Hello everyone,
I’m new to growing goumi and currently only have carmine. I’ve read the carmine variety specifically does not have thorns, can anyone confirm this? Mine appears to have a couple.
In addition, is anyone growing their goumi in a shady area? Are they still productive?
Thanks!
Mines been in the ground for 1 season, and I didn’t see any thorns on it. Where did you get yours from ? Mines in full sun.
I think they need at least 6 hours of sun ? Someone correct me if I’m wrong
I have 2 tilamook Goumi (same as carmine). never seen a single thorn on it. do you have a picture of the thorns you found?
Mine are both in full sun, so I don’t have any info on shade tolerance personally.
Shoot, I got mine from burnt ridge. Which is surprising that it would be incorrect due to them being the original re-namer of carmine. I won’t be able to get a picture until Tuesday. Thank you for the reply!
This is mine from April 24th. forming fruit already. got mine from Whitman too
No thorns on mine.
Thank you all for the pictures!
What kind of mesh/steel fencing are you using for protection by the way?
They are surrounded by a ring of hardware cloth. You can see it a bit better in this post. The rings around my goumi bushes are sections of 10 ft long by 4 ft tall fence attached to a t-post opposite of bamboo post via reusable zip ties. It keeps the deer off them. The deer don’t bother them as much as some of my other things but they will still tip them if they get the opportunity. Also, since the hardware cloth has very small holes, if I take a bit of bug netting and put it over the top, it will keep birds out from getting the fruit when it does ripen.
I’m growing Sweet Scarlet, Red Gem, and Tillamook/Carmine. No thorns on my Carmine. It was in deep shade and growing slowly without producing any fruit. I moved it to part shade with my other two shrubs last winter and it is now producing a little and growing. The other two are producing big crops, but the other two are a bit older and were better situated than my Tillamook, so I think it should catch up soon and start producing like them. Bottom line: goumi is more shade tolerant than most fruiting shrubs, in my experience.
Got mine from OGW in 2020… red gem, sweet scarlet… with grafts of carmine and raintree select added.
Mine have thorns…some 2 inch long or more.
Those thorns were on RG SS.
The last 3 pics are 2 grafts and a successful air layer of carmine… and I see no thorns on them.
TNHunter
Hey I just got my order of carmine goumi from burnt ridge as well and it seems to have thorns. Did you reach out to them already to resolve this?
Just trying to be helpful: Elaeagnus multiflora, the species that includes Carmine, has no thorns. Elaeagnus umbellata (Autumn olive) is reported to sometimes have small spurs. Elaeagnus angustiflolia (Russian olive) is reported to have sharp thorns. Elaeagnus pungens is reportedly to be very thorny.
This suggests the possibility that Carmine has been grafted to a thorny cousin, then the thorny variety was allowed to grow.
One of my goumi berries, don’t remember which one, either Sweet Scarlet or Red Gem but not Tillamook, has thorns. So I think multiflora does have thorns in some cultivars.
I’ve read that sometimes seedlings are sold as clones. The seedlings can have more primitive characteristics (e.g., thorns).
Thank you for the great pictures, unfortunately my plant has thorns that look identical to yours. There must have been a shipping error.
No, I wanted to confirm first but now that its clear that this is not carmine, I will be letting them know. Also I called up Lucile from Whitman Farms (the original seller of carmine aka tillamook), she still has them available as of today so I got one from her.
