JC Raulston Arboretum appears to have Elaeagnus multiflora ‘Bikkuri Gumi’ which I think is Elaeagnus multiflora var. hortensis cv. Gigantea or Daioh-gumi? (ビックリグミ (Elaeagnus multiflora var. hortensis cv. Gigantea)).
Maybe worth asking Cricket hill garden if they can grow out some on their own roots?
Despite one of the driest springs in recent Austrian history, goumi production is absolutely crazy! To be fair, the fruits are smaller than in years with more spring rainfall. Still, drought and even late frosts—we had two this year—don’t seem to bother this amazing species at all.
Save some seeds from each! 
So on Sunday I took a quick look at some of my seedlings and thought some of you might find it interesting.
Last year, I met Adèle Pautrat and Natasha Foote from The Agricultural and Rural Convention (ARC2020) at the LLD Forum in Luxembourg.
I may have infected them with my curiosity about Elaeagnus multiflora. This year, they contacted me, remembering my story about the Ukrainian goumi cultivars I had received before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A few weeks ago, they visited my goumi colleague Pierre Barbieux at his orchard, Bois de Rode Bos, near Brussels. There, they finally had their first encounter with the goumi berry, and Adèle wrote an extraordinarily lovely article about it.
Nice video comparing several of the USA-available varieties of goumi.
Edit, the original link doesn’t seem to be working. Let’s try this one:
Nice find! Seems like Chorus might be a good proxy for Daigoumi. I wonder how Wang bo compares weight wise.
Based on his stats, I’d say he has must have gotten a random seedling under the name ‘Carmine’ instead of the real clone. Fortunately he still has the real thing under the alternate name ‘Tillamook’. The true ‘Carmine’ is only a little smaller than ‘Pippi’. That said, fruit size can vary on any variety depending on vigor, so I hope he’ll get each variety growing on its own roots eventually since comparing fruits grown on grafted branches won’t always give accurate results depending on where the graft is located on the bush.
My (sweet scarlet) goumi was getting swallowed up by a (Jumbo) kiwi vine. I did some cutting back to keep it in control and this uncovered about half the goumi bush. I harvested the last of the goumi this week (with a stray berry or two left for the birds). This morning I noticed that the branches I uncovered from below the kiwi vines have buds swelling all along the branches.
Looks like I may have a second goumi harvest this summer.
Some of my Goumi seedlings, various crosses from Austrian fruit nut. Let’s see how they turn out, maybe we get a new good variety from them. I am going to plant 30 seedlings next year
Good job with the germination! Do you have an orchard layout/spacing in mind for the 30 seedlings? I’m interested to hear your thoughts because I’d like to do a similar number, and if you give them enough room to grow to full size it would take up too much space. Do you have criteria for selecting a new variety?
They will be planted in a straight line with 2m spacing.
Selecting for fruit size, yield, growth habit I guess? I am not (yet) really a breeder haha
And in the grand scheme of things, 30 is still a tiny sample size
I think these are all crosses with Daiougoumi which (at least from what i have heard since my 2 plants died) is still the absolute champion in regards to fruit size, but doesn’t have the best yield
Germination is really easy, seeds were washed and sent to me after harvest and then sowed instantly.
Another good method I used last year on some of my own seeds (Amelanchier and Elaeagnus species) was filling a zip lock bag half full with peat or a bagged soil with high peat content (I used cutting medium for that since that was the soil with the highest peat content I had available) and then just pouring the seeds into it and spray it with the tiniest amount of water.
Then those bags were left in a (protected) outdoor shelf at my toolshed from last summer all the way until this march or April when I poured the content into germination trays. Worked like a charm
If you are really going for selecting, you can even plant them closer. 1,5m is fine then.
If you are growing for fruit I would recommend at least 3 metres.
Happy to see that the seedlings are thriving.
Yes yield is a factor as they are going to be part of my small urban u-pick, where I am trying to diversify into rare/new fruit. But everything at this place needs to be multifunctional because space is limited so these are also going to be an attempt at selecting varieties and also propagation mother plants
I am still considering the exact spacing…
How do mature plants take replanting?
Maybe I could start with 1,50m and then move every 2nd plant in 5 years
I’m thinking through the same issues. I have a nice 75 ft x 10 ft strip ready for seedlings. I probably don’t want more than 2 rows, so they’d have 5 ft in that direction, but for spacing within a row I could do 25 plants x 3 ft or 15 plants x 5 ft or some other number in between.
I’ve dug up and moved feral autumn olives - with my limited experience they transplant fine at any size as long as you’re not trying to transplant and graft at the same time.
I’ve got a dozen or so seedlings of Wang Bo that I’m planning to put between my orchard trees that are on 15’ spacing. I figure it could get crowded eventually but I should be able to keep it pruned. How does that sound to you all?
My only fruiting bush is a Red Gem that now has Wang Bo and Chorus grafts on it. Hoping eventually I can get something that has RG’s flavor but with some size!
I think it will require some pruning. No reason you can’t make it work though!
Our orchard is 19 ft spacing between fruit trees of various species. I’m sure it will require pruning to have good airflow when the goumis in between them get big.
Here are my goumi seeds, that i recieved from Andreas (Austrian_FruitNut). I keep them in moist sand in a shaded place. Next year I hope i’ll have some seedlings!
The Polish nursery Carya, the original importer of Daiougoumi in the EU, is now officially selling the cultivar. Unfortunately, it seems they have renamed and licensed it. They are also offering their own selected seedlings.
