Name Your Freeloader

Many of us have had the problem of freeloaders on our property. They put out thousands of flowers, but never seem to fruit much or none at all. Year after year they make you cry, and you swear your going to kick them out as they promise to work. This is your chance to let your hate flow. Tell us the name of the offender and what crimes they have committed. Then finish it with what your going to do about it.

My freeloaders-Santa Rosa and Flavor Supreme. Both of which have now become franken plums. Flavor Supreme would set tons of fruit every year, then one by one drop everything before ripening. I had two Santa Rosa. One got a variety change and the other is a franken plum like FS. Santa Rosa didn’t even bother setting fruit. Plenty of flowers though. Now I have new friends that pay their rent.

8 Likes

Mine are a Pipestone and Toka pair. We’ve called them the Lying Freeloaders for years now. Stunning flower show, no fruit. PC is clearly also a chunk of the problem.
As to how they are being dealt with, we’ve listed the house. They are not among the things I’m planning to move or plant in the new place. I may just swear off plums and apricots entirely.

6 Likes

Flavor Supreme is a very stingy producer even here, in California. On the other hand, Santa Rosa typically pumps out a lot of fruit here.

4 Likes

Jostaberry… A currant/gooseberry hybrid that produces tons of foliage but insignificant amounts of berries. On top of that it is a magnet for legions of sawfly larva, who can eat half the bush in a day.

This season it is getting evicted and transplanted towards the back of the yard. It is going to get less sunlight but it is not like it ever did much good with more.

4 Likes

Mine too. I am scratching my head and wondering why I got a jostaberry. It seems to have none of the redeeming qualities of a gooseberry or a currant.

Year 3. No sign of blooming. It’s definitely a novelty plant. The gooseberries and currants that are the same are or younger are larger in size and full of flowers / early fruit right now. In warmer climates, the jostaberry is much more impressive. I gave one as a gift to a friend in Oregon and at the start of year 2 it is 4x this size and blooming (although not as heavy as a currant).

My freeloader-

5 Likes

There is some kind of Hawthorn,that I didn’t plant.The thing was cut down to a stump at least twice and holes drilled in and poison poured in once.
The tree is over ten feet tall now and blocking light to a Mulberry.Maybe there is something that can be made with the fruit.

1 Like

I graft quince or medlar on my hawthrones

4 Likes

Pomegranates have largely been freeloaders for me here in the Southeast US, with less than a dozen fruit from Salavatski over the past 10 years. Most of the other cultivars I’ve grown have fruited even more sparsely than that, or not at all. They’ve been spared by the fact that they’re attractive small trees and feed my nostalgia of living in hotter, drier climes.

I would’ve added fuzzy kiwi, but this year my Saanichton vine is finally full of fruit after 6 years of nothing. So it’s earned itself a reprieve.

3 Likes

Red Skelton’s “Freddie the Freeloader”.

Sweet citrus was my freeloader. I read about people growing lemons here in my state in a pot. I tried both mandarins and oranges. The issue I learned on a video is that sweet citrus like a mandarin or orange need colder weather to ripen. Since most people are keeping citrus indoors in colder climates when citrus naturally fruits the fruit never sweetens. I guess this is not a issue with sour citrus like a lemon but the issue is I don’t use sour citrus. I decided to grow a fig instead.

1 Like

My Freeloaders…

Jostaberry, Red Currants… gave them a good try, in 4 years got 3-4 berries… yanked them. They could not take my heat and humidity.

Lapins Cherry… started spring 2018, big healthy looking tree, a few blooms the past 3 springs, but no fruit. It looks good so may just leave it… perhaps some day it will fruit.

Eu Plums (Rosy Gauge, Mt Royal) started spring 2018 - nothing but leaves… every spring I think this will be the year, but still not even one blossom. I will leave them and keep hoping.

Moor Park apricot… started spring 2020… had a few blossoms last year, none this year… no fruit. Don’t think it is tuf enough to do well here.

Peaches… about ready to give up on them. I have 3 trees and love peaches, but between brown rot and OFM… and my unwillingness to spray… mostly just disappointing. Sad when you have 3 peach trees and look them all over and can’t find a peach that is not riddled with wounds and oozing.

I really need to stick with things you can successfully grow with no spray.

Peaches are on the way out… Persimmons, Jujubes, perhaps eventually Pawpaw, Pears… on the way in.

1 Like

My freeloader is currently a potted fejoia (pineapple guava). I bought the pair as 5 year olds from Edible Landscaping in 2019 and have yet to see a single flower. I realize I’m zone pushing and it might be user error at this point, but it will be exciting to actually have fruit on that one some day.

1 Like

The above feijoas:
As 5-year olds, were they well-branched?
Are they still in pots, what size?
Have they grown a reasonable amount in 2020 and 2021? (6" or more multiple branches)
Winter temperatures below +15 may affect spring bloom.

The jostaberry continues to take up valuable yard space with performance that has been underwhelming. It’s funny because it’s a hybrid between a currant and a gooseberry. I have a gooseberry right next to it that is trying to take over the world and the currants are doing great too. You would think the jostaberry would have more vigor than a dead stick. I got one for my friend’s mom down in lower 48 and the plant is now 6 feet tall and covered in flowers so I would say this isn’t a good plant for Alaska.

Compare that to these-


Lots of people say Josta are freeloaders. Mine fruited one year and took several off. I think it has like 3-4 berries this year and it’s getting big. I wonder if they can be grafted to something else?

honey locust and black locust. yes the black makes wonderful tasting and smelling flowers, for a day or three. they sucker everywhere. the honey locust is massive, 20 years old and sentimental to my partner. he’s lucky it’s thornless or I would have taken it out anyway, it makes a constant mess underneath it and the lower branches that I left still grab and pull my hair when I walk by. I’ve cut the low branches as much as I think I can get away with

in town these are useless trees. worse than useless.

the lilacs are freeloaders taking up too much space but I give them a pass, because they’re shading the pawpaws. one day though, one day. they’ll come out and go in the front or side yard, where I have space and nothing else. then they can make or break it during the summer death heat.

as far as fruiting, right now it’s my grape vine. it’s huge, it’s old, it flowers, then they drop. last year I got three bunches I think, this year only one has held on. I use the leaves so it keeps getting a pass.

How well does quince grow on your hawthorns? I’ve had great luck with medlar but never tried quince. Guess I should. Pear is pretty much a bust except maybe if you use an interstem. It looks like OH87 makes other pears compatible IME

Have you tried eating the green goop in the pods of honey locust? It’s amazing stuff- super sweet and with a consistency almost like taffy. Some pods have meager amounts of pulp, but some have quite a bit. I’ve heard reports that the better varieties approach 40% sugar.

1 Like

I’ve had the best luck with kumquats and calamondin.

Something of note is bringing in plants in the winter was never great as well. Sometimes we got pests and inside they cannot be controlled as easy as outside because there are no natural predators. Also we have no south facing windows so light is a constant issue with our house even with a grow light. My plants have always struggled with light inside and no grow lights help it unless they are on 24/7. You need hours of grow lights grow lights for 1 hour of sun.

1 Like