Got message and the seeds are yours! Glad you can use them. :)

garock could I have some gojiberry please ive never seen the seeds in stores or trade lists even..hmm

You can grow Goji Berry from store bought seeds..

Sure, I have some you can have. I'd have to check my log in my book to see how long it took mine to germinate, but I'm hoping they get as big as the people's did in that video above. :) Right now, they're pretty tiny and fragile. I planted about 20 seeds and had five germinate. I lost one. I planted them in seed-starting soil and barely covered them and kept the soil moist by misting them daily. Now they're under the lights, so hopefully they'll grow quickly!

Now, some seeds from the grocery store you can't plant and expect fruit from them. Is this true with Goji Berries or no? Anyone?? :)

hi Alicia its ok these people have given me ideas. I will go to Chinatown in Oakland ,ca and buy some GOJI fruits..''PLANT ON'' http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1447155/goji-berries-where-to-buy-seeds

they do not sell goji berries around here

Well, I have some seeds here fuzzy, if you would want some. I'm thinking a nature store would have them. Our grocery store has them in their natural foods section. That's the only place I've seen them. Then we have a store called Nature's Way a few blocks away from me that has them.

I never knew you could grow them from the fruit, though. I figured they'd be sterile seeds like other fruits in the store. I have a lemon tree that I grew from seed from a grocery store lemon when I was 19 and still have it; 27 years later! Not one lemon on it, but I love it. I remember wanting to grow a plant from seed back then, so I tried it and it worked and now I'll never part from the thing. Haha

I love learning new things, so thanks for the info eveyrone!

would love some to try

Message me your address and I'll drop them in the mail. They're tiny seeds, so they shouldn't get smashed in the mail in a regular envy. Normally I don't do that, but these should be fine. :)

as far as growing goji berries from store bought fruit, IMO likely to be as good of a chance at a good variety as those sold as seeds. mostly because goji berry hasnt been messed with by big AG, it is not being highly bred and fussed with, so its still strong in its wild original form. i havent looked into it though, so this is just off the top of my head, and what i would say about many unusual fruits...not the common apple/pear/cherry from grocery store, which is super messed with, bred and genetically too variable to get consistantly good results. another issue is that commercial growers tend to use wild versions of the fruit for pollination purposes, so while apples (notoriously the worst and what gives other fruit a bad rep!) might be ok if given two or more good varieties to cross pollinate with...the chances of store bought apples having a crab apple daddy is quite high. ditto on pears and cherry. besides these three, theres a good chance of getting good results from most other fruit, though there could be some natural and possibly beneficial cross pollination if the grower has more varieties. stone fruit and citrus are either "true to type" or very close, so either of these, or another not as popular fruit, you have a very good chance of getting something desireable, or very much like the original fruit.

i am really curious about trying different things, and though i dont want to fail, can accept a certain amount of failure/experimenting without expectation...so i have sprouted some market fruit seeds...mostly stone fruits, peaches, plums, apricots, and citrus. i keep buying moro blood oranges, and hoping for seeds....so far i have gotten about 8 so fingers crossed that they sprout. wish more oranges had seeds! if these were grown in isolation they have a good chance at being "true to type" but often they are grown around other types, so may have some natural cross pollination. which all in all, is a good thing, for diversity, and the way the trees go through their own processes of beneficial change...outside of people trying to always stick with only named and highly inbred varieties....

ah my 4 cents =)

about your lemon, is it possible that something else is keeping it from fruiting? does it get hot enough where you are...even here in zone 8 i am just off to the side of ideal lemon growing temps. another reason people do not like to grow fruit trees on "own roots" or from seeds...is because it takes a LONG time to get to fruiting age. as well as they tend to get really tall and have more thorns.
27 years though! thats a long time, so i am actually surprised it didnt fruit ever. citrus, most citrus types, are ones that will come "true to type" or at least very close. though again, if several varieties of citrus were grown together the seed may have some crossing.
and not to be nitpicky, but in the interest of exploring this, seeds that are "sterile" will not germinate AT ALL, and there are some fruits/plants that are like this. but citrus isnt one of them, this is what my research tells me.

