Goumi, Gogi, and Aronia
john_in_sc
11 years ago
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Comments (30)
ericwi
11 years agoErnie
11 years agoRelated Discussions
anyone actually taste sweet goumi berries?
Comments (14)I planted a sweet scarlet goumi back around 2004 on the edge of my property in a sunny location. It's maybe 7 feet tall now and beautiful. When it was young it was hard to get the fruit, it would be loaded with fruit and then the next day all the fruit would have vanished. They wouldn't be on the ground, just gone. As it grew older I believe it started making enough fruit for all. I believe it fruited the third year after I planted it. I never netted it. I tried cooking the fruit one year and it tasted like tomato sauce to me. When it's fresh and squishy between the fingers it's very juicy and sweet. Unfortunately seeds are a problem with people when I try to get others to eat the fruit. When fresh I swallowed the seeds whole but when frozen and thawed the seeds became too chewy and scratchy. think the fruit tastes of a cherry lollipop. You know how a cherry lollipop is suppose to taste of cherry but doesn't really hit it? That's what the scarlet goumi fruit reminded me of. I tried planting a seedling uncultivated goumi and red gem from a nursery but neither lasted the year....See MoreWill inter-specific natural hybridization occur?
Comments (2)You are 100% correct on the hawthorn hybridization, they seem ready to jump in the sack with any other hawthorn that is in bloom at the same time. A good example of natural/semi-natural inter-specific hybridization could be those blight resistant selections of american chestnut. Seeing that the Chinese chestnut is resistant, and there have been some intentional hybridizations to introduce blight resistance, I would be very surprised if there wasn't some natural inter-specific hybridization between the two; as well as with the various chinquapin species....See MoreWildlife Gardening
Comments (9)Thanks! Yesterday, I ended up planting a couple more small pindo palms and another windmill palm and placed an order for 2x brazos blackberries (blackberry x raspberry x dewberry hybrid), 2x 'austin' dewberries, 2x black beauty mulberries, 1x methley plum, and 1x conadroia fig. I've been wanting a black mulberry for some time, but I didn't want want that got as big as a tree. These black beauty mulberries are said to be semi-dwarfing, getting a maximum of about 15'. Only one of them will be planted on my property. I bought two because I heard they were hard to propagate and wanted to give it to someone as a gift. As far as whether or not I'll be able to grow all of this stuff in this area, the jury is still out. Aronia and autumn olives are things I haven't really heard anyone ever growing in Florida before, and the pacific northwest blue elderberries probably won't do well here because of the huge climate difference between Florida and Washington, but I'm going to try anyway. Some of the things may live but not fruit due to not enough chill hours or even having too much shade in certain areas. A good example of something going wrong in the shade was when our family use to have a large persimmon tree, a tanenashi I believe, and when it got to around 20', its limbs started growing toward the sun, and one day, it had so much weight all on one side of the tree that the roots came out of the ground. It did fruit before that but somewhat sparsely. Just another note about getting lots of plants in two acres. I wasn't totally in to all of the small plants and flowers when we started landscaping this place, and I even chose a few wrong trees initially to plant and ended up pulling them up before they got too big. When I say I chose the wrong plants, I mean I realized that there was very limited prime (somewhat higher and better draining - clear from driveways, access, lawn mowers, - full-sun) space and wanted that space for "better" things. Ever since then, I've tried to figure out what would work best at all of the "other" spaces in the property. There are plants that may like low land with full sun, and then there are plants that like shade but don't like wet feet. Finding plants that would work in a low/shady area that I actually liked have been a challenge. Local nurseries generally haven't been much help either. They just say plant some bald cypress, red maples, or river birch and be done with it! The size plants grow have also been an issue even in the better areas of the yard. Thankfully, almost all of my fruit trees are semi-dwarf, and a few are real dwarfs, and they can be pruned down to a manageable size. I'd be lying if I said I always put plants in the perfect location though. It's part of having a limited space and trying to experiment and make use out of every part of it, see what will happen. It makes things interesting. It's disappointing when it doesn't work out, but it's great when it does!...See MoreReally Into Shrub Fruits Lately
Comments (23)The Blackberries, all thornless erect types have turned out to be a really big success. I have Apache, Arapaho and Ouichita. All make large berries and if I have patience to pick when ripe, the fruit is so sweet. Of course the birds and squirrels get their fair share but I don't care as there is plenty for everyone. Another big sucess is the Goumi, also called Cherry Elaeagnus (elaeagnus multiflora). The birds just love them and they come early, before the blueberries here. Dismal flops are two Honeyberry shrubs I had here for years and finially yanked out this summer. The fruit is too aweful for people to eat and there is not much of it. The shrubs were just ugly. The catbirds did eat the berries though. Also the black raspberries I tried out are long gone. I couldn't stand the taste of the fruit and no birds ate it either. The darn things set fruit so heavily I just couldn't believe it but it rotted on the shrubs as no birds or aything ever ate it. A real shame as I would have left some if the animals ate the fruit. I just couldn't stand it and I do like red raspberries. Oh well. Can't be right all the time. Don't get why the birds didn't want them. The serviceberries are doing great and the birds love them. Also, I keep adding Blueberries and the birds love those too (so do I). I am still having problems with my Nanking Cherries. Not once have I ever gotten fruit. Last Spring I yanked out three of the non blooming red Nankings and also yanked out the two Black Nanking Cherries bought from St Lawrence Nursery. This left me with my original Red Nanking (from St Lawrence) which blooms heavily and a small nanking from Raintree. Then I planted three more small red nankings from raintree. I am hoping some of them will bloom together (my old ones did not) so that I can get fruit. The dwarf ground cherries I also planted from St Lawrence have grown into really nice shrubs that friut heavily but the fruits are so sour. They do look good though. I do have some dwarf sour cherry trees so there are real cherries here to eat. Now I am trying to remember when I planted the cherry trees but its been awhile....See Moreskyjs
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