i think my success has to do with my heavy clay. it holds moisture really well so the cuttings never completely dry out esp. with mulch on top. i literally poke a hole in the soil, scrape the bottom down to the cambium, push in until only 1 bud sticks out , then mulch / water well. that’s it. unbury around the cutting come spring. maybe amending you planting spot with some compost or heavy bagged, unfertilized soil would help retain more moisture. i usually stick them in late oct. just before we get a killing frost but ive done them in late sept. and they stil took. as long as it stays cool enough so they dont try to break dormancy. by the way, the Quebec border is 15 min. north of here. both sides of my family immigrated from there in the 1920-30’s. Bosse / Gagnon’s.
@murky - on your successful grafting attempts, what stage were the rootstocks in? Just starting to leaf out?
Probably fully leafed out.
edit: yeah, April 27, 2025
Then May 11 the buds were breaking through the Buddy Tape
From my experience, goumi are easy to graft. Goumi was the first thing I grafted, with no experience, 3/4 took, last year I cut 15-20 scions from the previous years growth. 4/6 grafted to wild AO in a field with no care at all still took, all the others grafted to other goumi were successful. Actually I killed two trying to air layer the rootstock just below the graft after they took.
Dormant scions W/T to leafed out rootstock. Late March-early April southeast Missouri zone 7a.
Anyone try non dormant grafting?
My in-laws have a HUGE autumn olive and I would like to top work it with Goumi, but my trees are flowering. I could bark graft about a dozen or more to the stump, maybe one would take?
My goumi trees are also blooming. Look over your goumi and you might find some buds that are still dormant. Most likely to be on the lower section of last years growth.
I have my Original Goumi bushes of Red Gem and Sweet Scarlet.. that were started in 2020.
I added grafts of Carmine to them a few years back… and then did a successful air layer of carmine .. to get a gomi started over in my new orchard.
I added 2 grafts of Raintree Select to my Carmine bush this spring and added a few grafts of Raintree Select to my Sweet Scarlet bush too.
I added 2 grafts of Raintree Select to my Red Gem last spring.. and both are going to fruit this year.
I have found Goumi very easy to graft.. modified cleft or whip/tounge.. very high success rates.
Some of my goumi grafts have grown bloomed and ripened fruit the first season after grafting.
TNHunter
@TNHunter Hoping you know: Do autumn olive and goumi bloom and leaf out around the same time or different?
My goumi is blooming now. No clue about autumn olive
@benthegirl.. I am not sure about AO either.
We don’t have those here.. that I know of.
All 4 of my goumies .. red gem, sweet scarlet, carmine and raintree select.. are still blooming .. but have fruit set on too.. sizing up.
TNHunter
Red Gem today 4/4.
Carmine
Raintree select
Sweet scarlet.
Red Gem is my earliest ripener.
Sweet Scarlet is the latest.
Carmine ripens in between those two.
Not sure about Raintree select yet. These are my first fruits from RTS grafts added last year.
TNHunter
Wow those look great! I’m always a couple weeks behind you so if your sweet scarlet are still blooming then that’s informative.
Both my AO and Goumi are currently blooming. There might be slight variation, I believe Sweet Scarlet starts a few days earlier than the others
Here.. Red Gem blooms first, sets and ripens fruit first.
Carmine and Raintree bloom about a week or two later… and Carmine fruit ripen a week or two later than Red Gem.
I expect Raintree will ripen close with Carmine… will see in a few weeks.
Sweet Scarlet blooms and ripens fruit last.. it is also my smallest berry. It is sweet.. but small.
When my Sweet Scarlet starts ripening… I already have some strawberries and raspberries ripening… so I eat less of Sweet Scarlet than the others.
Better things have come along.
In my new orchard.. I have a (air layer) of Carmine .. that I have grafted Red Gem and Raintree select to.
I am not taking Sweet Scarlet to my new orchard… to me it is just not worth the space on the bush.
TNHunter
A.O and Goumi flower around the same time A.O maybe slightly later. However Goumi ripens early summer while A.O ripens in fall
thanks all! That’s been super helpful. I have zillions of autumn olive and I got a big pile of sweet scarlet scionwood to experiment with. I’ve been grafting a bunch of different ways and over the course of a month (and still going) just to see what works.
Last season I did cleft grafts of Wang bo on 6 A.O I found and dug up last summer. 2 of them took one got destroyed by a volleyball the other grew slow but is really taking off this season.
Is this normal for ‘Wang Bo’ to produce its flowers singly instead of in clusters? If so, that might explain why its fruits get so large.
how long after transplanting did you graft? last week I dug up a couple of AO plants and want to graft to them as soon as possible. Do you think the grafts will take if I wait until the AO starts showing new growth?
My plan is to graft as low as possible, then stool the new growth in the summer and hopefully get the grafts to produce roots. I have grafted a few to AO roots but my success is only a little over 50% so far.
@Chunky Chunky I think i made this mistake I had better success letting the A.O recover for 1 year in a pot before grafting. But could also depend on the amount of root ball that was still intact after digging up.