Growingfruit.org Home Orchard Starter Pack?

Just to pick up on Galina’s and mamuang’s point, I also live in zone 5b MA, a couple of hours west of Boston, and the info I got from a local orchard was that Goldrush is the very latest apple they grow and that it does not ripen reliably for them (something like a 50/50 proposition of ripening fully). People in other places may have different experiences, but that seems to be the word around here.

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A lot of good choices there that could do well in different zones and climates. I’d maybe add Hoople’s to the apples and have a pluot or interspecific hybrid category. For pawpaw, I’d suggest mango and Maria’s Joy. Maybe an American persimmon too, Prok. And hybrid persimmon, JT-02.

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I’d like to see that.

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I have a very old fruit book (forget which one) which has this kind of list in it, and they also divide the country up into different regions and have different lists for different regions. It was interesting to see how aware they were of the need for different varieties based on geography. Anyway, I think this is a great idea but it would need to be broken down by region in the way this old book did it.

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@galinas @JinMA Updated with a preface that this guide is biased towards the eastern US zone 6 - 8 grower.

@mamuang Added Korean Giant, read that one mentioned many times, thanks. What would you say is the most easy to manage / disease resistant peach tree? Per your suggestion I separated plums into Japanese and Pluots, not sure how much demand there is to warrant adding a euro plum category (even though I love prunes!). Also split the cherry category. I contemplated adding a cold region / short season tags but I feel like I can’t do the selection process justice.

@marknmt Trying to keep the scope small (2-3 choices) for each species, if you had to pick two apples to grow that fit the criteria of begin easy to grow, reliable producers, and taste great what would you pick.

@ChrisL Added Redhaven, seen that preferred many times. Also saw Wickson mentioned but need to look into it more.

@Mycorneroftheearth Added Satsuma. :+1: I’ve seen Green Gage mentioned but it looks like there is some difficulty growing it or inconsistent yields. This guide is more focused on fool-proof varieties for someone just starting out. When I have some time I will look into it more.

@Auburn I would love to see alternate versions of this guide! Especially ones for colder regions / shorter seasons and conversely for warmer regions with sub-tropical species.

@SMC_zone6 Thanks! Added pluot category from your suggestion. Seen Mango and Prok mentioned positively before so I added those. Need to look into the other varieties.

@scottfsmith Thanks! I added a preface that this guide is biased towards the eastern US zone 6 - 8 grower, and considering editing the thread title. I would love to add region specific guides or variety tags but that is well outside my scope of knowledge. What regions would you break such a guide down into?

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Is this the book you were referring to, Scott?

Thanks for posting it, it was very cool to read through.

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Yes calling anything best is almost always debatable. The term “excellant” or “very good” works better.

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Totally agree.

Goldrush is great and gets wide support, at least in this general area. I’m not sure about Mark’s list- I definitely wouldn’t include Liberty or Winesap (though it isn’t bad and I actually like it, it is more low-sugar than what I would consider top candidates). I haven’t significantly tried the other 3. Other options I would push would be Golden Russet or Ashmead’s Kernel. Maybe Kidds Orange Red if you want something not russeted.

I wouldn’t put Redhaven on the list. At least not in this part of the country- I’ve heard that it is excellent further west. Instead, I’d go with Gold Dust (early), Loring (mid-late) and Carnival (very late).

For currants, Rovada is a good red one with larger berries.

For gooseberries, I like the 2 you’ve listed, but Hinnomaki Yellow and Jeanne have given me the tastiest berries. Both have also been very weak growers. In fact at least one if not both have eventually died, while Hinnomaki Red and Poorman are going strong.

For pluots, I haven’t gotten a crop myself, but Flavor grenade is great (from other sources) and I’ve heard that it can be grown well here (hopefully this is the year for mine…).

For mulberries, Oscar is good tasting and Geraldi is most productive and dwarfed.

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Surpried at that. What is it’s weakness? Redhaven is reliable and good tasting for me. In what way are the ones you listed better.

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None of the Red Haven I’ve had were ever all that sweet. I’m sure it is reliable and plenty productive as it seems to be the most common one grown in local orchards, including pick your owns. But the brix is usually around 11, while good peaches are 13-14 and great ones are 16-20.

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Suncrisp is an alternative to GoldRush with a long(ish) keeping ability where the season is limited for GoldRush to ripen. It ripens in Iowa in early to mid-October.

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Another data point: that’s not at all the case on the very western Northern California coast. Lots of climate variation in the west, of course.

