Growing goji in the Moscow region - benefits, planting and care
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GODGY BERRIES: MYTH OR REALITY?
8 years ago, a boom rolled around the country: another panacea for all diseases was found! It cures cancer, diseases of the joints, the thyroid gland, restores the cardiovascular system, normalizes metabolism and blood sugar, and much more! "Witnesses" claimed that they themselves had seen fat men literally lost a few months to 30 kg of weight without compromising health.
And ONLY WITH THE HELP OF GODZY BERRIES!
And everyone, like crazy, rushed to consume these miraculous fruits in incredible quantities. The media vied with each other about the miraculous cures with goji berries. Incredible stories of the recovery of hopeless patients were passed from mouth to mouth. It was even said that, on the basis of these berries, a means of extending life by as many as several centuries was created! It is allegedly based on a recipe of the ancient Incas who possessed the secret of immortality with the help of the same goji berry.
It was thought - all this already happened: “Kremlin * tablets, mummy, germinated wheat grains with wild bee honey, various dietary supplements ... Today, all these newfangled products have received the loud name of“ superfoods ”. And enterprising people make very good money on them.
But the topic really interested me. Since a berry means it can be grown! And I decided to learn more about this plant in more detail.
We also recommend reading: Cultivation of goji (photo) in Russia - care
WHERE DID IT APPEAR?
It turned out that goji berries are the fruits of two species of the genus dereza of the nightshade family: Chinese Dereza (Lycium Chinensis) and Chinese Dereza (Lycium In Barbarum). And the name comes from the Chinese species, since in this language the plant sounds like "Nineya Gozzi", or "Ninea Goji".
In natural dereza, Chinese grows in China in the territory of Tibet and the Himalayas, in the Far East of Russia. The distribution area of wolfberry is wider. Its natural thickets can be found in Southeast Asia, in the Caucasus, in Central Asia, in the Kuban, in Primorye, and even in central Russia.
This is a spreading deciduous shrub height 3-3,5 m. The root system of the plant is very powerful and branched, so around the bushes quickly appear the whole thickets of root shoots. The branches are yellow, drooping, with a lot of thin thorns. Numerous medium-sized purple flowers have the form of bells and exude a very delicate, pleasant aroma. Flowering lasts from June to October. The first berries begin to ripen in early July, and fruiting continues until the end of November.
Goji berries themselves are medium-sized (on average 2,5 cm long), oval, bright red, coral or orange. They are very tasty. The Chinese berry is smaller (up to 2 cm), but it is sweeter, the common berry is larger (up to 3 cm), but has a sour taste. According to the content of vitamins and nutrients, the fruit of Chinese wolfberry exceeds the berries of wolfberry several times.
Goji berries look like barberries in appearance, but have nothing to do with it.
Bushes begin to bear fruit already on the 3 year after planting. By 5 years, they reach maximum yield and, with good care, can produce up to 10 kg of berries from one bush.
USEFUL PROPERTIES OF GODY BERRIES
Rumors of the unlimited healing possibilities of the goji berry are clearly exaggerated. Although it does have very valuable healing properties.
Chinese and ordinary dereza fruits contain: all B vitamins, vitamins A, C (its content is 400 times more than in lemon!), D, E, beta-carotene; trace elements - iron, manganese, potassium, sodium, calcium, copper, phosphorus, selenium (it contains goji berry 10 times more than in other plants), zinc, iodine, germanium (a very rare element that prevents the formation of cancer cells); 18 amino acids vital to the human body, antioxidants, proteins, polysaccharides, fats, proteins, complex carbohydrates, fiber and natural antibiotics.
As I was able to find out, not a single official medical institution in our country has conducted serious studies of goji berries, so it is difficult to say how much influence they have on certain diseases. But judging by the composition of vitamins and valuable microelements, they certainly benefit the human body.
But in China, goji berries are similar in healing properties to ginseng and are widely used in traditional medicine. There they are used to lower cholesterol and blood sugar, normalize blood pressure, treat cardiovascular diseases, prevent any tumors, restore the liver, kidneys, pancreas and gastrointestinal tract, normalize metabolism (which, first of all, leads to weight loss), increase body resistance and in many other cases.
