Are you aware of any elaeagnus latifolia in the US that have huge fruits like these?
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Wow. When I got scions of Tillamook/Carmine I didn’t think there would be any bigger varieties. Do I have to move to Europe to get this one?
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I have no clue, but that picture I think was taken in Pakistan.
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Sikkim
Was it taken in india?
Yes, northeastern India.
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Oh man, those things are massive. I didn’t know they got that big.
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Yeah there’s a lot of variance in size from what I’ve seen of photos online, but they do get pretty big. They are sour and no one ever seems to eat them fresh but instead cook them so I wonder if they are worse for keeping their astringency or are excessively sour. Hard to say.
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Can is cross. The simple answer is no one knows. There is very little reliable genetic data There is just not that much effort going into breeding programs. AO is invasive and little is going into improving Goumi. Why Goumi is not invasive while AO is is a question to be answered. Every time I planted latifolia seeds animals decapitated them. Are goumi and latifolia seedlings just tasty?
Based on this chart Goumi E. multifolra and AO E. Umbellata are kissing cousins
Hippophae btw are Seaberries
I have two mature Goumi’s , Raintrees selection with larger berries and sweet scarlet. I will be happy to collect pollen for the breading efforts.
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I may just try the cross myself, when I can get some goumi and autumn olive into production.
Also if seaberry could cross with Buffalo berry, that would be nice too. Add more adaptability and flavors.
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I have to protect goumi seedlings when they first emerge or I risk losing 100% of them to decapitation by some sort of critter.
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Cliffs England’s Wang Bo is the largest available in the US, I think. Its berries are about the size of table grapes, and edible out of hand.
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But how is it for productivity?
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It’s perhaps a little more productive than sweet scarlet.
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I guess ‘Sweet Scarlet’ actually produces alright for some people. For me only a small percentage of its flowers end up setting fruit. Are you one of the people who considers ‘Sweet Scarlet’ to be productive or not productive? I need to know for this comparison to register. 
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Sorry for the poor choice of example. Cliff probably gets about 3-4 gallons of berries from each of his 10’ Wang Bos. This is only slightly better than a wild guess, though.
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Sweet Scarlet used to be productive but poor conditions during ripening the berries where not that great, most years. Its then started to be come less productive each year with it just being good for pollinating my Raintree Select last year. I dont even think I bothered to harvest it. Both bushes are way over grown and they will rejuvenation pruned this year regardless. There where years when the SS produced good berries.
I suspect it needs to be pruned back like blueberries every few years.
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Has anyone had any luck grafting soh shang (latifolia) to Autumn Olive? I tried a bunch last spring but none took. My goumi to AO worked good.
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I don’t know unfortunately.
I’m curious whether anyone knows when either species’ anthers begin shedding pollen relative to when their stigmas become receptive. It would be great to avoid emasculating all those small flowers—ideally, you could simply monitor them closely, pollinate early, and then screen the resulting seedlings by leaf morphology.
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