't see your post til now, for some reason the thread doesn't seem to be showing new posts when you look at its heading in the main part of the fruit/veg forum..
I got it in Castleisland in a hardware shop on lower Main St. called All Kinds of Everything (next door to the River Island hotel), but I noticed that they also have this in Shanahan's Garden Centre in Farranfore, so I would think many garden centres and many hardware shops stock it. It certainly seems to be good tack judging by the burst of growth in my plants.

[verge]

[danmac]

I honestly am not sure on the "pinching out" Verge. If they continue to grow at the current rate they could become a bit unwieldy for the thickness of their main stem, so maybe encouraging some side shoots instead wouldn't be a bad idea. One of the taller plants has actually already gone very zig-zaggy. I may have to put a little support on them, they definitely would blow all over the place if they were outside on a windy day like today and unsupported. I have about a dozen or so pots of 1 gallon capacity, but I'll need to buy more, pots can become pretty costly when you need dozens of them. It is going to be a bit scary putting them out, but they are getting so tall now that I must do it in the month ahead. I'm dreading that the slugs and midge-like things will do damage.

[Kichara]

Hey, I'm not Irish whatsoever, from lower Alabama in the USA, but I was searching for information on goji berries and came across this forum thread. After reading it and seeing the success you had, danmac, I tried the same thing. I am guessing I had around 600 seeds as well, enough to fill a bottled water cap to be exact. After around 10 days I have had 465 sprouts come up in my germination tray. I thought everyone would like to know of another success with growing the goji from sun dried berries. My digital camera was stolen around a month ago but as soon as I can get some pictures I will detail how I got the seeds out and show what my sprouts look like.

[Sb]

Hello Kichara. Seems like everybody is getting the Goji growing bug. Would love to see a photo or two of your sprouts if you get a chance to take some.

[danmac]

Hi Kichara. Look forward to seeing how yours grow also. One of the sites that originally got me curious about gojis belongs to some people based a little further north of you in NW Arkansas. They have lots of info, as well as running a goji based business through the site.
http://www.gojitrees.com/index.htm
It was there that I read some information regarding false myths about the origins of the goji in Tibet or Himalayas. The folks in Arkansas maintain they are actually from around Ningxia, a northern region of China. Well with this info in hand, I checked out Ningxia on Wikipedia, particularly with regard to climate.
Wikipedia states:

[danmac]

A couple of examples of 19 week old plants. Around the 18 inch mark or thereabouts and there are a good few more just as tall now. The outside world (and larger pots) is beckoning.

[danmac]

The other side of the window!





Well as you can see, I got round to repotting the gojis this week. I put them in the warmest and sunniest area of the garden, which is the south gable of the house. Hopefully now with the warmer weather they will continue to grow, become more "shrubby", and develop a more wood-like stem all the way up the plants. The lowest (and oldest) 2 - 3 inches on each stem is now quite similar in appearance to a very thin twig on close inspection (see pic below).
Also in the second picture above you can see 2 other experiments of mine, the larger black tubs contain a kiwi vine and a black grape vine, which I managed to nurse through the winter, which are now starting to grow again, and which I hope this year to encourage to clamber up some kind of frame or home made wire trellis. I've also got some clematis and a dozen or so climbing roses, so there may be things clambering all over the place here soon, God willing.



The plant in this picture was one of the 16 which were growing in a mix of garden soil and compost. As you can see this one and the other 15 developed quite a bit of moss and algae on the top of their pots. It didn't seem to do them any harm, so I left it be other than slightly breaking the skin to make the watering easier. Water - and seaweed feed - used to take a while to soak through the moss otherwise, but the moss seemed to help those pots retain moisture as well, and they usually seemed to need less water than the other pots.

All but 9 of the gojis are now outside. Of the 9 remaining, 2 appear to be stuck in neutral and are making no attempt at sprouting or otherwise increasing sizewise. One of these no-goers appears in the big plant vs. small plant comparison image further back the thread, and indeed it looks exactly the same no as it did last month when I posted that comparison image. The other 7 appear to be normal but later to begin their growth burst. I'm going to let them gain a bit more height before putting them out with the rest.

[cooler]

Growing like a nursery with all the pots in uniform colours. Did you raid your local garden centre?
I read somewhere recently that the young Goji plants can be planted at the base of hedges to grow up through similar to a rambling rose. I think the have quite a soft floppy habit that way.

[danmac]

Picked up most of the pots in a local odds 'n ends shop for around 2 euro a pop..
Yes, unfortunately the plants are very floppy and soft. Today some are showing signs of the change of environment. The tips of a few have bent/snapped at the top, above the highest piece of twisty wire. Probably caused by the wind. There are other signs such as some wilty leaves, though they have plenty of water, and today is not as warm as yesterday was here, so I take it as being a combination of the new surroundings and maybe some leaves which couldn't take the motion from the wind. Some leaves have come completely off. A few leaves were lost in the transplant as well, not too many though, and mostly from the bottom of the plants, which were coming close to dropping off anyway, but I suppose it all stresses the plants. Hopefully they will rally and produce new leaves and shoots to replace them.

[Lisa-Adam]

[Porcelina]

Danmac, how did you transplant the seedlings without shocking them? I have 5 plants, all about 1 inch or taller and they're in a pot together. I would like to transplant them, but worry they're still too small. They all have they're first set of leaves, some onto a third set now.

Thanks!

[danmac]

Hi Porcelina, You'd be amazed at how basic my technique really was. As I had them in a very, very shallow tray initially, I simply used an old biro/pen to loosen the soil around them a litlle. I then held the seedling gently by one of the leaves and applied a tiny amount of upward pressure to see if they'd release from the soil, while still (gently) prodding the soil a little to ease them out.
It is vital that you hold the seedling by a leaf. If you damage/bruise a leaf a bit the seedling will recover, but if you bruise the main stem then a seedling will almost certainly die. Also I would say that when the seedling has 4 or 5 leaves is the best time to tranplant, as the roots will have established, but will not have spread so much that you may rip them badly when trying to remove them from the soil. Since your pot is probably deeper than my tray, it would definitely be better to move them before the roots get too deep.
Also key to the transplant is to keep the soil around the newly transplanted seedling moist but not soggy . And make sure the water isn't getting on the seedling itself. A damp plant is just asking for fungi to attack. I was applying about 3 to 4 millilitres, every second day, to each of almost 60 seedling plants back in January/February. This time of year you'd probably need to give them that much water at least every day, but you will really have to judge the soil moisture and see for yourself.
Hope this helps.

Hi Lisa-Adam, I spotted your post earlier, and grabbed a few pics with my phone cam, so they mightn't be quite as sharp as those from my other camera, but should give you an idea of how the plants look after a month and a half outdoors.


Well as you can see there is a quite a bit of branching developing. When I put them out first, they were just one main stem with a lot of leaves at nodes along the stem. Now many of these nodes have formed branches.


This is I think the tallest plant at the moment, it's about 4 feet tall.


...And a group shot.

I've been continueing with the seaweed based plant food, the only difference being that Inow use a watering can rather than a jug.
Am quite happy with their growth, but I'm beginning to wonder about the idea that they become treelike eventually, as they seem very vine-like in their growth habit, which might mean I will eventually try and grow them into a goji hedge. Also, there is no apparent sign of flowers yet, but I live in hope.

[cooler]