Goumi Grafting

That is also known as Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia).
My father planted a row of them when I was a kid. At the time I didn’t know they were edible, and never tasted them. He later tore them out because they were too precocious, growing too fast and taking up too much space.

2 Likes

Autumn olives can be propagated by greenwood cutting so, the same may be true of Goumi. I tried rooting Autumn Olives but, they were covered in fruit. Early or late in the year might be an ideal time. I did manage to get one rooted. The grafted Autumn olive I have seen tend to sucker a lot.

2 Likes

@dimitri_7a
Members of the elaeagnus family have tiny silver dots all over the fruit like the goumi in your example. Autumn olive are much smaller about half the size of a pea. Autumn olive look like this Planning on a big autumn olive harvest

Only one scion on each root has started growing. Some of the other scions have small leaves.
001


002

6 Likes

A friend was in China last year. He has discovered fruit. I think it’s the same subject.
The photos of the fruits are his.
He sent me seeds. 2 started to sprout. I hope it will grow.
In China there are fruit varieties with very large fruit.

5 Likes

This is not goumi, it’s So-Shang (Elaeagnus Latifolia)! That’s a great fruit they say… Congratulations!

3 Likes

I rooted my Goumi cuttings about
2 1/2 weeks ago are making leaves and hopefully developing roots also. I will check for roots in another month.

Tony

3 Likes

I have heard that goumi can be grafted to autumn olive.
I have lots of autumn olive here, and thought of grafting them. But the autumn olive tends to be a bush , with many sprouts arising at ground level.
I think this would be a lot of maintanance, removing sprouts,and not worth while in the long run.
So iam trying some air layers of goumi this year, using tree pots . ( there is another post about this)
Thinking this will be lower maintanance in the long run if successful.
Oh, and I have seen my free range chickens jump 3+ feet to get a goumi berry, must be something very good in them !

2 Likes

I agree it seems like the wrong strategy. I have two goumi’ s both have multiple trunks but neither have tried throwing up suckers yet. Thats likely why Goumi is the friendly replacement for AO.

Thats the name It escaped me for a minute. I got 10 starts and I think 1 is either alive or petrified. The other Goumi

1 Like

Hi Mike,
I live in France and I am looking for Elaeagnus latifolia seeds and other rare Elaeagnus species. I read you have some. May we can deal some seeds. I have many seeds of E. ebbingei and some cultivars, 2 E. umbellata Sweet N’sour (Red) and fortunella (yellow) too young for seeds but OK this winter for cutting.
Many thanks
Noctua

I suspect latifolia is not hardy enough to be kept without protection of a solarium. Otherwise I’m sure more of us would be trying to grow it. I got my seeds and plantlets on ebay Elaeagnus Latifolia | eBay

I have latifolia on ground and it is very resistent to frost and negative temp like -1C to -3C with no protection. And is a small plant.

1 Like

I did not have any damage this winter on my latifolia… but I did have damage from this last summer’s heat wave when it reached 115°F with single digit humidity.

2 Likes

Your in an even more tropical zone then Lusport. How far can these really be pushed.

1 Like

It probably depends on how long of an extended period of frost/freeze, plus the particular microclimate the plant resides in. The coldest mine had to deal with was between 30°-32°F for a few mornings this winter.
I have read some say that it can survive from Zone 8 up.
I know their natural habitat ranges from SE Asia into india and China. The plant material that the seeds I grew mine from originated from SE Asia(via Hawaii).
It would be interesting to get some seeds from the colder end of it’s natural genetic range… (maybe China?) …and stretch the zones lower that we can grow it in.

1 Like

Hi guys,
Thank you Mike and Lordkiwi for your responses. I continue my research of latifolia seeds on these sites.
I cut Elaeagnus multiflora this year : 18 weeks for rooting. Idem for its hybrid E. ebbingei.
For the resistance during winter, that depends too of the humidity level of the tissus and in the soil. Freezing is less deleterous for less hydrated plants.
Elaeagnus species seem to be quite resistant for freezing according to their natural range (Northern countries or altitude).

1 Like

I’m so glad everyone’s material is doing so well. Goumis are great nitrogen fixers to inter plant between fruit trees. Here are 2 on the north side of a fuyu persimmon

and this tree is absolutely loaded this year

6 Likes

I bought 3 Carmine and 1 Red Gem for cross pollination this year.
They’re all growing out in pots and doing well.

A Carmine has fruit that started turning red in the last 48 Hrs. or so.
How long should I leave it on before trying it? Wait until it starts to wrinkle?

I’ve never tasted a Goumi and really hope to before some feathered bandit beats me to it.

5 Likes

The redder the better. Goumi red won’t ever been sweet cherry red but there should be no tinge of yellow if at all possible. I doubt any goumi will get to the wrinkled phase.

1 Like