I suspect since goumi and autumn olive are close relatives I could graft them. What are your thoughts and have you done it?
I found some old amateur information on this after i posted that indicates people are doing this.
I guess the only problem if it is successful, that it would be a never ending battle cutting back all the growth from the bottom of the autumn olive, since it grows more bush-like than tree-like. Autumn Olive cuttings seem pretty easy at times, so I may try goumi cuttings next year since it has grown better for me than autumn olive.
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Anyone top worked autumn olive with goumi yet? They are on my list of things to do since most of my Pears are in better shape now. Grafted Pears by the hundreds so I’ve not had time to do the fun grafting for awhile. Next year I will have less than 100-200 pears to graft so I’m planning on grafting goumi , hazelnuts, mulberries, che etc. . Most of my minor grafts such as apples should be taken care of. I grafted those apples for a few days this year. Some of my autumn olives are 15-20 feet tall. Had no idea they got so large!
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I’ve never bothered trying to propagate AO (though I did graft an improved variety of AO on some wild seedlings and transplanted them this spring - looking good so far). I have tried, repeatedly, to start goumi from hardwood cuttings and failed. However, the cuttings were from my orchard at my parents place in Houston over the Christmas holidays and goumi never really goes dormant there so that could be part of it. Clark has got me thinking that maybe I should try budding or grafting some onto AO. Suckers may be problematic though.
I think AOs, though invasive, are pretty useful. They fix nitrogen in the soil, are delightfully fragrant in spring, edible fruit (to varying degrees) in fall, and the leaves are a preferred forage. Our goats love them, deer seem to love them. There was even an article in a recent ACRES USA about managing AO for cattle/sheep/goat/deer forage to improve the pasture.
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I tried goumi cuttings last year, did pretty good, the ones this year seem to be on their way to success, too.
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I tried grafting goumi onto AO with out success a couple years back, topworked some AO bushes as they were budding out. I did have success with Amber ao, and got to try the fruit last season, which was quite good compared to my seedlings, larger and less tart/astringent, and yellow.
I think summer cuttings are the way to go for propagating goumi.
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i did spring hardwood cuttings, seem to work good enough.
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[quote=“clarkinks, post:4, topic:2920”]
h goumi yet? They are on my list of things to do since most of my Pears are in better shape now. Grafted Pears by the hundreds so I’ve not had time to do the fun grafting for awhile. Next year I will have less than 100-200 pears to graft so I’m planning on grafting goumi , hazelnuts, mulberries, che etc. . Most of my minor grafts such as apples should be taken care of. I grafted those apples for a few days this year. Some of my autumn olives are 15-20 feet tall. Had no idea t
[/quote]!
We have been grafting goumi (maninly Carmine but also Red Gem and Sweet Scarlet on Autumn olive volunteers for 2 years now with good success. We are harvesting fruit from first grafts now.
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I picked some goumi 3 days ago ,
They were noticeably astringent.
Could not really eat them,possibly not fully ripe.
So working with the idea posted in a recent thread about using alcohol to reduce astringency in persimmons…
I picked 2 Dixi cups of goumis …
In one I put a shot of tequillia
After 3 days the tequila was gone.
I ate all the tequila goumis , no astringency. Could tast the tequila, good !
The other cup, still astringent, cannot eat more than a few !
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You are brlilliant. I was psyched about the idea of doing this with hard, astringent persimmons. It never occurred to me to try it on other fruit.
I may want to try this with Aronia and Quince. Generally, I don’t mind the astringency on those after my first bite or two, but wonder what it would be like with it removed while they are still firm.
Not sure about brilliant,
But I do believe there are more good ideas in a bottle of alcohol than most people think. ,! ! !
I give all the credit to the tequila.
And those other posts about alcohol and persimmons
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Am i the only one not able to see the picture ? I’d be interested to see the goumi on AO graft
Here is a link. Hope you can see the photos there.
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Thanks! The diameter of the scion pretty big wrt to the rootstock to do bark grafting, i would have hesitate to do this type of graft 
At what stage of growth was the rootstock ?
When making wine from aronia berries, I put in blender place some vodka to aid in the crushing, soak overnight, then add the grape juice concentrate just enough to get 26 brix. Makes excellent tasty wine. No added sugars.
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Autumn olive is a common volunteer on our farm (and across Indiana, in general) we have any stage of root-stock you can imagine and have grafted on most of them if they were in a spot that was convenient for us. We have good success with the modified bark inlay graft, over 80% survival after 1 year. We have used whip and tongue as well. We have 20 or 25 grafts performing well and only lost a few.
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Can you tell goumi from autumn olive if it is not fruiting?
I am sure there must be some visual differences. But flowering and fruiting time is so different its the obvious Goumi is ripening now, autumn olive wont ripen till well autumn. Elaeagnus pungens, has thorns and flowers in autumn and ripens in spring
How does Carmine compare to Red Gem and Sweet Scarlet? Have you tried Tillamook? thanks!
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