My sweet scarlet ripened last… and finished fruiting a week or so ago.
I have no goumies left.
Plenty of raspberries, blueberries, mulberries and soon will have blackberries… illini start ripening here mid May.
TNHunter
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The birds empty out my RG first then go to SS.
I had fruit of Moniz, Carmine, Red Gem, & Sweet Scarlet this year. Last year I basically only had Sweet Scarlet, which is my longest in-ground bush.
Moniz was probably just slightly larger than the Carmine above, but the birds (or something) liked them well enough very few got ripe and none seem to have hit the ground. That was my very last Carmine, with no sign that any hit the ground.
The Red Gem here were my first fruit on the bush, which does not look to be doing so very well, so I suspect the fruit is not representative. Quie a few hi the ground, but the size means quite a few were eaten fast by whoever discovered them.
Sweet Scarlet is covered this year, and it is obvious that wildlife is testing them on the bush for their desired ripeness. Those that get taken whole that do not make the grade were dropped in a radius of 10 - 30 feet, often from the stakes of other nearby shrubs and saplings. One breed of bird I have not noticed before likes them enough that he kept hitting the bush on the opposite side I was on. He did not care for hissing noises.
Moniz above. Largest leaves, relatively vigorous this year, but didn’t grow much the first year in ground. A little shade, but I don’t think it qualifies as “partial”, it is the closest to the woods and the only one behind the house. I think it still qualifies as my favorite that I’ve tasted. Nuts inside the seed are big enough to stand on their own, but the shell of the seed is very fibrous.
Sweet Scarlet above. Very dense grower. Went from almost no fruit to hundreds in one year. Absolutely has thorns (see below), but is the only Elaeagnus I have that does. Still young.
Two different Carmine. The one in the open is on Red Gem, which still offers a couple stems.
Red Gem. This one is struggling, but it was still a decent fruit year for a first fruit. The fruits were disposed to shrivelling and had more insect interest than the others. I had an Ebingii (sp?) in this same row last year that didn’t make the winter, but I planted this this year. I’m hopeful the competition to put down roots and maintain its fruit has just left it a bit hungry and it’ll bounce back once the fruit is gone. Definitely a bird favorite.
Thorns in Sweet Scarlet. They may proved to be paired with young growth, but they were often 1 - 2" long. Definitely spur thorns. They don’t need a lot of encouragement to take blood. They are usually the darkest wood, but Goumi seem disposed to a variety of wood types. I look forward to seeing it as it matures. Fruit seems to be on any type of wood except the softest green wood.
Flavor was similar with all, but I had more astringency out of everything last year. Sweet Scarlet was the most astringent this year, but I didn’t really get a pucker factor from anything without trying to specifically get an underripe berry.
I liked the juiciness of the bigger berries (Carmine & Moniz) best and I really liked the flavor of the nut in all of them - something between a pine nut and a mild-walnut flavor, but only the bigger ones left me chunks to savor outside of the pulp, but I could only ignore the fibrousness in the smaller berries ( SS & RG). I have not processed in any way, but I think the smaller types would work well whole in muffins or salads, just as Autumn Olives do. The bigger ones could garnish a drink or salad, but I suspect most would not appreciate the seed.
Next year I may get to add Pippi to my savor, but as they are assorted small grafts on assorted stock, I will have to race the wildlife or bag them. I expect they’ll put on plenty of growth, but they don’t have a bush of their own yet.
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I didn’t know the sweet scarlet had thorns! Thanks for saying so… now I won’t get one. I have several red gems and they taste good, but they’re really small so I was thinking of getting something with bigger fruit.
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I’d suggest getting Tillamook from Lucille, larger fruit and I haven’t seen any thorns on it at all.
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He already has the so called “Tillamook.” He’s just using the assigned cultivar name for it which is ‘Carmine.’
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I was referring to @LarisaLee post. Did they mention they already had Tillamook/carmine? If so my bad !
Sorry, I misunderstood who you were replying too.
Just got my Tilamook from Lucile. Glad I looked out my front door before leaving for work!
They look pretty attractive! Packaged nicely, too.
I’ll have to plant tomorrow morning.
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My Gourmi fruit has to be dead ripen with deep red color before I can eat them they tasted bitter.
Yony
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Did you mean astringent/tannic? I’ve eaten plenty of goumi under-ripe and “bitter” is never something I’ve associated with them.
I noticed a lot of people don’t differentiate between bitter, sour and astringent though and that makes conversations about fruit confusing since the three flavor categories actually do produce a different effect on the taste buds.
A good reference taste for bitter would be dandelion, or chicory greens. Among fruit, grapefruit has a little bit of bitterness (not to be confused with the little bit of sour/tart flavor it also has).
A good reference for astringent would be walnuts, black tea, Aronia or goumi, where they leave kind of a slightly dry or rough feel on the tongue.
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In addition to the carefree production of tons of fruit, it flowers earlier than most other fruit trees here in Salem, OR, and the bees swarm all over it.
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I am excited to smell the flowers from the descriptions here.
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They remind me of lilacs
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Are the roots very invasive/destructive? I’m thinking about putting the two I just got on either side of the steps to the front porch of my house.
@Mtncj … a few others have posted pics of their red gem being smaller than sweet scarlet… like you did.
Almost all… perhaps all … have said that their red gem ripens before sweet scarlet.
In my case my red gem ripens first… around May 1… and my sweet scarlet is my last goumi to ripen… 2-3 weeks later.
But my red gem is a good sized berry… almost 2x the size of sweet scarlet.
Not hardly as big as carmine.
My red gem seems to be one of the earliest ripening goumis… and much larger berry than others I have seen posted.
It is sweeter than carmine… similar to sweet scarlet in flavor and sweetness.
TNHunter
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I went ahead and planted them at the spot in question. 
These babies had AMAZING roots. Not bound up at all, fresh looking. I’m excited!
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Interesting! For me, this is reversed. I have a Carmine branch grafted to Sweet Scarlet. The Sweet Scarlet fruit always ripen 2-3 weeks before Carmine.
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I had the same reaction about astringent vs bitter. And my working definitions are consistent with what you’ve posted.
Its hard to learn the terms because people use them differently.
Especially confusing is that person to person we have different responses to whether some particular compounds are bitter (the bitter we’re talking about, not the more general use for all sorts of unpleasant or different sensations).
I didn’t learn about astringency until I was adult. And of course many foods have the different flavors in varying combinations. Like grapefruit is bitter and sour, black coffee is astringent and bitter as well as sometimes sour.
I tend to not mind astringency much, and sometimes look forward to it in moderation. And it seems to have an characteristic similar to capsaicin in that once my mouth is coated with it, more of it doesn’t really change the sensation much. The first one tastes astringent and subsequent ones are in harmony with the condition of my mouth, and hence don’t seem so astringent.
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