same with me, just one goumi (same variety from BR) and I get fruit each year.
Interestingly enough, I also have 2 autumn olives (a supposedly heavy fruiting one from oikos and a yellow one from Hidden Springs). They are less than 20 feet apart (with the goumi about the same distance away and another eleagnus 40 feet away). I rarely get more than a handful of fruit from the two bushes. (just poor fruit setting).
All three plants are well over a decade old.
interesting. autumn olives fruit so profusely here most years that they can be harvested by holding a bucket under a branch and running your hand crudely over the length of said branch. “picking” is not an appropriate verb.
I don’t recall seeing blooms on my goumi bushes at all this year, but Moniz has some little fruitlets forming. It is likely my oldest, although not my newest. My Autumn Olives are loaded with blooms right now, and possibly my couple of Pippi grafted onto them. But the AOs are definitely my most mature in the genus and this promising to be their best year. I wish their fruits were bigger. Hopefully the other goumi (RG, SS, & Carmine) also have fruitlets and I just missed them. It’d be their first fruiting.
Here’s a glimpse of the AO:
Mine are smaller than goumi fruit, although on a flesh to seed basis the difference is less noticeable. AO’s definitely have a strong edge in terms of pick ability. Goumi is borderline tedious to pick while AO is one of the quickest and easiest. Flavor wise theyre both nice. A hybrid might potentially combine the best attributes of each.
Are there any appreciable flavor differences between Goumi and AO?
Goumi require sunlight… a good chunk…or no buds, blooms, fruit.
Goumi need to be planted where they receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight measured in early summer (late June to early August) . Sufficient sun exposure triggers the initiation of new flower buds for the next growing season, without which there will be no fruit.
I’ve only ever had ‘sweet scarlet’ goumi, so Im not sure how much variation there is in goumi flavor. Autumn olive flavor varies quite a bit though. A lot of AO fruit is unpleasantly astringent, some extremely so. The tasty ones are quite good though. I have a red one that looses all notes of acid and astringency, so it has a nice sweet mild flavor- more so than ‘sweet scarlet’. I have a yellow fruited one that tastes quite unique too, probably due to the lack of lycopene and other terpenes and polyphenols associated with red coloration. Its flavor is more on the tart end but quite nice. There are orange and pink fruited AO’s out there too, though Ive yet to find one of either color worthy of selection. All of my AO’s are my own selections made amongst local seedlings. There’s also a large range of size in AO fruit. My selections have fruit at least twice as large as typical.
One thing to keep in mind when sampling autumn olive fruit is that timing is very important. They have an extended window where they appear ripe, but will be astringent in the early phase. At a certain point they sweeten up. You have to be attuned to that and be willing to try them a few of times to figure out how good a given seedling really is. Watch for when the birds start to strip the tree of fruit. They always seem to know when they’re at their prime, and the fruits disappear quickly.
My sweet scarlet and red gem taste very similar and are similar in size.
Sweet scarlet blooms and ripens a bit before red gem… sweet scarlet hits peak ripe about 10 days before red gem. Together they extend the fresh eating time some.
Carmine and sweet scarlet bloomed at the same time here… and set fruit and fruit developed the fruit simultaneously. Both are showing some red color now and sizing up.
Red gem has no red color yet… but should in another week or so.
They must be insect pollinated because they have a strong floral scent that is noticeable from dozens of feet away.
I didn’t pay attention this year, but I feel like in previous years I noticed the scent most late in the day.
I spent some time watching my mature goumi bushes this morning and didn’t see any bees, but there was a hummingbird spending quite a lot of time drinking nectar from their flowers. I’d say they’re already past peak bloom though so not the best time to observe what their primary pollinators are.
Bumblebees love my bushes. As to all the natives.
My AO are right outside one of my windows, so I got to watch them a good bit this spring. About 2 weeks ago was peak here in NW NC 6b/7a. I could not tell you the type of bee, but there were almost as many of them as there were flowers. About the size of a yellow jacket, but shaped like the bumble/mason part of the bee family. Could have been juveniles, I guess. There were enough I briefly thought I should set up a hive of some sort, but I’m not ready for that responsibility.
I checked mine this morning. Mostly bumblebees and wild solitary bees, but no honeybees.
My goumi and blueberries always get lots of attention from the lovely eastern tiger swallowtail… and lots of bees.
My red gem has lots of ripe fruit now.
It is my first to ripen.
It has a graft of carmine on it… that I did last spring. Below is what that carmine graft looks like.
Below is a large ripe red gem vs a small ripe carmine.
Even a small carmine is 2x size of red gem. Most carmine are 3x red gem.
Below shows the difference in pit size.
TNHunter
How are you so far a head of NJ?
@lordkiwi … more southern heat I suppose.
I think the last few years I have been first to post ripe goumi pics.
Ps… my sweet scarlet fruit are still green.
They normally start ripening a week or 2 later.
Bad news for taste test…
My wife and I have had (the crud) for over a week (tested neg on CV, strep, flu) but have aweful head cold /allergy type symptoms.
It is getting better… but I still do not have full sense of taste back.
Red gem and Carmine… both taste quite bland right now… but so does a well seasoned grilled rib eye steak.
Hopefully I get my taste buds back before all these goumi ripen.
TNHunter
