Picking & Eating Sweet Scarlet Goumi Berry - tastes like cherry!

[@heppylifestyle]

s.u.p.e.r. easy plant to grow, NO spray or care needed -- join us at HEPPY and see our exhibition organic garden of MANY edible plants common among passionate gardeners. if we can do it, then so can YOU!

[@great0789]

Thank you. I am in the middle of giving away a fig clone and they are offering a free Sweet Scarlet Goumi and some other fig cuttings in return. I am excited now.

[@heppylifestyle]

i LOVE this plant. i'm sure somewhere in the world it doesn't grow or fruit well but this girl (Sweet Scarlet Goumi) is a stud over here! nitrogen fixing, no insects, no disease, no fungus!!! and tasty fruit. such a HEPPY plant ;) fyi -- the seeds we dropped around the base of our Goumi -- in late-spring 2020 / the seeds u see in the vid -- have not sprouted. i'm optimistic that they sprout this yr, 2021 (the Goumi seeds may have been smart enough to 'wait out' 2020 ;)

[@great0789]

@@heppylifestyle Lol! Dodging 2020 may have been a sign of intelligent life. Low maintenance and good productivity is my type of plant! That is why I am focusing on Figs and Mulberries right now too. Put in a few different varieties and you can have fruit year-long.

[@heppylifestyle]

​@@great0789 no doubt about Dodging 2020. i told ya i love this plant ;) way low maintenance -- you'll see. good luck with the mulberries & figs; planting various varieties is a big +. some of my vids will address microclimates (although, Goumi, Mulberry & Fig probably the least influenced microclimates b/c they just g.r.o.w.). spring is coming!!!

[@great0789]

@@heppylifestyle Here I am… one year later and I now have the Sweet Scarlet Goumi in the ground. Just planted a few weeks ago. It is already as wide as my arms will reach and about 3 or 4ft tall… and covered in berries this year. The first berries are just now starting to swell… I cannot wait!!!

[@SofiaVieve]

Thank you Pete for sending me the seeds. It is planted and i will update the comment and send pictures once it sprouted in the Spring! Your website has a lot of information! Thank you!

[@heppylifestyle]

Sweeeeet! 🐞

[@ellbug89]

This is very similar to the invasive Elaeagnus umbellata, the Autumn Olive species (noxious bush with late August berries) that grows all over the eastern U.S. You can still eat the berries though and they are very similar and high in lycopene. The species you speak of Elaeagnus multiflora (goumi) could likely be grafted onto the invasive species for more productive delicious varieties for this bush.

[@heppylifestyle]

strange -- i didn't see a notification of this message! YES, i just learned that in late 2020!! good eye! yes, *Elaeagnus umbellata / Autumn Olive is a total no-go* ! the grafting idea is really smart (I found 2 wild plants that looked like my Sweet Goumi but was a lil' different. two very mature girls on county property here in Maryland, along the potomac. i had them identified -- they're Elaeagnus umbellata!). i should try grafting someday. i hope to graft for the first time this yr but it'll be persimmon & pawpaw -- cultivars to native species growing here at HEPPY! thank you and please stay safe.

[@workwillfreeyou]

Bud grafted?

[@heppylifestyle]

@@workwillfreeyou well, i'm just learning to graft and if i can line-up the cambium layers and have a graft grow, i'll be ecstatic! bud grafting seems really efficient so yes, that technique is a possibility!

[@ellbug89]

@@workwillfreeyou I bet any grafting technique will do.

[@TheVersius]

I have a Sweet Scarlet and a Red Gem that are 5 years old and no where as large. Have you done any pruning, watering or any fertilizing in the past years.?

[@heppylifestyle]

thank you for the complement. i'm guessing its the soil or location (just guessing). SOIL: we dig VERY large holes for each fruiting shrub (Goumi) and fruiting tree. i have all the content for a vid about what we do (size, and what we put in the hole before planting). i'll make the vid soon. what you see above ground is a function of what's going on under ground. SUN: can't be too too shady. our Goumi gets some shade from a near-by Sweet Gum tree. Goumis love sun. WATER & FERT: she no longer needs water. we fertilize our girls (all plants annually in early spring [like, now]). maybe a cup or two of a balance fert (like, 10-10-10 which has all three flavors in one fertilizer -- Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). PRUNING: for sure. we're not growing our Goumi as a hedge. instead, she's shaped to be a tall bush. keep the center free of branches (open for air circulation & sun). prune limbs that are crossing each other. again, IF we were shaping her as a hedge she's be compact and we'd NOT keep the center pruned and NOT prune limbs that cross each other. RECOMMENDATION: amend the soil with rich black compost soil. maybe a little chicken manure (hold ur nose). see if you can dig the compost & manure into the soil. the closer u are to the trunk, the less digging-down u can do (without destroying roots). get composty / organicy soil below the surface. get the soil loose. be careful not to go crazy digging & disrupt too many fine roots. sprinkle 10-10-10 on the surface. find aged or rotted woodchips, alfalfa from a horse ranch, or other sorta thing as a soil-topping around your Goumi. doing all this before a good rain is ideal. Goumis are not water-hogs but she should be watered after all this digging & disruption. fertilize moderately again in summer. PRUNING: one of my first vids. me pruning our Goumi ;) kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWmndHagqpKnoas MORE INFO: heppy.org/goumi

[@assassin40oz]

Looks good! I'm gunna try and grow some hatch green chile inside.

