Updated 2018 June 30 –  We completed the full cycle journal on Kau Kee cutting to fruits and other observations. These plants continue to surprise while gifting us knowledge and food. As fresh berries were not available in our markets, we grew to share them with our family and neighbors. Last but not least, we can grow this herb in our tropical zone. Winter is not a factor to see fruits.

 

This journey has taught us that plants are quite adaptable as long as we understood their basic needs. It may take a longer time to adapt to our climate, but as long as they live, we had opportunities to learn.

How this journey began – 

October 17 2015 – I came across this post by Eddie Chua in our Facebook group, “SG Farming in Apartments” about his Goji stem cutting that has rooted in water.

As my mother loves Goji berries, I love to grow my own for her.

How to grow a wolfberry or Goji berry tree from cutting
Goji Berries and Kau Kee Chai (Photo: CN Herb)

There was not enough information online about how they start in 2015 and I wanted to find out more for this journal. The only way is to start from cutting or seeds.

There are 2 ways to grow this hardy perennial plant.

  1. By Seeds : Angie Wong, a member at Singapore Urban Gardening group (Facebook), shared how she germinated from Eu Yang Sang’s dried berries. Taken from the fridge, these were cut open for the seeds inside, and sowed directly on wet tissues.
    Grow goji berries
    Angie Wong  chose the plumpest ones from Eu Yang Sang’s dried berries.

    Goji berries seedlings
    Angie Wong – 6 days to germinate. These seedlings were 9 days old
  2. By Stem Cutting ( Eddie’s instructions: strip the stem of big leaves, cut the stem down and soak in water until roots appear)

For this Wolfberry/ Goji berry or Kau Kee trials, I begged Regina Fok who lived in the USA, to share her observations with me. 🙂 I wanted to see if winter chill is a factor required for this plant to bear berries. And hence, our rooting trials began in 2 countries in 2015.

Regina Fok’s Goji Berry Plant began in October 2015, in USA

Grow a goji berry tree from stem cutting
Oct 2015 – Regina Fok’s goji berry stems rooting in water
How to grow wolfberry plant from cutting
Regina Fok ‘s stem cutting has rooted in water

After her stem cuttings rooted in water, Regina Fok planted them in soil and they overwintered indoor in pots. The plants did not face the full elements of winter as young plants.

Gojiberry Wolfberry from cutting
May 10 2016 – Roots have outgrown the pot over the winter
Gojiberry from cutting
May 2016 – Regina Fok’s cutting planted in the ground once spring arrived!
Grow gojiberries from cutting
Gojiberries, Wolfberries flower buds are seen on Regina’s plant (USA)
Grow wolfberry plant
June 4 2016 – Regina’s plant flowered once it’s in the ground!
Gojiberries and wolfberries from cutting
October 2016 – Regina’s plants bore fruits!
Grow goji or Wolfberries
Nov 11 2016 – Vigorous grower!
Grow goji or Wolfberries
Nov 12 2016 – Not the first harvest!

Regina Fok’s plants did not need much care. In fact, she almost forgot about these plants in her garden, until she chanced upon them in October 2016, while clearing her garden for winter. For all her neglect, she was surprised to see the plants had grown well and even fruiting without adding fertilizers!

Grow goji or Wolfberries
Minimum care for hardy wolfberries plants!
Grow goji or Wolfberries
How wolfberries grow on plants!

Our wolfberry plants’ journey began on December 26 2015 in Singapore

Grow wolfberry or gojiberry from Cutting
Trimmed off Kau Kee (wet market in Toa Payoh) leaves and cut the stems shorter before rooting in water
How to grow Goji berry from cutting
Jan 6 2016 – Kau Kee /Goji berry/ Wolfberry cutting rooted in water (11days)

I learned from gardeners in Singapore that this plant can be planted in the soil directly without roots, and decided to do a comparative study on how having roots affect a plant’s growth.

Wolfberries from rooting

Plants with more roots mass will grow faster (PlantB).

