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  • From: Hank Burchard <hank@burchard.org>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] goumi
  • Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:54:03 -0400

My goumis, which came from Hidden Springs Nursery in 2004 with no varietal name indicated, have been something of a disappointment. I got my first crop this spring (in May!) and found the fruit -- of which there wasn't much -- rather insipid. From two plants I got barely two cups of juice. Perhaps the yield and flavor will improve in later seasons, but the goumi's performance is unimpressive compared to my autumn olives, also from Hidden Springs (my favorite nursery), which I use to make jelly.

The AOs -- which USDA has sensibly renominated "Autumnberry" because there's nothing olive-like about the fruit -- began bearing in the second year and regularly produce more than 20 pounds of fruit each with casual harvesting. They require no care, respond to top pruning by producing more and larger fruits on the remaining branches, seem indifferent to drought and temperature extremes, and shrug off extremely heavy browsing by the whitetailed deer that infest my property. I bought all six varieties HS offers, and like them all, but the sport called Charlies Golden is so clearly the best that I have planted four more of them. The fruit is an attractive golden yellow, the yield is high and the flavor is outstanding.

Hank Burchard
Pecker Wood Farm
Amherst VA (7b)




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