I've grown goji in the past, but had to leave them behind in a move several years ago, and recently decided to obtain new plants. Turns out I could get 20+ cuttings for less than a single rooted one, so I decided to give it a go. Ordered a bundle of 25 cuttings, shipped with no leaves. Have never done goji cuttings before, but I've rooted other things, so I figured I could manage, and the price was low enough to be willing to risk failure.
It's been 3 weeks since I started my batch of goji cuttings. They're in clear cups filled with a mix of mulch, peat and vermiculite in a humidity box, and now about half are budding and flowering. All have rooted, a few even growing roots out the drain holes in the cups. The ones with flowers have also pushed a good 5 inches of new stems as well.
Should I let them flower, or should I pinch the buds off to try and force more root growth at this point? Will it matter?
If they were slower rooting or just barely growing, I wouldn't even think to let them fruit so soon, but they are growing probably 4x as fast as the grapes I started a week before, and 2x or 3x as fast as the figs. I'm honestly impressed with how rapid the rooting and growth has been by comparison to other shrubs and trees I've worked with.
Also, at the rate these are going, why are commercial nurseries not churning out mounds of cheaply priced goji plants for all the big box stores? I feel there could be a lot of cash made very quickly by growers here. I mean, I coughed up $25 each for my 1g goji plants before...just saying...