Feb 10 2016 – Plant A
Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberry from Kau Kee cutting
Feb 10 2016 – Plant B had more leaves and was taller

Conclusion  – For any stem cutting that had “rooted”, it is best to plant in soil when there were good “roots mass” seen. This basically means a lot of white new roots in layman terms!  Plants were stronger faster compared to cuttings with less or no roots.How flowers start their journey! The dates are not in sequence as flowers bloom at the same time on both plants but hopefully, the pictures demonstrated how they formed. No commercial fertilizer was used to encourage flowering. These plants were grown in our own natural compost from recycled kitchen green waste! 🙂

Grow Wolfberries, gojiberries
October 30 2016 – First flower bud seen
Grow wolfberries, gojiberries or kau kee
Dec 04 2016 – More buds on the way
Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberries
Feb 01 2017 – Flowers and berries
Grow wolfberry from kau kee cutting
Jan 10 2017 – Lots of flowers but berries are still green
wolfberry flowers
Feb 28 2017
Grow wolfberries in Singapore
Flowers formed in clusters the older the plants grew (August 04 2017)
Grow wolfberries, gojiberries from cutting
Dec 10 2016 – Isn’t this cute? Just before the flower bloom fully.
Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberry from Kau Kee Cutting
Feb 17 2017
Grow wolfberries, gojiberries from cutting
Dec 12 2016 – more flowers bloom at the same time
Grow gojiberries, Kau Kee, Wolberries
November 11 2016 – Flower coming out from bud.
Grow wolfberries , gojiberries and kau kee
SG Kau Kee Flowers – Do they look the same as Regina’s USA wolfberries flowers?
Grow wolfberries, gojiberries from cutting
Dec 12 2016 – Not the same shade of purple in the flowers
Wolfberry from Kau Kee cutting
Jan 11 2017
Grow wolfberries, gojiberries from cutting
After the flower bloom, the petals turned dried and dropped off
Wolfberry or Gojiberry fruiting stages
February 25 2017 – Fruiting begin

Flowers and fruits on its own without much human aid. These are very hardy plants, drought resistant and did not need fertilizer.

Wolfberries began fruiting journey!

Grow wolfberry and gojiberries from cutting
Jan 27 2017 – Small green berries first after flowers self pollinated
Grow gojiberry n wolfberry in Singapore
March 24 2017 – It took about 4 months from green berries stage to fully ripen red state.
Growing wolfberry or gojiberries in Singapore
February 28 2017 – Vigorous fruiting, heat tolerant
Grow wolfberries, gojiberries from cutting
A green berry gaining weight finally! Hopefully they turned red soon
Grow wolfberry or Gojiberry from cutting
Jan 19 2017
Grow Wolfberry or Goji Cutting
Jan 31 2017 – Slowly but surely, the berries are turning red (been 5 months since it was a small berry)
Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberry from Kau Kee Cutting
Wolfberry
Grow wolfberry and gojiberry
Feb 18 2017 – Fresh Wolfberry is Juicy! 🙂
Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberries
Feb 01 2017 – Gifted my mom with the first berry.

Seeds Journey – our seeds were harvested from our plants and sowed on February 18 2017. Out of 3 seeds from above fruit, only two germinated on February 28 (10 days) . Another learning opportunity has began!

Grow wolfberry or gojiberry
Feb 18 2017 – Sowing seeds from our fresh wolfberry
Grow wolfberry or gojiberry
February 28 2017 – Germinated !!
Grow wolfberry or gojiberry from seeds
March 1 2017 – hopefully a strong plant
Germinating fresh Wolfberry seed
Length of germinated seed is about 2 cm. Roots had not emerged.
Grow wolfberry or gojiberry from seeds
March 26 2017 – 2 days to 1 month old seedling!
Growing wolfberry or gojiberries in Singapore
June 04 2017 – seedling grows very fast
Growing wolfberry or gojiberries in Singapore
June 04 2017 – Seedling planted in outdoor garden

Seeds grown seedlings are slower. However it has brunch out from one stem and is steadily growing up! 🙂

Grow wolfberries gojiberries from Kau Kee cutting
Dec 23 2017 – 9 months old wolfberry seedling

Difference between leaf and flowers buds

Grow wolfberries Gojiberries from cutting
Leaf bud

Leaf buds are thicker and usually formed at the tip of the stem. Whereas Flowers buds are smaller and formed at the joint between developed leaves (see below).

Grow wolfberries Gojiberries from cutting
Flowers bud (Feb 2017)

As small flowers buds matured, they became swollen and a tint of purple showed.

Grow wolfberry gojiberry in Singapore
Hint of purple

What happened after fruiting? 

Leaves will drop until the whole plant was devoid of leaves. Some fruits still remained until they too dried on the stem and dropped as well. This is how the plant looked after fruiting is done.

 

Grow wolfberry gojiberry in Singapore
Bare plant!

They remained in this dormant stage for 3 months.

When the plants revived from dormant stage, another observation were made on –

  1. un-pruned (did not trimmed dry stems, left bare stems on)
  2. pruned (cut away dry stems) plants

To my surprise, the one with stems un-pruned grew flowers first, straight from bare and dry stems! For both pots, I added only compost from my bins and mulched with dried leaves as usual.