Well, I can't grow my lemon outside, so that's possibly why. I'm in PA, Zone 5/6, so I put it on my patio in the summer months and pull it inside for winter. So the temps for summer vary from 80 to 95, and winter is 70s in my house. It has huge thorns, so I cut them off. Maybe that's why i get no fruit! LOL But they're quite painful if you bump into it. I also have a lime tree tree and tangerine tree. I think they both have thorns too. Ugh. Honestly, I'll never get rid of the lemon tree because it's my first plant I ever grew. The tangerine, I can't part with it as my gram brought seeds back from Haiwaii and started it. I would feel bad getting rid of it. The lime tree, don't care as much about it, so I may give it away. They're very pretty to have as houseplants, but ouch! Oh, and the tangerine and lime go out in the summer as well, and have never beared any fruit. I'm doomed.

I'm not completely without homegrown fruit. I have a blueberry bush that blesses me with blueberries every summer! Hopefully the GojiBerry will too....in two years.

My cherry tree I purchased two years ago didn't make it last spring, so the company reimbursed me for that. It was a midget cherry tree. I was pretty upset over that one. Don't know if I'll try again. I'm hoping my Brazelberry and straberries pulled through this past winter. I think I had one Brazelberry last summer and a few strawberries. This will be their second year, so I'm hoping for a little more fruit from them.

I do have a dwarf patio peach tree, but last year the peach trees in PA didn't produce fruit. We had a cold winter that year. And we did again this year, so I may not see fruit on it again this summer. :( They're little white peaches and pretty good to eat.

hopefully you have more fruit this year

I hope so. I'm determined to have fresh fruit even though I live in PA and in the city with no acreage to plant big trees and bushes on!

the only thing we have is some wild gooseberry bushes and wild raspberry plants

It never has flowers, BUT (not you've got ME thinking) I don't fertilize my plants except for in the spring. So with that being said, that could very well be my problem! So I probably should fertilize them all year long, I suppose. Like I said, I do all of my plants in the spring, but it sounds like I should change that and fertilize at least the citrus plants year-round. I guess I never really looked into it much because I was just happy they were alive. :) But it would be wonderful to get fruit from them!

I had purchased a Meyer lemon tree years ago and had gotten lemons, but then it got scale and died on me. I'm going to try this fertilizing thing over the next year and see if it changes them at all. What would be ideal would be to have a greenhouse room off of my house for all of my plants so they could get lots and lots of light! But that's just me dreaming.....

Fuzzy, so are wild gooseberries similar to raspberries? Just curious.

no we have the black raspberries and gooseberries are green and they are very sour

i usually eat them raw but you can also use them to make pies if you get enough but you need more sugar

I have citrus trees with the same basic conditions as Alicia, but mine are not as old. I have a Lemon tree and a Key lime that I started from seed from grocery store fruits 3 years ago. Mine are not old enough to have flowered or fruited but I am going to start fertilizing mine as well. I didn't even think about that. I am going to go looking for goji berry's and purchase some fresh ginger to grow as well. I also have turmeric roots that I grow every year. I like to bake chicken wrapped in the fresh leaves, they are tasty and turmeric is very healthy. At the end of the harvest I save a few rootlets and keep in in the fridge for the winter, and the rest I like to pickle or dry and crush.

Hey, Chris. How long does it take for your tumeric to start growing. A lady gave me a tumeric root in a trade and I planted it on 2/29 and it's still not up. My Cannas are up and I planted the rhizomes on 3/16, so I thought the tumeric would surely be up by now. I do have a tendency to be a tad impatient. :) Also, I have some Goji Berry seeds here if you'd like some. I purchased them a couple of months ago and mine are up and doing well. The ones that germinated, that is. But you're welcome to some. I actually have them in an envelope ready to go because I prepared two envelopes the other day by mistake. Only needed to do one.

