Hi All,

My four goji bushes are prolific. The
fruit, although slightly sweet, is not
so popular with us as it is also slightly bitter.
I left 99% last years crop on the bush.

I am told that drying the fruit gets rid of
the bitterness. And since I do not know
how to properly dry them ....

This year, all four were attached by aphids.
70% of the leaves were killed.

So I pruned the hell out of the bushes
(anything that looked dead or sick),
sprayed for aphids (dish soup and cayenne
powder), and killed off the ants (honey
and borax).

The goji initially looked like they sincerely
did not appreciate the aggressive pruning.
But after about a month, they came back with
a vengeance.

Interesting, the fruit no longer has a bitter
taste and have become popular.

Hmmmmmmmmmm. Prune them every year perhaps?
Prune them in the winter?

Your thoughts?

-T

T wrote:
....
> Hmmmmmmmmmm. Prune them every year perhaps?
> Prune them in the winter?
>
> Your thoughts?

maybe you stumbled upon some deficiency which you
happened to correct by what you added. impossible
to know for sure without tests before and after and
more precise record keeping (don't worry i don't
really do that either since i rarely amend the
gardens here with anything other than worm compost
and various other organic materials).

keep observing and thinking and if you can start
keeping a notebook about what you plant and what
you do to it. sometimes years later you go back
and look at those notes and can tell where you may
have messed up or helped. :)

note that since your pots do not get appreciably
larger each season that pruning some of the shrubby
plants will probably be a good idea, but you do
want to know for each species what the reasonable
time and technique. especially for fruit bushes
since a bad prune job may ruin your next season's
fruit production.

songbird

On 9/21/23 14:00, songbird wrote:

Thank you!

> especially for fruit bushes
> since a bad prune job may ruin your next season's
> fruit production.

I am scared to prune my blackberries as last years
growth in this years berries. I just wait for
them to fall off.