Grow wolfberries gojiberries from cutting
2017 Nov 18 new flower out of bare stem
  1. Flower buds were spotted first on the un-pruned plant. Tip – Keep the bare stems! Don’t prune them, continue to feed the soil!
Grow wolfberry gojiberry in Singapore
Nov 17 2017 – plants awakening
Grow wolfberry gojiberry in Singapore
Nov 18 2017 – Flower bud seen from bare stem
Grow wolfberries gojiberries from cutting or seeds
Nov 17 2017 – Flower buds appeared from bare stem
Grow wolfberries gojiberries from Kau Kee cutting
NOv 21 2017 – Flower and fruit from a bare stem

On bare dry stems (un-pruned), it can re-grow this way as well. New shoots grew straight from wooden stems. Thus, this plant will be taller. Tip – Need support, grow near wall or fence.

Growing wolfberry or gojiberry in Singapore
June 10 2017 – New growth on the woody stem

2) On pruned plant, where bare stems were trimmed, new shoots grew first. Flowers were slower to show. This plant had more leaves than the un-pruned plant.

Grow wolfberry gojiberry in Singapore
Pruned plant re-grew shoots
Grow wolfberries gojiberries from seeds
No thorns on new shoots
Grow wolfberry gojiberry in Singapore
Flowers buds showed later than plants with bare stems intact

Pruned plant grew new shoots and have more leaves, thus they looked lush compared to the bare/untrimmed plant on the left. However, its the latter that will show flowers first!

Grow wolfberries gojiberries from cutting
Unpruned (left) vs Pruned plant (right)

2018 Journal

wolfberry in Singapore
2018 January 22

 

Reflection on parent plants’ journey in 2015 – Looking back now I was amazed by how much the plants grow ! The cuttings showed roots after 11 days, on January 06 2016 (started on December 26 2015) . These were how they looked on the first day of being planted, a short stalk with few leaves! Tip – Need to be individually potted in wide and deep pot or best grounded! 

Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberry from Kau Kee cutting
January 13 2016 – Journey to find answers began!
Grow goji or Wolfberries
Nov 11 2016 – Pruned it often to encourage a bushier growth
Grow wolfberries, gojiberries or kau kee
Dec 04 2016 – DIY a steel cage to support the plant, else the stems keep flopping to the ground
Grow wolfberry or gojiberry from cutting
Jan 31 2017 –  Plant B , tied long stems to the steel frame
Wolfberry from Kau Kee cutting
Jan 20 2017 – This steel frame work well to support the plant
Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberry from Kau Kee cutting
Jan 17 2017 – Plant A, slower to flower

The more the plants are pruned, meaning cutting away stems while harvesting for leaves, they get bushier. These plants gave me lots of leaves for cooking as I grew them.

Grow wolfberries gojiberries from cutting
2016 December 02
Grow Wolfberry or Gojiberry from Kau Kee Cutting
Feb 17 2017 – Plants are grown in own compost from kitchen green waste and dried leaves.

Neglect may be the key to get it to flower, meaning don’t harvest as often when its near the one year mark. Let the stems get woody. These plants are best grown in the ground, but if this is not possible, in the biggest pot you can find. 🙂

2019 January 19 – New Beginning

We tried to reuse our wolfberry’s pots for vegetables when the dormancy stage extends beyond four months in October 2018. All the stems were pruned hard and only bald stumps remained in December. We thought that the wolfberry plants would not be revived and hence, hydro vegetables such as kale were transferred here as they managed to adapt to soil.

Much to our surprise, these bald stumps showed leaves and our wolfberry’s journey began a new phase.

Grow wolfberry Gojiberries from Kau Kee cutting in Singapore
New leaves

CONCLUSION KAU KEE is a variety in wolfberry family

It took 10 months from cutting to see flowers.

5 months from successful (natural) pollination to full red berry stage.

The taste of fresh wolfberry is medicinal and texture is seedy. 🙂

The Berries of Goji and Kau Kee Plants:

Both the berries and the leaves are edible.

It is considered a good herb for improving eye sight .

The berries are often sold in dried form like these :

Grow goji berries, wolfberries from seeds and cutting in Singapore
Dried Goji or Wolfberries

 

Annie Lim from Perth, Australia, said her Goji berry plant grew like weeds in her garden. They are about a meter high and potted instead of in the ground. Some support would be required when there are fruits, otherwise, they will bend over. This is a hardy plant, no matter how much was pruned, this plant would rebound even more.

This plant is hardy as it can tolerate winter temperature, summer heat, and drought conditions. It is also a native plant of Tibet.