Fuzzy, my neighbor had a mulberry tree that used to hang way over my fence over my spice garden. Used to drive me nuts with all the smashed berry mess, but I picked a bunch one day, brought them inside, rinsed them and went to pop one in my mouth, and all of these ants came out of the berry. Never again! I now know I should have placed them in a bowl of water to soak them and let all of the bugs come out, but the tree is gone now, so.... Gooseberries don't sound that great. :( Too bad. I love fresh berries.

gooseberries are good if you eat them and we do have mulberry trees here and a few elderberry that i forgot but you want to pick the mulberries off the tree and then they are good i make mulberry cobbler out of mine

Its pretty slow to get going. I just got mine potted up, and its inside waiting for the winter that never ends to relocate someplace far away. I am thinking it takes a good month to see any growth and then it takes off like crazy. Its really nice kinda reminds me of ginger in its growth habit. I have never got it to flower but have seen the flowers and they are gorgeous! The goji's sound great, I can send you stamps. I still have the envelope from the last seeds you sent so I will get that in the mail Monday.

yeah citrus are really hungry for fertilization, especially in pots, because they dont have the ground /minerals/nutrients/etc...of being planted in the real soil. in general i hardly never fertilize anything, its a good way, make the plants work for the nutrients...but with citrus its super important...

theres a number of different special citrus formulas, and also many spikes and time released fertilizers...so if you are forgetful, those are good. stick one in and its fertilized for 6 months...or whatever....

You don't have to send stamps, Chris. The seeds are very tiny, so I honestly think they will be safe in a regular envy. I already have a stamp on it, so don't worry about it. I have your address, so I can pop it in the mail for Monday.

and anywho i hear you on the dream solarium/atrium/ sunroom =) would be awesome to have a space like that connected to the house, for growing out tangerines, lemons and such =)

even in warm zone 8, i am just outside of citrus zone...stuff like passionfruit, guava, bananas too...i do grow some things like this but have to sacrifice a kitchen table and stack as much as i can near windows for winter!

I like the sticks that fertilize for six months, Leila. Great idea! Forgot about those too. Another reason I guess I never thought about fertilizing is because outside, my gardens are organic, and I only put composted manure in my gardens. I'm just not used to feeding things. I always said for the outside plants, if it grows, it grows; if not, oh, well. With the heirlooms, I never have a problem. But I'll definitely be feeding the citrus more often and year-round! It would be wonderful to get flowers. I'm sure they smell heavenly. My Duke of Tusacany bloomed for the first time in the fall, and my hallway smelled marvelous!

yep TOTALLY...i hardly never fertilize even, and its kinda weird for me to even give that advice cause in general i dont like or use commercial fertilizer. they key for me is to try to create the best soil, with mulch, compost, etc...and try to build up the soil as much as possible...as well i have been learning about creating IMO s and such, from "natural farming" techniques...build the garden beds and feed the soil with organic/natural stuff...then let the plants work for their nutrients. with most, or many plants , this works ok...but citrus is a very hungry plant, and if it doesnt have what it needs it might not flower or fruit. i would love it if this does help and you get citrus flowers =) they are so beautiful and smell so wonderful =)

on a different note...the very last thing i can think of that might possibly have some influence on your citrus...is that the cold, while it doesnt like to freeze at all....a little bit of cold tells the plant its winter time and potentially dangerous...so it will want to kick itself into fruiting just in case it needs to reproduce...though this seems less likely than too little fertilizer...if you fertilize it well...and still no flowers...you might try to leave it out side just a bit longer in the beginning of winter....to see if that affects it...

I usually bring it in when it's getting into the low 60s. I may have even left it out there in the high 50s, but nothing below 55. I was so afraid of killing it.

