We just 2 new spots opened up in our yard for fruit trees and would love advice.
Location 1:
Basically in full sun - gets Sun from dawn to about 4-5pm in Z10.
Our requirements (ideally)
Grows fast to create a screen again
Not deciduous
Good quality fruit and production.
Produces fruit fast
Location 2:
We also got a small patch of grass removed from next to the driveway and can plant 1 or maybe 2 trees there too.
Gets sun dawn to about 2-4pm. Maybe a bit later too. Slightly more compact final tree needed since the width of the spot is a lot less than the first location.
Our requirements (ideally)
Grows fast to create a screen
Deciduous probably OK but might prefer evergreen.
Good quality fruit and production.
Produces fruit fast
I’d love thoughts and advice on specific varities and sizes of plants to consider.
We’ve been looking at the following for Location 1:
Avocado: Reed (we have a 4-6 ft tree that’s laden with flowers in a pot we can transplant and also have a newly grafted seedling (about 2 ft tall) we can put into the ground from now. The older tree is about 3-5 years old as far as I can tell.
Have 2 other grafted seedlings - Don Gilgogly, Gwen that I could put in. Both have strong production in SoCal apparently. Gwen is particularly highly recommended here.
Citrus:
Can put an older Pixie Mandarin from a pot the ground. It’s already producing at this point in the pot.
Can put a new 3ft Shiranui that’s in a sleeve (soon to go into a pot) in there.
Can put Cara Cara that’s already producing in a pot into the ground.
Can transplant a young cara cara that we are taking out of its current location to here.
Can buy an older tree - maybe a CA Honey or Xie Shan or Washington Navel or a Tahitian or Valentine pomelo or something like that from the citrus threads.
Can put a grafted mango:
Lemon Zest - about 3-4 ft tall
Or one that’s half Manilla half Orange Sherbet - about 3-4ft tall.
Or buy an older Manilla, stick it into the ground here, grow it and then graft later.
Or can do a lychee.
For Location 2, we’d be open to any of the above with the caveat that we’ll have to maintain the tree to be quite a bit smaller and less deep. Height will probably have to be about 5-8/9ft at max and width can be about 10ft total but the depth is probably going to be about 4-5 ft total to not encroach on the neighbor’s property.
I was considering one of the mangos from above or a Cherimoya/Atemoya.
Also considering getting an older mango or Cherimoya or Atemoya and then getting it to grow and then grafting more onto it.
I also thought about a pineapple guava hedge here with a taller 2 year old rootstock and a few grafted varieties around it with the idea that we’d test/taste varieties and graft the ones we like onto the bigger tree and/or remove trees as we decide what we like and graft onto the bigger one.
I was thinking pineapple guava for one of the spots as well as I was reading. For the other spot I’d just go with whatever citrus you like for fresh eating the most. Shiranui and Cara Cara are both really good.
Thanks! In your experience - how long does it take for a Cara Cara or a Shiranui to get to producing size? My Cara Cara in a pot has been extremely slow growing though it produced excellent oranges this year. It’s obviously largely due to being in a pot but when I compare it to the Shiranui in the sleeve, the latter is almost as tall as the former. Obviously the former is way broader and the trunk it thicker. But it makes me think the Shiranui is more vigorous and that maybe that’s the one to put in the bigger spot and have it accelerate.
For the first spot, how large do you want it to get? I only saw that for the spot 2. But fast growing and super productive but mainly because I can’t grow one, I was thinking a Jamun/Java plum. They grow really fast apparently, but not everyone loves the fruit. They get absolutely giant tho. Ice cream bean is the other thing that comes to mind that grows really fast
Yea ice cream bean could be a good one. I wonder if we could plant the Ice Cream Bean as the main tree in the smaller side patch (Location 2) and then plant Fejioa around with the plan that the ICB will grow much faster so we can maintain it a bit more tree like (say 8-10 ft tall) and then maintain a fejioa “hedge” under it - say about 5-6 ft tall. That spot basically faces north east - the front of it is at about a 45 degree angle to the East where the sun rises. And not many/any obstructions to getting sunlight. So even with a taller ICB eventually I’d expect the smaller pineapple guavas to get direct Sun until about 1pm and then dappled Sun for a few hours and then direct Sun again once the Sun dips to the west. So that might be good!
Bananas is a good one too. Unfortunately my wife and kids have nixed that idea since they think Bananas look messy … “grow the bananas in the backyard if you really want to” is the summary of the feedback
Bunchosia glandulifera - peanut butter fruit likes the conditions for spot 1. I don’t think they get huge but produce fruit fast…yes they actually taste like peanut butter
Wax apples/Syzygium samarangense could be a good choice for spot #2 if you like the fruit. They will fruit on old wood, sometimes directly from the trunk and main branches, as well as new growth, so you can prune to size without losing much fruiting potential. It may be different in your location, but on the coast, my parents often get two crops a year: a smaller crop maturing in August and a main crop in November. Some years the two crops merge for a single large crop in October-November.
I like the idea of an Ice Cream bean in spot 1 since you want something fast growing. I am big on mulberries so would recommend that as well, preferably a non-staining variety. They grow fast as well. I would be concerned with fruit thieves for the avocados and citrus, but that’s just me lol.
A calamansi/calamondin tree grows pretty quickly compared to other citrus and seem to have fruit year-round in CA. Best citrus for garnishing a cocktail IMO.
My family in SoCal have guavas, cherimoya, loquats and avocado trees in their yards that are all evergreen fruit producers
Feijoa/pineapple guava and Arbutus/Strawberry Tree both are evergreen shrubs that can become trees, and fruit and grow decently fast.
I have two peanut butter fruit trees in full sun and they are both growing strong, and its been upper 80s, lower 90s with no clouds for the past month and a half. They aren’t good shade trees though, very thin long stalks. I guess you could prune it to be bushier, but it doesn’t really keep a ton of leaves and even the larger ones I’ve seen aren’t really that shady.
I know - the front yard thieves is the most annoying and worrying factor around this.
Though that’s partly why I like the idea for a fast growing and larger tree like an orange or Shiranui mandarin or an avocado since hopefully we get so much fruit eventually that a few stolen won’t matter.
I also like ice cream bean and fejioa for that since I suspect many people will think they are inedible and purely ornamental …
… “grow the bananas in the backyard if you really want to” is the summary of the feedback 