Thankyou @PharmerDrewee the bushes look great.
2 Likes
anyone eat the seeds? Supposedly pretty nutritious.
2 Likes
I like the seeds (I try to eat the seeds from most any fruit I consume…apple seeds are a particular favorite).
There is a fibrous coating on the seed, though (which I sometimes spit out but not always)
Scott
2 Likes
Very Very good year for Goumi, Birds are not nearly as interested in them this year and i have yet to put out my motion sprinklers. squirrel pressure is low. I think populations must be down from the harsh winter. I thought the Cicada might have distracted the critters this year but there are none in Northern NJ where I am. Perhaps the birds left for cicada grounds.
Sweet Scarlet SS and Raintree Select RS pictured below. SS are about 1/2 the size of RS this year. Last year they where 1/3 the size. Flavor was good before and tasted about the same as RS. This year SS lives up to its name and is recognizably sweet. RS tastes the same. So in a bad year SS tastes like RS but are just smaller in a good year the flavor is superior.
20 Likes
I finally managed to taste some ripe goumis this year. They’re delicious, sweet and flavorful, with just enough tartness and astringency to be interesting. The trouble is, they look ripe long before they taste ripe, and the local wildlife eats them all long before I consider them ripe.
This year, I tried protecting one bush with some old trampoline netting I happened to have:
That worked until something got in and ate every last goumi.
On my other bush, I tried protecting just a few branches with bags:
The creatures ate all the goumis outside the bags, but left the fruits inside the bags alone for at least a little while. Then they started ripping open the bags and emptying them one by one, so I harvested the last ones. They were still hard to yank off the bush, but not as firmly attached as they were earlier. I assume they’d come off more easily if they were riper, like other fruits, but the wildlife won’t let them get that ripe.
They were really delicious at this stage. My family just ate them out of a bowl like cherries. These are the Carmine variety.
I have to find some way to discourage wildlife from eating them, since we would have eaten a lot more if we’d had them. I’ll look into this motion-activated sprinkler idea.
15 Likes
Getting ready to harvest one of my sweet scarlets this evening. Has anyone here made goumi wine?
4 Likes
One thing I would love is a goumi berry plant if I can grow in a container. I tasted a couple 2 years ago at Portland Nursery, and one was so good it made my body feel “healthy.” I thought it an odd feeling, went back, tasted another, and felt same short-lived “totally strong and healthy” feeling from head to toe. I liked one better than the other, but foolish me didn’t bother to write down the variety. It seemed it was a larger one of the two.
4 Likes
Larger plant, or larger berry?
1 Like
Its a Disney magic.
After a week away on vacation I thought I would return to a completely empty goumi bush.
At this color level Raintree Select are absolutely delicious.
16 Likes
Those look delicious. I grafted a few varieties onto one of my goumi, unfortunately the Raintree Select seems the most iffy. The coming heat wave should make clear which grafts were a success.
3 Likes
As I recall the berry was larger, but since these were pots to sell I cannot say if the plants are larger or not.
2 Likes
Okay, back to the famine food comment.
Today was around 115 degrees out, similar to yesterday which was warmer than the day before.
Before that, when I could still enjoy going outside, one of my 2 goumi was approaching its prime, half or more of the berries were dark, plump, juicy and sweet.
The other, which normally ripens a week or 2 later, was just starting to get a few berries to the stage where they tasted pretty good.
Well, at 7:30 PM, done with my zoom calls, and with outside temperature moderated to 100 in the shade, I decided to sample some berries while doing some emergency remedial watering.
To my dismay, they weren’t very good, and every berry is at full color, or past. I don’t mind eating them, but not something to look forward to. Bummer. In the coming days I’ll probably begin to see more fallout from this insane weather.
But, it made me think, maybe, like with conventional berries, they taste a lot better and have better quality when they ripen with weather in the 70s rather than 90s, 100s, or 110s.
In other words, maybe they aren’t very good grown in Texas.
4 Likes
Do you like tomatoes? I’m curious because Goumi and Goji are both high in lycopene. The more I eat them the more Lycopene stands out to me as a flavor.
3 Likes
Maybe its just how suddenly the heat came on and how fast it got to 115. I love my goumi berries that ripen in the 100+ heat days here taste excellent. I sort of describe the taste as part cherry part tomato to people but its a great one for me.
3 Likes
Same thing here. Been about 95 for a couple days and I’m enjoying them more than ever straight off the bush. Cherry up front and tomato on the way down. They’re not my favorite fruit but they beat a lot of store bought table grapes for me. Plus it’s a great nitrogen fixing plant that I enjoy looking at.
If I had my 4 goumi bushes fruiting during a famine I’d consider myself to be living like a Prince among paupers.
Left about 40% of this 2nd season bush for the birds. So hot I got tired of picking.
6 Likes
I’m not a big tomato fan but I can appreciate some. I like Black Krim, Roma, and that sweet orange cherry one, Sungold I think.
I really like good watermelon.
3 Likes
hmm, Lycopene was my my guess . Goumi and Goji have a very tomato undertone to me, maybe its the flavor of beta-carotene then.
In the future I might ask if someone likes tomatoes before recommending
Goumi’s
2 Likes