Content
- Harvest home-grown goji berries
- The right time for the harvest
- Care and cutting facilitate the harvest
- Enjoy goji berries after harvest in different ways
- Tips
Goji berries are harvested in the fall
Harvest home-grown goji berries
Unfortunately, many imported goji berries are contaminated with pesticides and other pollutants, and the berry, which is especially valued in Asia, is now also widely grown in Germany. With the right plant variety you can look forward to the first harvest from your own garden, even on barren soils.
The right time for the harvest
Goji berries usually bear fruit in a sunny and warm location, usually around three years old. If a buckthorn shrub does not bloom at all, then the plant is usually either too young or it is the offspring of a poorly fructifying wild variety. After flowering, it will take about until August or September until the orange-red luminescent fruits are ripe for harvest. In general, these should not be picked too early from the bush, so that the slightly bitter and sometimes bitter-tasting berries at least get some sweetness. Late maturing goji berries should be harvested before the first night frosts are expected in autumn.
Care and cutting facilitate the harvest
The so-called Bocksdorn or Teufelszwist is not popular with all hobby gardeners because of its expansive habit. Several specimens should be planted in the garden bed with a sufficient distance from each other and prevented by barriers such as a rhizome barrier from an uncontrolled proliferation. Goji berries should be cut back regularly, otherwise they tend to form very long, overhanging branches. The long shoots can also be tied up like blackberries and raspberries, which later makes it easier to harvest the ripe berries.
Enjoy goji berries after harvest in different ways
Goji berries can be eaten in different ways:
Goji berries should be picked gently from the shrub for fresh consumption. For reasons of appearance and durability, it may also make sense to pick the berries along with the green stems and remove them only when they are consumed. You must be less careful when the berries are processed into juice or dried anyway.
Tips
As a rule, not all goji berries on a shrub become ripe at the same time. You can therefore harvest them with a time delay as soon as the respective fruits are perceived as sufficiently mature by their color and consistency.