What can/cannot grow in coastal CA - Bodega Bay?

Bodega Bay seems to be a great spot for a vacation home that doesn’t break the bank account either.
Climate seems quite close to bay area CA but a little more cooler over all.

I have read on this forum that lot of fruit trees wont do well in the coastal areas… I would like to grow - Cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, pluots, plums, grapes, berries, oranges, mandarins, apples, pears, persimmon, pomegranates, etc

What can/cannot grow in coastal CA - Bodega Bay?

Thanks!

Perhaps @jerry will see this thread. He lives in Point Reyes Station. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Indeed, our climates are very similar.

Unfortunately, my personal experience is limited to a relatively few types of fruit. My particular interest is apples, and apples do very well here. I’ve got about 40 trees now, several of which are quite heavily multi-grafted, and all are thriving. Disease pressure is fairly light; codling moths are the biggest pest. (However, don’t try planting apples or anything else here without a gopher basket to protect them while young.) There’s a little scab and powdery mildew some years on varieties particularly sensitive to them.

Based on what I see around me, pears also do OK here. I don’t have any in my little orchard, however. I don’t know how problematic fire blight is here - I don’t see it on my apples, but I think I spotted it once on a neighbor’s pear.

Plums, at least the Japanese varieties, are very easy to grow here. I have a huge mature Burbank and a young Beauty that are thriving, and there are wild plums thriving everywhere. We’re close to Luther Burbank’s experimental plum orchards in Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, so no surprise there.

Peaches are harder, but possible. Some of my neighbors have varieties that are bearing well, but - alas - they don’t remember what they are. I tried some low-chill peaches earlier on, but had poor luck. At present, I’m growing several curl-resistant varieties (Peregrine, Indian Free, Indian Cling, Black Boy) and have had some early success, but it’s too soon to be able to recommend any of these confidently. I think that the summers here are too cool for many varieties to ripen properly. The same applies to nectarines. Leaf curl is present and can be problematic unless treated.

I tried to grow apricots several times, but gave up last year after an unusual late cold snap killed my last two trees. I never got more than a handful of fruit. Again, it may just be too cool here for many varieties. Eutypa is present, so you have to be careful to prune only in the hottest/driest part of the summer.

Some citrus is possible. Meyer lemon is common, and I’m growing that plus Bearss lime. I do have to take care to protect them from frost when the temperature occasionally gets below freezing. I have an acquaintance successfully growing a fairly wide variety of citrus in the hills above the town of Bodega, just inland from Bodega Bay. Again, it’s a little cooler than ideal for this, so you’ll encounter citrus more frequently as you travel inland.

We have loganberries doing well, and (of course) there are Himalayan blackberries growing everywhere. Raspberries and boysenberries do OK with supplemental water; it’s a bit dry for them here in the summer otherwise. I suspect that’s true of many berry varieties.

One of my neighbors has a big persimmon, variety unknown, so that’s certainly feasible here.

Pluots are worth trying, to be sure. I haven’t seen any cherries here, though they may well be possible with bird protection. There are wild grapes growing near my place, but they don’t seem to produce much. No clue about pomegranates, I’m afraid.

You didn’t mention figs, but we inherited a good-sized fig (of unknown type) that bears heavily and reliably, and I’ve seen others scattered about. Lots of loquats around here, too.

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Wow, Thank you so much @jerry for such a detailed report! Very helpful!!!
Looks like oranges, mandarins, apricots may not do well but plenty of others will do well.
I’ll keep you posted after my visit.

Thanks so much again!!!