They like for us to not have long conversations on the introduction forum so we can continue our conversations here.
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That’s awesome!
Well, here is what I planted this last year (2024) in hopes that I will have plenty of fruit for the family to enjoy in the next 30+ years. I am in Henderson zone 8b
Figs:
- 2 different Chicago hardy (one from Starkbros, the other one from Baker Creek)
- Texas everbearing from a local nursery called Alcatraz-
- Brown Turkey from Home Depot -
- LSU purple from Edible Landscaping -
- Olympian from Edible Landscaping -
- x2 unlabeled figs I found cheap, likely Celeste-
Jujubes:
- Air layered Li on its own roots (hoping to get suckers to share with others). I got it off eBay.
- x2 Li from Starkbrothers-
- Honey Jar from planting justice (Dave Wilson) -
- Sugarcane from Edible Landscaping (Dave Wilson as well)-
Mulberry:
- x2 Dwarf everbearing from Starkbros.
Persimmon:
- Saijo from Starkbros
- Fuyu from Starkbros-
- Standard Jiro from Starkbros-
- x3 Maekawa Jiro from Starkbros (I got all 3 for $85, couldn’t pass).
If any of them die (they shouldn’t, historical low is 0F as far as I could research), the plan is to order some Scion wood of more resistant varieties, maybe some hybrid or American persimmon.
Elderberry:
York and another 2 varieties (don’t remember the name) from Edible Landscaping.
.
The ones above are the trees I hope to be reliable in the long run. Then I’ve planted some peaches, apricots, plums, and pears knowing that they will struggle since I have a 0 spray policy. If I get some fruit of the other trees for a few years, I’ll be happy.
I will continue to report how these trees do as they grow. I am open to suggestions from others about edible plants that do like crazy here.
Pedro
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Muscadine grapes will grow very well in the Henderson area & are not on your list. Since you mentioned no spray, they are about the only cultivated type of grape that will grow well in that area without spray( they still do better with spray, but you should get some decent crops even no spray). Bunch grapes are pretty much a lost cause in East Texas unless you’re willing to spray, so I wouldn’t bother with those if no spray is the goal.
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Seth, thank you so much! I am open to any new suggestions, please let me know how your experiences have been with some of the fruits I’m growing or with some that you suggest.
Pedro
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I think you’ve made good choices on things to trial overall. Apricots will probably be a total failure no matter what you do, peaches are pretty tough in East Texas period, but especially no spray. Plums may do ok depending on the variety. Pears can do great with the right varieties even no spray or die quickly if they aren’t fireblight resistant. Blackberries usually do well with no spray, and if your soils are acidic enough, you might be able to do rabbiteye blueberries in the Henderson area as well. Rabbiteyes are pretty much no spray required on a homeowner scale if your soils can grow them. That’s about all that comes to mind given your criteria of no spray.
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Nice to see other East Texas growers here! I’m near Nacogdoches. Currently growing peaches, figs, a variety of apples, mainly Pink Lady with some Granny Smith and Ein Shemer among others, Pakistan mulberry, Dwarf Everbearing Mulberry, lots of different blueberries, plums, and a few others I’m sure I’m missing right now.
Just got started on collecting bush cherries. Mainly romance series and Nanking so far to try out. They’re doing pretty well right now, fingers crossed.
I took a cutting from a goumi on SFA campus recently, and that’s doing well. I’ve heard this year they plan to sell them at the plant sale.
Deer eat the peach leaves, but no other problems so far. Winona Farms and Dodson Farms out here do peaches well enough, though I forget to ask if they’re no spray.
So far any and all mulberries jump out of the ground for us. We’re about a mile away from the Angelina River, which leaves us with a lot of sandy soil. I get mulberry cuttings from Himmel Holler on Etsy, and other places, and stick them in a lot and they just grow. Pineapple guava cuttings are the same, though I don’t have fruit yet.
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Glad to hear from all y’all! I’m growing muscadines, mulberries, elderberry, blackberry, figs, persimmon, jujubes, peaches (and I’ll say I’m sorta growing some of these things), apples, pears and plums. I’ll go into more detail later but have a 4:15 alarm set. I’m not doing spray hence I’m sorta growing some of this stuff. I’ll be interested in knowing what varieties that are growing well for you.