MY EXPERIENCE GODZHA GROWING MOSCOW REGION
Indeed, if you set a big goal, you will achieve yours. With great difficulty, through a chain of acquaintances I managed to buy two seedlings of Chinese dereza in pots grown from last year's rooted cuttings.
Grandmother, who sold them to me, argued that the plant is very unpretentious. She had 6 large bushes growing on the site, literally strewn with bright, ripe ruby berries. And on each bush at the same time, there were also delicate coral bells of flowers. The spectacle is just awesome!
The old woman gave me detailed recommendations for planting and treated me with berries - both fresh and dried, to taste reminiscent of raisins. I really liked them.
I had to plant my new green friends at the beginning of August, although spring planting is recommended for woodwind. But plants with a closed root system always take root well.
Following the advice of an old woman, I chose a sunny place for the bushes on the south side of the house, well protected from drafts and cold winds by a high solid fence.
Since the pots with the seedlings were large, the holes dug 60x60x60, see Dereza does not tolerate acidic soils, but they are medium-acid, so I took out all the soil, setting aside the top fertile. At the bottom she laid a drainage of broken brick with a layer of about 10, see. The pits were filled with soil mixture, which was made up of fertile land, rotted manure, sand and sheet earth in the same amount.
In each pit, added a glass of dolomite flour 1, 2 Art. spoons of superphosphate, 1 Art. a spoonful of potassium sulfate and a third of a bucket of wood ash. In the center of the pit I hammered a stake with a length of 1,5 m, to which, after planting, I tied thin twigs of saplings.
In general, in the first 3 of the year, the bushes need a support. Despite the fact that they are quite thick, their branches are thin and can easily break, especially in winter under a snow load. A year later, the number needs to be extended to 2 m or replaced with a new one.
When planting a bush is recommended to be buried in the ground on 5-7 cm, so that it quickly takes root.
Deresa Chinese shrubs are very sprawling, so the distance between them and other plantings should be no less than 3 cm.
Plants do not need frequent watering, but in the first years they should be carried out at least twice a week. Pristvolnye circles should be well mixed with straw or sawdust.
Since the basal growth of wolfberry grows very quickly, you need to regularly get rid of it, otherwise the appeared sprouts will select food from the main bush.
In the first year I did not do any dressings.
The most important point was the preparation for the winter. The fact is that the cold resistance of goji is sufficiently low. Experts say that it can freeze when the temperature drops to minus 16 °. My grandmother, from whom I bought seedlings, assured me that these plants were already acclimatized and therefore would calmly transfer even minus 25 °, but I decided not to risk it.
For the winter, I gathered all the branches, tied it to the planting stake, and shook both bushes with a thick layer of lutrasil. The tree trunks covered the lapnik with two rows, and also covered the double lutrasil from above.
So they and I wintered. At the end of April, she removed a nonwoven winding from the bushes and one layer of lapnik, and left the other until early May.
In the second year, she began to slowly form bushes, cutting out weak, broken and thickening branches.
Fertilized twice during the summer. In the spring it gave nitrogen top dressing, and in the fall - potassium-phosphorus.
The first crop was received in the third summer - about 1,5 kg of berries from each bush. In subsequent years, collected approximately 6 kg from the bush
I make compotes from berries, raisins (dry in a special dryer) and freeze fresh.
Berries are very high in calories, so I do not recommend consuming more than one handful per day.
I have a lot of different fruits and berries, so it’s hard to say which of them have a positive effect on the body, but after I began to use goji berries regularly, my blood pressure and sugar returned to normal, and my eyesight improved. By the way, and the weight decreased. Although I'm not sure that it is only from them.
GOGGY: NOT INSTEAD OF CURRANT, TOGETHER
For many years now I have been growing goji (ordinary dereza). The berries of this amazing plant contain a large number of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants.
It is not surprising that goji is called a panacea for rejuvenation. True, critics claim that the same currants, honeysuckle or blueberries in terms of the vitamin composition of the crop are in no way inferior to dereza. And I will say this: there are not many useful plants in the garden. Moreover, growing goji is not at all difficult.
