Goumi Berry - A Permaculture Delight! 

I have the propagation discussion posted at the same time, and have it set as a nice sneak peak for members first. 6/22 at 6pm it'll switch to fully public, so feel free to wait or consider joining as a member to support us directly. Thanks either way!

I have grown red gem and scarlet for 5 years now, along with an ever bearing strawberry and a variety of rapsberries. The strawberries start to ripen in May a couple weeks before the goumi, and there is a fair amount of bird damage to the strawberries at first. Once my goumi start to ripen the birds ignore the strawberries and focus on the goumi. When the strawberries wind down for a pause June the raspberries start to ripen. Though the birds still nab some raspberries, they mostly stick to the goumi. So two goumi berry bushes in my yard basically protect hundreds of strawberries and raspberries for me. When the goumi get dark red they get sweet and tasty, but I prefer the strawberries and rapsberries, so it's a fair trade with the birds.

"They come with little handles" 😂😂

Your videos are SUCH a wonderful source of calm wonder and connection. It is so important. Thank you for what you do and thank you for sharing it with us all!

i had goumis at my house on the west coast of BC and had tons of fruit... now i live more north and a much higher elevation and have a goumi here... it's growing but hasn't had the abundance of fruit it did down south... but not bad for a zone 2b! my hearty goji appears to finally decided to flower too this year so fingers crossed.

Love the gumi. We have a popular variety here in Japan called “Bikkuri Gumi” with really large fruits, about the size of a large cherry. I’ve found these super easy to propagate through the landscape by just sticking prunings into the ground. Almost always end up as new trees. Also, seems you need at least two varieties for cross-pollination for a good fruit set. I don’t (can’t) have chickens, but this will be in my arsenal for when I do.

Since I started growing perennial fruits about a decade ago in northern WV, no few bushes have come close to producing as much readily edible fruit as productively, as easily, and as reliably. A few trees of the 3 varieties you discuss make for a kind of orchard unto themselves, each bush loaded with fruit from top to bottom, and from the edges into the interior when planted in a relatively sunny location. No fertilization, no pruning. A few spikes in places but no brambles-like thorns. Deer proof in WV, though not where I grow also in northern PA where deer browse has prevented fruiting without fencing. In WV, the 3 varieties provide a month and a half of progressively sweeter ripening, shortened to a month by bird pressure. Through most of its edible ripening stages the fruit is sweet-tart but can ripen to syrupy sweet if protected from birds. If not for the fibrous and off-putting, though nutritious, seeds, goumi season might rival strawberry, cherry, blueberry, raspberry, and grape seasons for desirability, if not too delicate to ship. Since goumi seems more hands-off, easier, reliable, and productive than each of those favored fruits, and earlier than all but strawberry, for home-growers who don't mind, or who can appreciate, the seeds, goumi season provides a dominant, almost imposing berry-size fruit crop each year. While its flavor and seed may be acquired or off-putting to some, its sheer easy, reliable production make up for a lot. A real workhorse, and a marvel. Robins especially will sit in the bushes for weeks going through the berries. A dominant very nice complement in the early season to honeyberry/haskap, and juneberry and strawberry.

I planted it at my last place but needed to move and it just fruited this year at my new place after years it didn't take. It tastes just as delicious as I remember. Like watermelon fruit roll up mixed with cherry. I only got 5 berries, but more will come in future years. My last bush was 9ft tall planted in 2005 and these are only 2 ft. I highly recommend the fruit.

Something so nice about that goumi in the chicken yard, perhaps it being a complete cycle. Such a pretty and bountiful shrub, nice to know the seed has valuable nutrients. I'll see about throwing in some on my friend's land.

Fabulous information, something I can add to my food forest.

I would love to have one

I have a Eleagnus multiflora, bought here in Switzerland but coming from Oregon. Very interesting what you said about the seed. I like to mix Saskatoon and Goumi… they are standing next to each other and a ready together as from mid June. I have a autum Goumi in the chicken run … the chickens use it to climb… and they adore the berries in October. Always nice to listen to your experience with nature ❤ kind rgds Claudia

I enjoy mine I eat as much as I can

Wonder goumi!

I have a young Sweet Scarlet goumi tucked in between a fig tree and a large birch. It gets maybe 2-3 hours of full, direct sun and it's still loaded with fruit. Wonderful plant. This season I'm trying to tip layer it for the first time. Have you had much success propagating goumi?

Wow, getting fancy with the thumbnails, eh?!? haha I'll have to try Goumi at some point, we have LOADS of great big Autumn Olive but I still would like to try Goumi. Also you're a brave soul venturing into that thicket barefoot!!

Thanks!

His voice reminds me of the hippy teacher on Beavis and Butthead.

So curious about the fruit leather. Do you blend the seeds in? I just ran out to check my seeds, but I think they’re the bigger varieties. “Fibrous” was a good descriptor :) Would looove to be able to streamline by eating the seeds!

Chicken going crazy 😁🇦🇺

Eat the seed! Ok needed that information! Mine are done fruiting here in Middle Tennessee 🖖😎

I want to try growing some in the hot dry sandy Nevada. Going to look for some from seed companies. Thank you 🌻🤩👵🏻👩‍🌾❣️

Great video and well timed! I was recently surprised by ripe fruit on the first specimen I planted (red gem) with ripe lovely berries. We eat a lot of autumn olive here and I was happy to see its cousin fruiting in the late spring/early summer (Central VT). It seems like goumi can be the "every person's" autumn olive in that it is not as tart and there are less concerns swarming a landscape. I tend to think like you in that I use the existing autumn olives as nurse trees for other fruit trees but I am concerned about saving Red Gem seed due to cross pollination. Maybe that's not an issue because their bloom times are different?

Mine is going crazy with fruit right now. I eat them fresh and freeze them. I’m really interested in more ways to use them. Any suggestions?

I have 2 Goumi in their 4th year and one (Red Gem) is doing great but the other (forget which variety) has shriveled fruit and partial disease on the leaves. Spots on the leaves are white/light yellow and dead. It hasn't been very hot yet this summer either. Not sure what's up with that.

I had a goumi berry tree and it died this week. Sad.

Can you grow just 1 plant ir does it need 2 varieties?

Is there a variety of goumi that is hardy in Zone 3?

This is one thing I very much disagree with in permaculture: the use of NON-native plants in the landscape. Surely there are other native plants that can be used instead! Your liking the Autumn Olive is also very questionable as it is rated as invasive in PA.