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[John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com>]

Amelia,

I did manage to get a good crop of goumi one year, a decade or so back, but that tree died the next year with a late spring hard freeze.

I really enjoyed the taste of the goumi and routinely also consume out of hand significant quantities of autumn olives collected from some local wild trees and my own, so unfortunately don't share your experience.

Honeyberries and goji are favorites as well.  Both, however, need to be left on the plant a long time after they color up to reach peak flavor.  Goji, in particular, needs to remain on the plant for a month or so after turning red before they sweeten up but did not have enough productivity for me to keep them.

Lastly, the local robins went nuts trying to get at my goumi, the year I had a crop.  I put the plant in a bird-netted hoop house.  They repeatedly would dash against the net, screeching in frustration.  I had to re-secure the netting a couple of times as they were actually disrupting the coverage.  As I recall, I had about 15 birds trying to get in, which would have been most of the local robins.



--- On Sun, 1/30/11, Amelia Hayner <abhayner@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Amelia Hayner <abhayner@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] MisIdentification: Goumi vs. Autum Olive
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Sunday, January 30, 2011, 6:58 AM

John

why are you doing this?? don't you know that Goumis taste like cherry-flavored Vicks cough drops??

<grin>

I too was very keen on them.. I am SURE I got the right thing- I did get them from Raintree ( at least I think I did) they fruited when they were very small. They were even that "improved" variety. Yuck.

And on top of tasting nasty, they are OILY, which makes the nasty taste linger longer.

But, they were very pretty. I did not notice that birds were not fighting over them, either. Which is another pointer.

The birds were busy in the nearby Juneberry bush.

or pecking holes in my strawberries. Just one hole, a taste, then off to ruin another.

 

This is WHY I want to find out what honeyberries, and wolfberries taste like BEFORE I plant them.

( I know that honeyberries aren't sposed to do well this far south, but remember I have a Very Cold Spot)

Amy

On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 1:24 AM, John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com> wrote:

I've been trying to establish some goumi plants for more than a decade.  I've twice now planted so-called goumis from reputable North Wast mail-order nurseries, grown them out and upon fruiting, discovered them to be fall fruiting Autumn Olives instead of the spring fruiting Goumis.  It is easy to tell the difference from the appearance and timing of the fruit.

Today I received the 2011 print catalog from Raintree and found them using a picture of Autumn Olives for Goumis and the description indicating that goumis fruit in August instead of the correct timing of "spring".  I go on-line and find that the on-line picture of goumi is, instead, a picture of red fruited Cornelian Cherry.

I just wanted to share with the list that North West nurseries (more than one) are selling mis-identified Elaeagnus, at least to me, and from the current print catalog of Raintree, appear to be continuing the practice.

Anything I can do to fix this problem?  Does anybody on the list have contacts in the area with Raintree that could give them the word about this problem?  I've sent emails but no longer have confidence that the replacement Goumi that I'm to receive this spring will actually be a ture Goumi.  I don't want to spend an additional 5 years to find out this is another Autumn Olive.

Thanks

John

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