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Hi Seth,
Which varieties of Pears do you recommend? I have a Kieffer and a Pineapple, and I’m about to buy a Perdue which is supposedly very resistant to blight.
Regarding Asian Persimmons, I would love to hear everyone experiences with them. Do they survive our temperature fluctuations? What about snowmaggedon? Did they survive? And how cold did it get in your area of East Texas?
Pedro
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Muscadines? Dr. Scheiner with TAMU Agrilife Extension got a grant to look at different muscadine varieties.
See here: First-of-its-kind project to improve muscadine grapes - AgriLife Today
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This is awesome and I had no idea they were about to perform this research!
I will look into getting some Muscadines this year. Thanks
You should have enough chill hours that you have quite a few options. Orient & Kieffer are the old standby’s. Garber is usually good if you can find it. Acres home, Warren etc.
Texas a&m just hired a grape breeder(he just started in January) who will be developing a grape breeding program as well. I’m not sure if he will be doing any muscadine breeding or not, I think it’s mostly going to be focused on bunch grapes, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up doing at least some muscadine breeding as well at some point. Of course, breeding programs for long lived perennial crops take a long time to get anywhere, so it will likely be somewhere between 10-20 years before any releases happen, but I’m still very pleased that they are starting the work.
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One of the reasons we have some trouble here is because of what is happening right now. Before our “snowmaggedden” we had average to warm temperatures and a few days after we got into late February temperatures of 70°. So when it hit -5 at my place everything suffered more than if we had constant winter temperatures. Because we had some snow cover I think it helped a little but those fluctuations are hard.
I’ve grown both orient and kieffer and lost both trees to fireblight and that doesn’t usually happen. We had three really bad years back to back for it and I found a wild pear in my pasture that was innoculating them. I have also lost moonglow and Le conte. I now have a multi grafted Asian pear with Korean Giant, Shinko, and Shin Li that has had problems with the fireblight but is still going even though pruning has taken some limbs out. I also have a young red Asian pear growing that has not seen any hits with FB and it will be starting its third year this year. 
Peaches: I have a sentinel peach that half the tree died after the 2021 vortex but it is still producing and receives no spray and does not have the diseases that have plagued other peaches and plums. I also had a Sam Houston peach that was really good but the cold weather hit it a bit too hard. Every other peach tree I have purchased the deer killed and I will have to find a bigger tree than what I’ve been finding to get it through……or a MUCH bigger wire cage.
Plums: Bruce, Late Santa Rosa, Ozark Premier and Green Gage (non producing). Plums are difficult and I get a few and my trees are crappy and they just don’t do well without spray. I want to get some that grow on the side of the road and grow them!!
Mulberries: I have Illinois Everbearing, Wellington, Oscar, Miss Kim, Silk Hope mulberry trees and a couple of grafts of some lesser known varieties and I will have to go out and read the tags to tell you what they are.
Apples: I am embarking on an increased experiment on non spray apples. Not sure anything is going to come of it but I have produced a couple of varieties of tasty apples that I did not spray. Hunge is one and it grew well and the apples have a wine-like flavor…like a fresh apple cider taste. The other one surprisingly is Bramley’s Seedling. It’s a cooking apple native to England and the pie from the Bramley’s is fantastic! The tree grew well and the apples were good with no spray. I say were because my tree got hit hard with a mower (don’t ask!) and I couldn’t bring it back as it cracked at the graft line. I have another small one growing. I have grafted a few more varieties that I will plant out this year to try. I may do a spray on them. I may have to do a prophylactic fireblight spray if I continue to have problems.