Have you tried Contender? I have it on order from Adams, partially because it (and Red Haven) are by far the #1 “favorite” peach among those who responded to a survey on this web site.

I can’t report a lot on experience as I’ve just planted my orchard, but since I’m in 7b east coast, I have come up with this list of what I’ve planted as what seems to work here or nearby. Only a few should be experimental, I wanted to start with what was most likely to work first since so much in this area can suffer from rot.

Apple : Gold Rush, Gala, Hooples Antique Gold
Pear (asian) : Korean Giant
Pear (euro) : Magness

Peach : Nectar, Autumn Rose, Winblo, Indian Red, Carolina Belle
Nectarine : Fantasia (though mine is coming with fuzz, not sure if it’s correct)
Plum (japanese) : Satsuma, Weeping Santa Rosa
Cherry (sweet) : White Gold
Cherry (sour) : Juliet
Grape: Reliance

Pawpaw : All Peterson, Maria’s Joy, Halvin (any should work, establishing young grafted trees anywhere is challenging)
Persimmon (non-astringent) : Early Jiro
Fig : Chicago Hardy / Ronde de Bordeaux / Desert King / Black Mission (so far, Desert King has been the best cold tolerance, all have come back though)

Blueberry : Climax, Ochlockonee, Powder Blue, Brightwell, Vernon, Climax, Premier, Tifblue (Any Rabbiteye should work reliably)
Raspberry : Fall Gold, Black (can’t remember variety, got lost)
Blackberry : Prime-ark Freedom (though mine has thorns so must be something else)
Strawberry : Earliglo, Seascape, Albion (all doing very well, but planning to add more)

Feijoa: Nikita (planted near house on South side)

Melons: Everything! But the best cantaloupes for me seem to be F1 hybrids, they are much more resistant to the rain growing on the ground than heirlooms. Watermelon for me has been great, but there are probably better places in the country to grow them, I’m still happy.

So far, I’m getting lots of strawberries and blackberries this year, and quite a few peaches. Peaches I have bagged each with fruit socks, will see what happens there. Raspberry seems OK but attracts lots of pests, they eat the flower buds and the fruit.

Pawpaws I had hoped for much better results, I’ve gotten mine from England’s, but unfortunately they sent the first batch to the wrong address, so they sat in the box for a weekend. The replaced a couple with shipping paid, but those trees, only half have leafed out. My tiny tree from OGW has done the best in my opinion. I would like though to plant seedlings directly in the patch and graft over them myself for the future.

Super reliable fruit for this area seems to be: Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and supposedly Pawpaw, Persimmon and Jujube based on my visits to another guy’s more established garden. Lots of things seem to work here experimentally including Fig, Kiwi, Feijoa and probably a lot more with a little extra care/placement. For example the friend I visited had both field grown Feijoa and ones up against his house, the ones near his house flowered and fruited every year, whereas the others don’t die, but rarely fruit.

Last, stone fruits and apples from reports seem like they can work, but late freezes can always kill things off. This year we had a couple close to freezing nights, but must not have done too much damage. Other years I can see where I may not get stone fruits.

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I have both Earliglo and Jewel. Jewel is bigger and sweeter. I took out most of my Earliglo and keep my Jewel. I put in Mara de Bois this year.

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For nectarines I suggest Zephyr (a late one; first week of Sep), which is a fantastic variety grown by orchards in PA, NJ, DE and MD. Silvergem is an early nectarine (mid July) with excellent flavor too and resistant to bacterial spot, which is a big advantage for all the wet region of USA.

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I’ve had Suncrisp from several farmer’s market vendors. It wasn’t bad, but it was a milder and lower brix apple than Goldrush.

Yes, I’ve had Contender for several years now. It’s not bad. Decent flavor, with some acid to it. It has roughly the same window as Loring (maybe a week or two later). I don’t think it gets quite as much sugar and is much smaller.

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Last fall I kept buying Golden Delicious from a local PYO’s store. They had Suncrisp in the PYO but not the store and by the time I went up to pick it the sign said they were out. One of the Goldens was different. It wasn’t just sweet and aromatic, it was quite acidic and the intensity of its flavor was like getting a peak GD. Pretty sure it was a stray Suncrisp that found its way into the GD bin in the store. If that’s just a milder and lower brix GoldRush and “not bad”, then I really can’t wait til the GR I just planted starts producing.

Suncrisp is more aromatic than GoldRush, overall I probably like eating Suncrisp more. Also no issues with breaking a tooth on a Suncrisp. One problem with both is they are far too easy to pick far too early so there is a very good chance that a sample you did not grow yourself is not any good.

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