Raintree is where I think mine came from and it was a decent-sized well-rooted plant.

Burnt Ridge Nursery sells Sweet Scarlet in a size that they call "large - bearing age" for $20.

i've gotten one from rolling river nursery....was decent, as were the currants i got from them. i did get two pineapple guava seedlings that were way too spindly. they shouldn't have sold those to me IMO.

Goumi will grow in zone 7b/8a?
Here in South Carolina we have had 14, sometimes 10 degrees temp.

Jolj, goumi grows well even in zone 5, no problems. It is happy in my zone 6 too.
Olga

Thanks all I'll give these sites a look

Anyone prefer the taste of Goumi to the cultivars of Autumn Olive ('Hidden Springs'/etc varieties)? Heard they were similar plants (minus A.O. considered invasive in some states), wondering if they taste the same.

I'd like to containerize some A.O.'s Im getting and putting them in some places that other stuff can't grow since I hard they are shade tolerant

Never tasted an actual Goumi - but I did get a taste of an Eleagnus x ebbingei at the local nursery - which I think is lumped under the general category of "Silverberry"... Ick! So astringent - even after sitting on the tree all winter long...

But... as usual - you guys did get me curious.... I think I may have to get one of the cultivated Goumi's....

Thanks

John, silverberry flowers in late fall and ripens in spring, so it was not just sitting on the tree all winter, and might not have been fully ripe when you tasted it even.

I've only tasted AO, which I grow and very much enjoy, and the others sound to be pretty similar in taste, but differ in fruiting time, size of fruit, and form of growth, etc.. Goumi has supposedly the largest fruit, and the silverberry types are evergreen of course, so make nice hedges, etc..

Tasted them this weekend and again yesterday. Fruit was soft and starting to fall off the bush - so I assumed it was ripe.

I should have some extra goumi plants by the end of the month and Autumn Olives grow wild around here. If anyone's interested let me know. I like to trade for a variety of things.

I don't think goumi is worth growing. Yes, it gets sweet but stays astringent as well. Fruit is also very small. The jelly I made out of it was astringent as well. Pucker power.

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

John: it sure sounds like those silverberries were ripe if they were going soft and falling... AO definitely stays firm until it is ready to eat.

Goumi fruit is larger than the AO, and seems to approach the status of minor cultivated fruit more closely than the latter, which is really more of a wild curiosity often left for the birds.

I see a lot of value in many members of the whole Elaeagnaceae family, because of their toughness, nitrogen fixation, ornamental qualities, and the stupendous nutritional profile of their fruit. I also enjoy tart foods...

That said, I have high hopes for growing goumi, which I think of as a more behaved form of AO with larger, earlier ripening fruit. Has anyone out there seen this to be the case?

I just might be interested in some of your goumi plants, wildforager. Maybe you could list some things you might want to trade for from NM?

Hey Fab,
Hmm, plants from NM...... I'm not sure what you have that would be interesting. You can check my tradelist for stuff I'm interested in. I'm really into paw paws and cornelian cherries right now. Hope to hear from you.