[@heppylifestyle]

thank you AK J

[@timschannel910]

Can i put it in a 5 gallon bucket until winter is over with then plant it. I just order one and am in NC

[@heppylifestyle]

@@timschannel910 heck, just plant 'em! NC is mostly zone 7-8 (guessing); I like to get my roots in soil (eg, in bucket with soil) or heeling potted plants. Keep the roots healthy during the cold season. Goumi are tough plants so be reasonable and you'll be fine. Thanks for stopping by! 👩‍🌾

[@marisaarnsdorff2962]

Where we can buy this plants ? Please let me know , Thank you

[@heppylifestyle]

strange -- i didn't see a notification of this message! check out my webpages -- they're awesome (heppy.org/goumi). and i give credit to our varied suppliers (95% small businesses). named “Sunshine,” we purchased her in late 2017 from Edible Landscaping (ediblelandscaping.com/). thanks for stopping by and plz subscribe!

[@grandwonder5858]

Did you say you give the seeds or small seedlings for free on your website? I live in Maryland and would like to visit your garden if I could get a seedling or two and have them grown in my backyard if you don’t mind. When do the fruits start to ripen? When is the best time of year to grow the plant? Thanks ahead if you could answer my questions, I appreciate it very much!

[@grandwonder5858]

How sweet are the berries? Is it as sweet as cherries? 1 to 10 in the sweetness ranking, how high would you rate it? I give cherry a 6.5 in sweetness ranking, how high does the Goumi rank in comparison? Is it more sweet than sour, would you say?

[@heppylifestyle]

@grandwonder5858 great question; Sweet Scarlet Goumi is less sweet than a sweet cherry. for sure. JUST this year my sweet cherry fruited (White Gold Cherry). oh man, the cherry fruit is sweeter and richer. what a great fruit. Sweet Scarlet is sweet ONLY when fully ripe and even then, has a hint of tart. i made a vid that's not posted yet: for folks in the soupy humid US east coast, the Goumi is disease free. Sweet Cherry trees suffers from Canker in much of the US. that's my rant for the un-posted vid -- Cherry is great but for a bullet proof disease-free plant with a cherry-like fruit, it's the Goumi.

[@foodforestretirement2799]

To me they taste like a soft lemon head candy. Love them!

[@heppylifestyle]

those are tasty candies ;). a Sweet Scarlet? we're working hard to find a Tillamook Goumi. we didn't prune her this winter & she's all blooms and we smell a wonderful sweet smell from the bloom. i'll have to add, 'tasty smell' to my reasons for adoring this plant. nice greenhouse build, btw. good luck with the citrus!

[@foodforestretirement2799]

@@heppylifestyle I recently moved a Red Gem Goumi to a sunnier location and I think saved it. Unfortunately I had Tillamook before this and I didn't know that it had too much shade and I let it perish 😔 I got all mine from One Green World. The Tillamook popular because of the bigger berries is always out of stock. Good luck find yours. The Miho Satsuma Mandarin produces such excellent fruit that the effort put into is worth while.

[@foodforestretirement2799]

@@heppylifestyle Yes a Sweet Scarlett

[@iansammons2730]

Did any of the seeds you planted come up? I've found these very hard to start by seed.

[@heppylifestyle]

They did!! They came up the following spring (early this yr). i made a vid of it but yet to post it. BUT, to your point, i really don't know what percentage of seeds germinated. we ate a ton of fruit and must have spit ~100-200 seeds onto the ground. about 30 germinated. i was going to do a seed give-away this summer and then read the Goumi's complicated seed storage process (warm stratify, then cold stratify). Essentially, the 4-month stratification process (if 4 months is truly necessary) takes me to ~November. well, i ain't planting squat in winter :/. what we did should work for you (but it'll take 9-10 months before you see them): after eating the fruit, toss the seeds into the ground. cover with 2" of rotted woodchips or dig them into the ground 1-2". seedlings popped up the following spring. last winter was normal (cold) and the winter-spring was wet; we never watered as though seeds were in the ground. i was testing the process, letting nature do her thing. we're in zone 7. that's what i've learned so far Ian.

[@zartech-info]

Seeds are edible. To make jam run them through a roma tomato mill. works great for getting out the seeds and making preserves.

[@heppylifestyle]

interesting. let me TOTALLY stretch this question to a very different fruit: do you use the strainer for larger fruit like the Pawpaw? i just googled roma tomato mill. if you were to buy another one, which roma tomato mill would it be?

[@zartech-info]

I have had my Roma forever any cork and strainer style food mill will work. I have several strainers. Never used for pawpaw but have used for persimmons, also a large seed. Works well every year. use the larger screen for larger seed fruit. Mine is a hand crank with a vice on the bottom side.

[@heppylifestyle]

@@zartech-info thank you. i heard that a tomato strainer was the best tool to harvest pawpaw pulp. thank you for connecting my dots.

[@xavierprotocols]

The seeds look like fennel seeds.

[@heppylifestyle]

they do!

[@kaiasyoutubechannel4787]

"What do you think, Maria?"

[@ramdas363]

One never says anything, the other doesn't stop talking. Definitely has comical value.

[@silentsmysound4040]