Figured I’d make this since I haven’t seen a post of it yet. Please post which fruits you grew or trialed that was disappointing and which ones were impressive to you.
I trialed a ton of currants the last 2 years and a lot have fruited. I was unimpressed by all of them. My daughter loves the red, white, and pink ones so I’ll keep them but the sawflies love them too.
On another note, gooseberries blew me away. Specifically Jahn’s Prairie. Will be grabbing more gooseberry plants and planning on making a cage for them so that sawfly can’t ravaged them.
Jostaberries tasted like black currants. Was disappointed as well.
Have you tried anything this year that you loved and somethings that you thought you would, but didn’t?
Also had some red blushed feijoa that tasted better than all the other ones I’ve had. Will be planting their seeds soon.
Black currants straight off the bush taste like musty gym socks. I have belarouska that fruited for me, I took the like 6 remaining berries (after my mom and I tried 1 each off the Bush)and cooked them with some sugar and it absolutely blew me away.
If I end up ripping out my honeyberries next year, I’m replacing them with black currants.
Crandall from Whitman farm tastes better than Crandall from edible landscape. Granted both of them weren’t the best quality ( first time fruiting for both, and Whitman farm was 4 months after planting) but it definitely had a strong concord grape undertone that the other one did not. Neither were very sweet though.
The 1 cutie pie sour cherry I also got this year was very impressive. It did get hit with leaf spot during 2 weeks of non-stop rain really really bad though.
Gooseberries have also been great for me as well. Glendale has a fig apricot taste as a jelly. It’s really unique. Hopefully my poor man fruits next year. All the rest the birds / buddies got.
Nanking Cherries were very disappointing at first. However this year in shade they did well. Will likely add more now. Love the Banana’s. 3 freezes and they are all still alive and going. Added some nice diameter to them. My Paw Paw is underwhelming in vertical growth. It clearly identifies as a bush.
Forgot rhubarb. Though not recommended here; Victoria did better then I hoped. Will be adding Giant Rhubarb next.
I think the most disappointing fruit I’ve grown as far as taste goes was red goji berry. The taste was not for me.
The one thing my kids and I have been pleasantly surprised by is jujubes. My kids love picking them as fast as they can eat them and I love that I don’t have to worry about pest pressure/disease/late frosts etc like I do with apples. I have ripped out a lot of apples to make more space for jujubes.
We dug them up from their full sun location. Put them in large pots. And located them where they get direct morning sun and are shaded by the house about 1 p.m. We put them in pots just to be mobile until we found a spot they like. They bloomed far more but did not set a lot of fruit. Maybe about moderately. But I bet they do better as next time they will be back in the ground.
Most of my fruit trees are to young to fruit, hope to get some next year.
Disappointments, honeyberries, a couple had their 4th leaf and half dozen had their 3rd, a handful of berries at most from each plant. Every year they lose their leaves in mid-summer and I don’t think a couple will come back next year.
Nanking cherries, maybe I’ll move them to part shade before I give up.
My biggest disappointment was finding out after three years that the grapes I planted are not Norton/Cynthiania, don’t know what they are but they taste like a seeded concord but had black rot and mildew despite spraying (abbreviated schedule since I thought they were Norton, which is more disease resistant).
Successes’, grafting! Apples, pears, goumi, jujube, mulberries plums and persimmons. Will attempt to graft the grapes over next spring.
Two years ago I thought it would be a good idea to plant asparagus and strawberries beneath my grapes, all three did great. You know what you need to do to grapes when the asparagus is sprouting and the strawberries are getting ripe? Spray fungicide! Since I don’t want to eat these after spraying I will move both next spring
Honey berries are very northern plants
If you have hot summers and lots of sun they will drop their leaves. They tend to look rough mid summer even when they’re happy
If you’re in a hot place then consider half day sun
Zone 6b. Our honey berries have a rough time during the summer here in mid Missouri. They always loose their leaves and look dead, but have made it through two winters. Some fruit is produced; enough to taste.
Black currents produce fairly well but we find it tough to get past the taste. The white and red currents are almost dead, again. I’m done with them.
Two months ago, I planted the third Nikita’s Gift persimmon ( the first two died in their second year).
mine drop their leaves in july but they always come back great, and htis year hung on longer. eventually they will be in shade but theyre working for me.
As for currants: i have been thinking about trying jostaberry, a hybrid of black currant and gooseberry. Supposed to have excellent flavor and no thorns…
Our Picwell gooseberries produce very well, some years. Ten years ago, we picked 40 pounds of gooseberries from 6 plants. Since then, only a gallon per plant at most. A gallon is 3 1/2 - 4 pounds. During late summer, the leaves look very bad.
surinam cherry - this is a fruit that changed my mind! had my first homegrown red and black surinam cherries from my young potted trees this year. i thought the red was disgusting at first (turpentine taste at the end) and the black was better, but as i kept eating the red ones, i started to really like them, even better than the black ones (i only had a few black ones but lots of reds). it’s bizarre. like i used to hate cilantro when i was a kid (soapy taste) but as i kept eating it as i got older i learned to love it.
this is a thing with many foods that are bitter especially. your body hates it at first in case its poison, but as you eat it and dont die, your body realizes its safe to eat and enjoys the taste. why “acquired taste” foods are often bitter (coffee for example)
The raspberry cutting and the blackberry cutting was able to produce fruits the same year it was planted. The grape cuttings are very slow and no fruit. The 3 years old mulberry tree from seed produce sweet fruit for the first time. One of the pomegranate from seed fruited for the 1st time with good production, size, and flavor. The citrus grafting started to give some fruits: limes, navel orange, mandarin. Started using grow bags for the 1st time and impress by them. Young plants grow well in 3 gallon grow bag and the 15 gallon use for grape that was purchased from Costco. I got fruit from my yellow fig cutting for the 1st time. One of my apple from seed flowered for the 1st time, but no fruit. The same apple was grafted to another establish seedling and grow well in the 2nd full year. Bigger and taller than the original now.
My daughter loves the red, white, and pink ones so I’ll keep them but the sawflies love them too.