Figs: I have a big Brown turkey? I bought it off the side of a highway at a “put $10 in the jar and pick out a tree” stop. I have a purple fig that seems to be almost like an everbearing as it produced figs almost all summer this year. A cutting was sent to me by a forum member and I think he called it Dominic. It’s a tasty fig
Jujubes: I’m a fan and an addict. I don’t have everything but I’ve got a lot!! I grow seedlings and sell them for rootstock. I sell and trade scion. I graft trees for sale. I have sold seeds. I trade on the forum. I trade on FaceBook. If I don’t have it I can tell you who does…… 
. I’m hopeless
Persimmons: I’m not as bad with them as jujubes but almost. I’ve lost a few young ones over the last two drought years. I’m not trying to make excuses but I’m kinda old….maybe more than kinda….and I’ve been replacing joints over the last 2 or 3 years faster than I’ve been replacing trees. I still need a hip but haven’t pulled the lever on that one yet. The fireblight and the drought has hit me hard because I haven’t stayed on everything like I should have. But I grafted a bunch of persimmon hybrids last spring and hope to have a few more of them growing. Or I might sell or trade them. I have sooo many persimmons now I need to do the latter. I was trying to figure out how to get all the fruits picked and what to do with all of them and my horses got out and then I didn’t have a problem anymore. And….the horses didn’t get sick either. Win win. 
Muscadines: I originally bought several from Walmart. Don’t do it unless you don’t care what variety you’ll get because I don’t think any of them were actually what they were supposed to be. Order from Ison’s or Bottoms, or make a trip to Bob Wells/Sorell Farms. I have Supreme, Paulk, Ison, Triumph, Late Fry, and what I think is Carlos and Noble. Maybe one of them is Cowart. I enjoy fresh eating, making jelly and have tried to make wine. I’m excited about the Texas A&M news!
I’m gonna quit now. Sorry but I’m a bit hard on the ears in person and hard on the eyes with text.
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I’m going to do some serious grafting with apples this year, just because all the ones I want to buy are way more expensive.
Right now I’ve got King David, White Winter Pearmain, Burford Red Flesh, Cannon Pearmain, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Hewe’s Crab, Arkansas Black (though I think I just ordered a bare root tree for this variety. Hewe’s Crab pollinates with it), Roxbury Russet.
I am ordering scions from Diane Flynt and some from Fedco. I also live very close to Legg Creek Farms, and they may have some varieties I can try.
Really trying to see what apples will grow out here. Peaches get eaten by the deer, but I have a couple of solutions for that. I’m not a huge fan of pears, but we have a few that grow “wild” and do great.
Never grown persimmons either, the wild ones here do very well.
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Well, I’ll be closely watching and learning from your experiences guys. I want to grow apples but I don’t have the space to experiment, I would plant once I know of a variety that would have high chances of thriving here…
I’m also going “crazy” about jujubes. So far I have Li, Sugarcane, and Honeyjar. Once I have suckers, I might kindly ask for a small scion of a different variety to try… We can trade for other cuttings, like figs
Pedro
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Anyone with experience growing Tice Mulberry, Jan’s Best Mulberry, and Grover’s Best Mulberry in our East Texas area?
I just got some cuttings and I’m hoping to root them!
Also, just got 2 Perdue pears. Would like to know if you grow these as well.
Pedro
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I’m not growing those varieties, but I’ve never ever had a problem growing any mulberry here, except for a white one my husband kept mowing, and even that one came back for like 3 years.
Haven’t heard of these but they look promising. I might have to check them out.
There are only two basic problems with mulberries in this area. I tried to grow Shangri La and World’s Best. Shangri La would not produce fruit due to early frost and my world’s best rooted cuttings were just out right killed. It’s the same phenomenon that keeps us from growing cherries and apricots. The other group of mulberries that are difficult to impossible to grow here are the morus nigra varieties. These true “black” mulberries will usually succumb to fungi and even bacterial infections in our humidity and we are basically borderline warm enough for the Pakistani.
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My two dwarf everbearing mulberries from Starkbros are thriving. I’m happy to share cuttings, they root easily.
I just got cuttings of Jan’s Best Dwarf everbearing. I will be rooting them and planting them soon, God willing.
Jan’s best should do great. They grow nuts in Florida and there are people growing it in Zone 5a, so it can take the cold as a champ.
I think the Starkbros ones are going to be inferior in quality and quantity to Jan’s best, but I’m still going to be growing both to have more variety…
Pedro
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Question for Katy and anyone else growing jujubes in the hot and humid ETX.
Do jujubes do well and produce well in East Texas? I know they love the heat, but I’m not so sure about the humidity.
Are they bothered by it?