I faced this question when trying to figure out what to plant. I don’t know that I really had a great answer. I did a lot of looking around online (mostly Dave Wilson) and also used some of my personal experience. But a lot of good fruit you don’t find in a grocery store and I wasn’t sure where else to find some.
Is there any place that really does a good job helping to find what’s tasty. Or better yet good options to try fruit? I think grocery stores are more a source of something that looks attractive and ships well than the best tasting. I’ve found a few things at farmer’s markets.
Some of the things I’m most excited to try (specifically figs and persimmons) I’ve never seen in a store because I believe they don’t ship/store well and aren’t picked when ripe. I feel like I need to grow one to see what it tastes like.
How do you all know what is the best tasting to you to help determine what to plant? Or is it all just a giant guessing game to see what grows for you, if you can get fruit, and how it tastes?
You can get brown turkey and black mission figs in summer and fuyu and haichya persimmons in fall at Publix or Sprouts (at least last year). But for anything not the basic variety, it is essentially a giant guessing game unless you have a specific source, either like a fruit market or someone you know. Just have to hear peoples opinion and build your own opinion based on theirs.
For something like tomatoes it’s easier where you can just order seeds and try them the same year. For something like pawpaws, they can be tried at festivals even if it may take 7 years to try the fruit yourself. Maybe someone could organize a fruit testing for different varieties come harvest time.
Maybe there may be specific festivals for fruits, though I’ve never seen one for apples that really focuses on the niche varieties
For figs specifically, there are festivals. And many parks have American persimmons planted near me, but not hybrids or asians
Apperently Nispero can be the common medlar (mespilus germanica), loquat (eriobotrya japonica) or sapodilla (manilkara zapota), and possibly other fruits. Which one are you refering to?
Loquats and sapodillas are pretty good. Loquats are a big landscape tree around here, I tried my first one from an Arby’s parking lot. I just had some from Neem Tree Farms, and they were the sweetest I’ve ever had.
Recommendations here are as good as you’ll get anywhere. Read as much as you can. Then give it a try. If one out of two works well for you that’s about as good as it gets. Graft over what you don’t like.
The problem with recommendations is that everyone’s idea of what is good tasting is different from everyone else’s. Even the same person’s sense of taste changes with age, as I’ve noticed myself.
Also where and how fruit is grown can affect the taste. Even the changes of weather from year to year. That’s why I have tried to graft several varieties to a tree, often with limited success. And be sure to label, plus draw up a garden map if you have more than one or two varieties planted. Win a few, lose a few.
I agree this forum seems a great resource, but since everyone’s taste preferences differ and it seems a lot of fruit differ based on where and how they are grown it’s still tricky.
If you have local orchards or farms frowing fruit you are interested in you can try those to at least increase your own knowledge of the fruit to better guage how your experiences and taste preferences seem to match up to others whose opinions you are reading.
I really lucked out with apples last year when trying to decide what to plant at my new place because there is an orchard an hour from me that grows a lot of old heirloom apples i was able to visit and purchase some different varieties over the course of the summer and grown in an at least relatively similar climate…
It really would be cool if there were fruit tastings held regularly around the country where people could try fruit they cant get at grocery stores (or even when they can, arent likely good examples of what that fruit can ve when grown in a home setting).
I gave up on trying fruit before buying the plant. I think it is best to do the research on pest/disease resistance, cold hardiness, fruit flavor, etc., and then take a leap of faith and try growing it. growing trees is part of the fun for me, even if it turns out I don’t like the fruit, so not a lot is lost.
I just read a lot, read people’s opinions on here, and hope for the best. I know a few people that said gooseberries were disgusting, but I really like them. So leap of faith is helpful too. Can always give the fruit/etc away if you don’t like it too.
My wife does the shopping and goes to Publix! I’ll have to let her know to keep an eye out for those. For a grocery store I think their selection is pretty good. This week she got me some honey mangoes and blood oranges to try.
This is about what I had figured. Read up, try it, see if you like it or not (or if you can even get it to grow).
Everyone is going to have different tastes and fruit isn’t standardized so it’s not going to be the same everywhere. It’s a giant guessing game! But hopefully the rewards are very sweet! The only harvest I’ve had so far is Oranges and they were the best I’ve had.