LANDING OF THE GODJI
It is better to plant in the spring. An unpretentious plant is suitable for almost any soil in a lighted place, the main thing is that the melt water does not flood the site in the spring.
Planting pits (50 × 50 cm) I fill with fertile soil with the addition of compost and complex fertilizer. After planting next to a sapling, it is advisable to dig a support 2 m high into the ground (to support shoots that fall to the ground in the first few years).
For the formation of the bush, I leave about 5 of the most powerful skeletal shoots (I cut the rest), on which fruiting branches grow. I cut them annually in early spring, leaving up to four buds on each.
Goji can be quickly propagated by lignified cuttings, which I cut in July-August. It is enough to put them in the water, as they quickly take root, which, by the way, cannot be said about the same capricious blueberry or honeysuckle. I plant plants with roots in containers under the film. In winter, these cuttings are best kept in a cool place (in the cellar, on the insulated balcony). And in April, young plants are planted in open ground.
© Author: Alexander YUDIN, Gorki
GOJA BERRIES - USEFUL PROPERTIES AND CONTRAINDICATIONS: VIDEO
© Author: O. IVANOVA, gardener-experimenter The Moscow region
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About six years ago I bought goji seeds. Planted, the seedlings developed well. I planted her in the fall in the garden. The next year, the plants blossomed, began to grow, but by the fall they were all gone. It turned out that I was sowing seeds in peat tablets, and the roots of the plants did not break through the nets, which I had not guessed to remove. She wrote out new seeds. Now one seedling is already four years old.
He began to bloom a couple of seasons ago, but for some reason the flowers appear somewhere in late August - early September. For two years I saw only one fruit about 1 cm long on it. Spring is coming, but I don't know what to do with it? Maybe cut the branches (they are already 2-2,5 m long)? Or do you need to do something else? Tell me, please, I really want to get a harvest.
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Every year, the goji plant is becoming increasingly popular in summer cottages. The Internet is replete with information about the benefits of this culture, as well as assurances that goji is not ill with anything. And if I completely agree with the first paragraph, then I can object to the second, relying on personal observations.
Once again I am convinced that plants without pests are a rarity. As a rule, after a certain period of cultivation on any crop, signs of disease damage appear and pests settle. On goji, he noticed aphids (on young sprouting shoots), Colorado beetles (eating flowers and young ovary), winter scoop caterpillars (one such caterpillar can eat up to 20 cm of young shoot per night).
From pests, as soon as I notice them in the bushes, I treat goji with infusion of wormwood (I fill a third of the bucket with chopped fresh grass, fill it with water, and insist 3-4 days) several times at intervals of a week. As for the diseases, the leaves showed signs of late blight and powdery mildew, but only on those plants when planting which did not have enough wood ash. He concluded: so that the goji bushes do not hurt, they need to be grown on alkaline soil, and also make sure that the plantings are not thickened. The fungal problem was also fought with folk methods.
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In the spring, we received by mail a goji seedling - a bush the size of my palm. I read that the plant loves sunny areas where water does not stagnate, and tolerates drought. Regular pruning and ... poor soil are important for a good harvest (shoots and leaves grow on fertile goji, but few fruits).
A seedling planted in April, watered abundantly, mulched the soil with humus. Further care - watering and weeding. Goji quickly went up. Upright stems droop over time.
In early August of the same year, the bush bloomed with purple flowers (flowering continued until November), and in late summer, oblong berries began to ripen. I took off the completely ripe fruits every day (from about October) and dried them in the kitchen, then put them in a glass jar.
When my husband saw a fruit-bearing bush, he remembered how, in childhood, in the Rostov Region, he was playing hide and seek in such thickets and eating berries, and he called the plant derez. It turned out that dereza, lycium - these are all different names for the goji plant that is now popular in the market, which belongs to the nightshade family.
In the fall, the frustrated shoots were cut off, leaving one kidney each. In the spring young branches will go to growth, on which flowers and fruits will be laid.