7a-8b The Carolinas, southern Virginia and northern Georgia/AL/MS

As far as apples go, if you are willing to use synthetic sprays, two myclobutanil fungicide sprays have knocked out cedar apple rust for me. However, various summer rots, insects, squirrels/possums, and birds have really hammered my apples. This thread Scott's Apple Experiences Through 2022 is probably the best source of info on growing apples in a hot and humid climate. Locally grown goldrush is my favorite apple I’ve ever had, but it gets glomerella leaf spot/bitter rot in it’s half shaded, humid location.

@coolmantoole probably knows more than anyone in the world about Chickasaw plum cultivars, and he’s in Georgia. You may want to check out the Plums and Other Stone Fruit for the Hot and Humid South (USA) facebook group he runs. Chickasaws have grown great and fruited well for me most years, but this year’s late freeze took almost all of them out. Plum curculio is a real problem but there are solutions. See Does anything stop plum curculio?. Brown rot can also become a problem, but again there are solutions.

My figs, including a 25-30 year old improved celeste, had all leafed out and were also hammered by the late freeze, and then ambrosia beetles, but are also resprouting. LSU gold had about half of its mature wood survive, compared to improved celeste (very little), chicago hardy (none), brown turkey(none), italian honey (none) and olympian (none). Over several years improved celeste has far outperformed everything else in production.

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