Fresh everlasting wolfberries on tree:

Fresh wolfberries on tree
This is what Gojiberries and wolfberries tree look like! Thanks to Ms. Peck (USA), I finally get to see one
Grow wolfberries
Potted Gojiberry plant in Perth Australia (Annie Lim)

Annie Lim also shared that this plant loved the sun and should be able to thrive in Singapore.

How to prepare Gojiberry/ Wolfberry/ Kau Kee stems for Propagating –

  1. Stripped off leaves and mind the thorns while handling this stem
  2. Trim down the length of the stem
  3. Place stems in water until roots appeared (In Singapore’s experiment, about 11 days)
Grow Wolfberry
Regina Fok preparing her Goji berry stems for propagation

 

The leaves are sold in supermarkets and Singapore wet markets. It is good to know the Chinese name for this plant : 枸杞菜   (Ms. Wisteria Lesley ,Urban Farmers Singapore, November 5 2015, said the proper name of this vegetables is this. Package one was wrongly typed ! )

Grow gojiberry plants from stems
Goji berry stems in Singapore are sold like this or fresh stem cutting in markets. People used the leaves for soup

The leaves are often cooked as a nourishing soup with pork and beaten egg :

The leaves have a smooth silky texture when its cooked.
The leaves have a smooth silky texture after its cooked.

Ms. Regina Fok, who is based in the USA and I will be sharing our data on this progress.

It would be interesting to find out if winter is a factor in producing berries for this plant.

Answer one year later (2016)  – Winter is not a factor for flowers! 🙂

Information :

  • Full Sun
  • Water well during hot weather and after transplant
  • 10 – 12 inches soil depth
  • Wide pot to give its roots some room, but best in ground with compost.
  • Matured plant is 8 to 10 feet tall
Grow wolfberries goji from cutting
Wolfberry

2019 NEW Variety – Black Goji

Our seeds were sowed on September 8, 2019, at 3 pm and one germinated on the 11th out of 10 seeds. The market price for the black goji is about 10 times more expensive than the red varieties.

Grow Black Goji berries from seeds in Singapore
2019 September 11
Grow goji , wolfberry varieties from seeds or cutting in Singapore
2019 September 16

We are also attempting in hydro and soil to observe how they grew.

Grow goji , wolfberry varieties from seeds or cutting in Singapore
2019 September 21 – Hydro

Updates to follow.

 

 

16 thoughts on “Wolfberries / Goji Berries/ KAU KEE Plant”

  1. Thank you very much for the article, hopefully my stem will grow into big bushes 😊

  2. Hi, Victoria.
    I am Lee from Indonesia.
    I have been interesting to grow a wolfberry / goji berry by my self.
    But I cannot find any place in Indonesia that sell goji berry trees.
    Well some of the nurseries do sell seeds, but I prefer to grow it from small trees,
    it would be excellent to grow it starting from small trees that is propagated from cutting or grafting or air layering.
    Could you provide me some information about how to get goji berry trees?
    Is there any nursery in Singapore or Malaysia that sell this tree ?
    I saw there are some nursery in US or Australia that sell goji berry tree, but
    if I can buy from Singapore or Malaysia, it would be faster because it’s much
    nearer, and the shipping cost would surely be cheaper.
    Thank’s before.

    Sincerely,

    Lee

    1. Hi,

      Its very hard from seeds. I have been trying to germinate goji seeds from Tibet, and still nothing is happening. From my experience, cutting from live plant is easier (as shown in my blog), and yet it still take a year to flower. I will wait a bit before letting you know if I can sell you cutting because my berries have not turned red yet. There are posts in my group about plants available for sale in Malaysia. You may like to check in Facebook, “SG Farming in Apartments”, “Urban Farmers Singapore” etc for such posts. I can also get you in touch with friends who may be selling these plants.

      1. Hi SG strawberries, do you have goji stems for sale. I am interested to try growing goji. Hope to hear from you soon. I am living in Singapore.

  3. I saw a goji cutting picture and there I saw SG farming in apartments! Super awesome article to read and much props! I started a few Goji plants my self and now I have a few hundred and am aiming for thousands next. I do not have Facebook or any other network but I would recommend and will pass on the word to check out SG Apartment Farming!

    Cooper

  4. Hi Vic,
    I am living in Perth WA. I would like to be connected with Annie Lim (that you mentioned in your post) who had successfully planted gojiberry plants. I would love to “kick-start” some plants from her if I can.
    Please can you kindly connect me to her? Thanks a million.

    1. Hi Grace, my plants are in dormant ( sleeping) stage at the moment, so cutting may not be good. In Hort Park’s Garden events or local nurseries, there maybe established plants for sale, thus no need to start from cutting.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.