I used to throw potato peels and coffee grounds, egg shells and such in my gardens, but then they weren't breaking down fast enough, so I stopped that. I get horse manure from my mom because I know she feeds her horses well. :) And then I buy some composted cow manure and til it all under. I'm not into the "don't til" method. We tried that at my aunt's house. Nothing had been planted there and everyone said not to til it, just dig a hole and plant. So I laid plastic down, dug a whole and planted some things, and they did absolutely horrible. Meanwhile, I planted the same plants in my gardens and they did great. Go figure. I guess when something works for you, stick with it! "If it isn't broke, don't fix it!"

So where have you been reading about the famring techniques, etc.? I try to rotate my "crops" each year, but I live in the city, so sometimes that's hard for me to always do. You do the best with what you've got, right?! ;-) I use every space of my yard as best I can. Friends and family are always amazed with how much I grow, but I've been doing it for so long that I don't really find it all that amazing. I usually want to do MORE! Ah, we gardeners....it's just never enough....

Thank you Alicia, and as to the citrus and cold citrus is a winter fruit and needs a bit of cold it can handle going to about 35 as long as its not for long. I am originally from Fl and the citrus growers only panic if its going below 35 and its gonna be there for several hours. Now last year I left mine out and it went below that overnight I think it was about 30 for maybe 5 hours and I did notice some damage to a few leaves and I brought it inside, clipped those leaves and its just fine.

well theres tons out there to read and i am always researching plants and different gardening/farming /horticulture techniques...heres a few interesting ones, if you google or check out some of the newer books, theres a lot out there right now about different kinds of farming, permaculture, "natural farming" either from
Fukuoka or the more technical and precise methods of korean or thai "natural farming"

some more to check out:

https://seedzen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/masanobu-fukuoka-the-one-straw-revolution.pdf

https://seedzen.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/the-natural-farming-of-vegetables/

http://www.kalapanaorganics.com/natural-farming-with-indigenous-microorganisms/

Thank you for all the info, both of you! And I'll have to take a look at those Web sites for natural farming techniques. I'm always trying to expand my garden and learn new things. It's amazing what all is out there. I was just looking up how to grow these Chia seeds I got in a trade. LOL They're supposed to be super healthy! I'm borderline with my cholesterol, so if I can control things by eating better, I'm going for it!

i personally do not till and havent for a very long time, but i am also not afraid to get in with a shovel or broadfork and break up the soil now and again either. the ground likes to be lumpy and not be compacted, so i am not completely against any form of digging into the soil...just tilling every year is far from neccessary, and can be quite detremental long term, while seeming to work well in the short term.

if i actually had good topsoil at any of the places i had lived in the last dozen years or whatever...maybe i wouldve done some light tilling, or something like tilling but gentler......but it tends to be that most places i live have not great soil/clay/silt/rocks and heavily compacted and such....so i already have to create soil by additions of truckloads of mulch/straw/woodchips/biochar/bagged soil...or whatever else i can get...so might as well do some lasagna gardening, and build up on top of the soil.

lasagna gardens, sheet mulching and working in this way...well for me it was like once i figured this out...i wished thats what i had been doing all those years before because its so much easier and better....

the thing about many of these methods, is that contrary to "normal" current practices for growing things, they do not always show immediate results and can take a couple of years + to really start to make sense and work well. another thing is it really takes tons and tons of mulching materials...for most of these sort of "alternative" methods to work well...ideally you mulch the beds every few months...to keep feeding them and building up layers...

