Introducing 'Pippi' Goumi Berries

This post is to introduce an excellent new goumi selection which will go by the name of 'Pippi' in honor of the independent young red-head from the children's story Pippi Longstocking (or Pippi Långstrump).  'Pippi' goumi originated as a seedling, but showed such heavy fruit production of very good sized berries that it became obvious that it warranted further clonal propagation.  Goumi berries belong to the species Elaeagnus multiflora.

In the 2020 season I was able to compare the fruit of 'Pippi' with that of two other named cultivars; 'Sweet Scarlet' which was growing adjacent to 'Pippi' and of the same age as well as 'Carmine' which was growing in a large pot a few hundred feet away from the others and was of a younger age.  This was the third year of fruit production for both 'Pippi' and 'Sweet Scarlet', but the first year of fruit production for 'Carmine'.  

For three years in a row, 'Pippi' has produced progressively heavier crops of good sized fruit while the neighboring 'Sweet Scarlet' has consistently produced very light crops of excellent tasting, but significantly smaller berries which are tedious to pick.  'Pippi' has consistently tasted slightly less sweet than 'Sweet Scarlet', but is of very good well rounded flavor between sweet, acid and tannic.  While 2020 was the first year 'Carmine' produced for me it easily out produced the larger and very well established 'Sweet Scarlet' bush with fruit slightly smaller than 'Pippi, with a slightly sweeter taste than 'Pippi'.  Both 'Pippi' and 'Carmine' produced enough fruit weight per branch to cause significant drooping of branches while 'Sweet Scarlet' has never produced enough fruit to have any affect on the branch structure.  In fact, the weight of the fruit crop on 'Pippi' this year was enough to reduce it's height by about half and the weight endured for long enough that after the multi-week harvest was complete the branches remained bent.  This affect may eventually prove to keep the bushes wider than tall which could be advantageous for hand picking, but further evaluation will be needed.  

For a more scientific comparison I calculated the average weight per berry from each of the three selections in the 2020 production season.  I also calculated the approximate number of berries per pound for each selection.  This weight analysis was completed with stems still attached.

• 'Sweet Scarlet' = 0.034oz/each - 29.4 fruit/oz
• 'Carmine' = 0.075oz/each - 13.33 fruit/oz
• 'Pippi' = 0.092oz/each - 10.87 fruit/oz

As you can see, 'Sweet Scarlet produced fruit significantly smaller than the others with 'Pippi' being the largest at just under three times larger than 'Sweet Scarlet'.  'Carmine' were well over twice the size of 'Sweet Scarlet' and a little smaller than 'Pippi'.    

Another trait that was worth comparing was fruit stem size.  From the following image you can see that 'Pippi' (labeled as "seedling" in the photo) has the most robust stems while 'Sweet Scarlet' has shorter and thinner stems.  'Carmine' appears thin like 'Sweet Scarlet', but long like 'Pippi'.  While the stems are not eaten, there is practical reason to consider the stems for the overall quality of the fruit.  I found that after picking many goumi berries from the three varieties, the two with longer stems were significantly easier to hand pick at a fast rate.  Additionally, the thick stems of 'Pippi' rarely detached during picking, while the thin stems of 'Sweet Scarlet' sometimes held on and sometimes detached.

Goumi doesn't have a particularly long shelf life after picking due to the softness of the fruit and should be eaten or processed quickly.  That said, a test batch of both 'Pippi' and 'Sweet Scarlet' were left in bowls at room temperature for an untracked period of days.  Periodic inspection revealed that the primary cause of spoilage for individual berries within each bowl was directly linked to whether the stem was still attached or not with mold growth originating on the exposed end of berries which had detached from their stems.  Because of this, the average berry shelf life potential for 'Pippi' appears notably better than 'Sweet Scarlet' on account of it's low incidence of stem detachment during harvest.  A benefit of being able to safely age the fruit for a few days after picking is that the tannic flavor tends to become reduced resulting in more juicy and sweet flavored fruit.  'Carmine' was not included in this berry aging comparison.  

While the heavy fruit production of 'Pippi' was impressive it did present a problem in that the fruit crop was much too large to be limited to fresh eating (even though it ripened over a period of multiple weeks).  Therefore ease of processing needed to be evaluated.  Upon purchasing a food mill (of a well reviewed brand) it became clear that separating the pulp from seeds and stems could easily be accomplished for all selections of goumi in the trial using the standard hand operated food mill.  

The resulting pulp from 'Pippi' (and presumably other selections had they been processed in similar quantity) was of a smooth texture and almost as thick as apple sauce.  After being left to sit for a few hours the pulp transformed into a sort of "curds & whey" in which the liquid separated to the bottom of the containing vessel while the solids coagulated into a jelled mass above which while still soft could be sliced.  This is worth further experimenting for how to use the resulting pulp liquids and solids separately from each other if desired.  Upon tasting the liquid and solid portions separately it was apparent that the larger concentration of sugars is likely contained in the liquid while most of the tannins are probably retained in the solids portion.

In addition to the above observations, I've also noticed that for the past three years 'Pippi' has begun blooming before 'Sweet Scarlet' which was planted next to it for cross-pollination.  While there is mixed info online regarding whether goumi berries are self fertile or not, it does seem that the very heavy fruit set despite only partial bloom overlap would indicate a good degree of self fertility in 'Pippi'.  To confirm if this is the case, clones of 'Pippi' would need to be planted in isolation from other selections to confirm whether fruit set remains consistent.  However, I have not yet had opportunity to try this.

Currently I am releasing this new selection via cuttings for grafting or rooting, but as rooting goumi is quite challenging I recommend that only experienced propagators purchase the cuttings.  For those who are not experienced propagators I recommend waiting until rooted clones are available either from my nursery (Johann's Garden) or from another nursery which is able to propagate plants from cuttings received from me.  For purchase please see nursery website.