Had my first ever two Goumi fruit yesterday. Also Red Gem, do the seeds need to stratify? I planted them immediately because they are so early season that I expect they don’t need to stratify.
@Gkight … when I weed and fertilize and re mulch my goumi bushes early spring… i always find a few goumi sprouts from fruit/seed that dropped last season.
Found 5 or 6 this spring.
They can have some success with just natural stratification process.
But then I only found 5 or 6 when several hundred fruit dropped in that area.
My goumis produce so much fruit… we and the birds cant eat them all.
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I have not had a single goumi volunteer in 8 years.
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Do you think it’s likely something is actually eating most of the seeds? They aren’t that big, but I’d think by the law of averages at least a few would sneak by
i’ve purposefully planted goumi pits and left the pots out to stratify over winter… still no volunteers…
Then again, I have 2 autumn olives and I have had no volunteers from them either.
Mulberries (alba I assume) and rose of sharon I get seedlings and they grow incredibly fast…
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@Gkight I dont know the internet says 4 weeks warm 12 weeks cold stratification. On the other hand based my attempts to grow So-Sang, Chipmunks love to murder baby Elaegnus.
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@lordkiwi … i am not sure if the little sprouts I am finding would actually continue and live. They are always down in the mulch layer and have sprouted and showing some green.
I assume they are goumi… i only find them right underneath my goumi bushes.
I have never had one to show itsself above the mulchline and grow on up though.
It looks to me like the goumi seed can germinate into very early stage sprout… but they must terminate after that for some reason.
Next spring I will show some of those…
I blame squirrels and chipmunks. they cut down 20 so-sang
I’ve also got an eleagnus pungens Clemson variegated.
It isn’t in the best location and some winters it doesn’t even lose its leaves, but I’ve never seen a fruit on it. So either it is not pollenated by autumn olive or goumi or it is just not close enough for the pollen to transfer.
This discussion has reminded me I should fertilize it this year.
Goumi picked this morning. Red Gem on the left and Sweet Scarlet on the right. Red Gem is slightly larger than Sweet Scarlet. Both taste good.
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Today I found several sweet scarlet berries that were ripe. Ate several of all 3… and a bunch of raspberries too.
Got a nice size comparison photo of all 3.
Carmine on the right
Red gem at top
Sweetscarlet left.
My fruit size matches up with what Auburn saidon RG and SS size.
I still have remnants of a head cold or allergy thing… hard to get rid of it. My taster is still not quite right.
I have eaten a lot of carmine and red gem… trying to distinguish some difference in the flavor, sweetness, tartness… and still can not.
They taste exactly the same to me.
Also very little difference in how sweet scarlet taste. Sweet scarlet seems to have a bit different texture… more juicy and perhaps less meaty pulp.
Also i can not taste any astringency in any of them… but my wife and kids can.
I might get that taste back when I finally get rid of this crud.
TNHunter
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Looks like I’m about a week behind you. I just ate my first couple of goumis today, and they weren’t quite ripe. I only started seeing some color last weekend.
Your comments about ripening order got my attention. Red Gem is my latest to ripen (following Sweet Scarlet, HS*, and Carmine). You made me wonder if I’d misremembered. So I went out and checked. Here’s what I found:
*unnamed from Hidden Springs Nursery
Sweet Scarlet
Red Gem
HS - unnamed from Hidden Springs Nursery
Carmine grafted into HS (Carmine branch on the left)
So, Sweet Scarlet and HS, which happen to have near identical fruit and pit shapes and sizes, ripen together. They are the first to ripen here. Carmine ripens next followed by Red Gem. My Red Gem also has a wider harvest window since it doesn’t ripen as uniformly as Carmine.
All of my goumis are in full sun. If yours are also in full sun, it makes me wonder if one of us has a mislabeled Red Gem, or if there are two different 'Red Gem’s floating around in the trade. Given our close proximity, I can’t imagine the differences being due to other environmentmal factors.
I guess we got a mystery in our hands! I’d be interested to hear from others here that grow Red Gem with other goumis. What ripening order are others seeing?
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@alliumnate … the size of my red gem and sweet scarlet seem to match up with what Auburn reported.
My red gem is a little larger than my sweet scarlet… and his is too.
Carmine is 2-3x larger than red gem… and probably 4x larger than sweet scarlet.
Both of my bushes RG and SS are in a food forest bed about 12 ft apart and getting full sun.
I grafted 2 scions of carmine on my red gem and 1 on my sweet scalet. They have done well… geting lots of carmine berries this year.
Thanks again for that trade.
Getting something mis labled is sure a possibility… happened to me several times.
@Auburn … i know you reported the same as me on fruit size for RG and SS… with SS being smaller.
How do those work for you on bloom and ripening time ?
My RG blooms a bit earlier than my SS… and ripens first fruits about a week to 10 days earlier than my SS.
My grafts of Carmine start ripening just after RG does… and continue ripening while SS is ripening.
My RG will be finished fruiting before the other two.
How does that work for you down there in AL ?
I think you may only have RG and SS.
Thanks
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Interesting. Your fruit sizes and shapes seem to match mine. Red Gem is definitely larger and a bit more elongated than Sweet Scarlet (and smaller than Carmine. Just the ripening times differ.
I’m glad your Carmine grafts are doing well. I’ve started grafting my HS plants over to Carmine. And in addition to the large fruits, Carmine’s growth seems to be a lot more vigorous. I’d love to see how ‘Pippi’ compares. I got budwood last year, but my graft failed.
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If I was going to do just one goumi… i would choose carmine.
Larger fruit is nice. I think carmine might process well in a potato ricer to remove the pits from pulp. Going to have to try that out and make some jam
You could always add a few grafts of RG SS to your bush for pollination and extending the ripening time.
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The bloom and ripening appear to be similar but I didn’t check to see.
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anyone having success rooting these goumi?
I’ve never tried rooting my Sweet Scarlet, but I’m thinking I might try an air-layer this summer…
I’m trying to root a couple dormant cuttings. They have leafed out but I’m guessing no roots, so they will likely fail.
I am Air layering 2/3rd’s of my bushes right after harvest.
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