That sounds interesting. I'm fortunate to have nice soil where I live. My mom, on the other hand, does not. She has the orange-clayish soil in VA. I'm in PA, so mine is a dark and rich soil. I usually just turn the soil over with my spade. I have a small garden space, so it's doable. I do a lot of container gardening too, and I take out the top so many inches of soil and mix the old soil with some compost and put it back in and plant my veggies. Works well. But I'm always trying to read up on other methods to try and see what works best in the end, or if "my method" stops working, what will I do? So it's always good to have the knowledge base of other options out there. So thank you, again, for those links!

we have black soil here and pretty loose also

I guess we should really count our blessings, Fuzzy! It's amazing, though, what my mom and the neighboring farms can grow down there. Of coruse they all have horses and can amend their gardens a good bit with quality fertilizer! LOL I have no horses or cows, so I'm stuck with buying my compost at Agway. Sometimes I bring some of her composted manure back with me when we visit, but my husband hates it because we have to put the back rack on our Excursion to do it. I need a pickup so I can go to a local farmer and grab some good manure! :) My neighbors laugh at me and say I belong in the country, not the city.

Alicia

yeah horse and cow manure really make a difference on the garden i grew up in the country and know what that is like only lived in the city the last 7 years other than that always in the country

Now I have fairly good soil, I have noticed that I have some clay in it though. This is my first year on the property and I will be tilling my veggie garden bed. The guy next door told me that previous owners have had one, and I am going to use the same spot. He was telling me that about 5 years ago they brought in about 5 truck loads of cow manure and amended the bed pretty heavily. Then the house was rented and no one has planted there since. Most of the flower beds what I am going to do Is use a border of stones, lay down some garden soil then mulch later in the season after we get plants going well. The largest bed I am putting in this year will start under a huge maple so I don't want to till in that area at all. I live in the city but I am lucky in that we can actually have poultry, so by fall I plan to have chickens and then I will have more fertilizer :) Not to mention fresh eggs and even fresh chicken! Now unfortunately my back yard is not usable for gardening. I have 2 dogs that are addicted to digging so nothing would survive back there. And that leads me to a question, I have what I am pretty sure is a Peony coming up back there, can I move it now or should I wait till the fall?

well good luck on your new home and garden not sure about the peony as have heard both ways

So have I, and I am stumped. I may go ahead and move it because the dogs have access and I would hate for them to dig it up and kill it.

we moved some last spring and they did all right and we moved some this year and they are doing fine if you want them to bloom this year make sure you get a pretty good chunk of it and they say they will go ahead and bloom if you move when they first start popping up out of the ground so we tried it this year

Okay that sounds good, I have another one coming up along the south wall of my house and I may put them there. I plan to have Hibiscus along that wall so maybe I'll have a peony at each end I wish I knew what color they were. I guess I will just have to wait and see. There were actually very few plants on this property when I bought it. As old as it is that kinda surprised me.

okay sounds good and do you have any idea what color they are i am trying to find some

No idea what so ever, I will have to keep ya posted. I am actually hoping for pink, that would contrast nicely against my house, I have dinner plate hibiscus that are white with a pink eye, summer storm hibiscus and a red hibiscus that I am going to grow along there. Really can't do much more than that because of my property, so if they are pink it will add nice contrast.

yeah that would be really pretty

We never have goji berries our grocery stores around here ;..; I've only seen the juice for sale in health food stores. Is the fresh fruit the only form you'd get growable seeds from?

no, you dont often see them fresh, unless you happen to know someone who grows them. in stores you can find dried, dehydrated ones. they are a bit raisin like, and if you pop the seeds out of them you can start these. i havent tried this, but it should work out good, IMO. i have gotten some goji berry seeds in trades, many people keep them in the dried fruit to store them.
best to get ones that arent imported, because food import laws require foods to be irradiated. but probably if your local health food/whole foods type markets have them they are in dried form, in with whereever dried fruits are....

Oh okay, I didn't know if the viability of seed would be damaged by the drying process, but I'll try to find some of the fruit dried in the local health food stores to see if I can grow some of the seeds. One nursery catalog I had once was selling the actual plant, but I can't for the life of me remember which one. It's a very attractive bush in addition to having tasty, very healthy berries ^_^

yes its a cool plant! very hardy, i was reading some of these grow feral, without any assistance, which i like...

i have one growing for a while now. handled the winter like a champ and is really starting to get going now =) maybe soon i will be getting berries.