Hello all! I wanted to start a thread that we can share our standout varieties. With fruit trees, you put in a lot of effort and wait 3 years just to find out, the fruit wasn’t that good, or didn’t like your conditions. Now I know that some trees/plants are very hard to get going but once they are establish are easy. I would prefer varieties that did well from the beginning without a ton of care.
I also want to put an emphasis on fruit that is rare (you generally cant buy at the grocery store). I live in southern California, so things that do well in that area are preferred, but not mandatory. Also any bush or other fruit plant is okay too.
I will go first.
DWN Nectaplum
This was actually the first fruit tree I planted along with several others, that died from over watering and a cold weather. This tree, just took it all! It is beautiful, and grows very well. I got a change to taste just a few fruit last year and while it isn’t the best fruit in the world it definitely is good.
Panache fig.
I honestly have had a little trouble with mine in a pot, but It has survived my attempts to kill it, and from what I hear from Patty S its a fantastic grower. Not only is it a pretty fig, it tastes AMAZING!!! Like raspberry jam inside. SO good ripe.
Thornless Blackberry.
Unfortunately I dont know the exact variety of this blackberry, as my dad gave it to me and couldn’t remember. But he gave me a thornless and another with thorns. For some reason you would think the one with thorns would taste better because its harder to pick, but its quite the opposite. The thornless black berry produced huge, almost golf ball size berries that were sweet and juicy. I grew it in a pot, and it just went crazy. My son loves eating them.
I started another thread simular to this one, but for the veggie garden, its here:
always advisable to grow at least one long-lived and zero-spray tree, so evidently your fig fits the bill.
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that is rare (you generally cant buy at the grocery store)
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as for vegies that are rarely available fresh, moringa is another long-lived(perennial) and zero-spray leafy vegie that also bears edible pods, which will probably do well potted since you indiated you don’t have much space.
you may even plant it directly on the ground if your winters don’t get too cold and you have a mere 3’x3’ piece of land to spare. Moringa is practically immune to hard pruning
I have a 1/4 acre with a house/garage/driveway that occupies only the SW quarter of it. Of members here in California, I’d estimate about half have less land and the other half have more. Of members here in general, it seems that the majority have more than 1 acre.
People have different tastes for fruits; for example some people hate peaches no matter how good they are, while others hate bananas. Here’s a list of fruits and nuts I’m presently growing – except those in the veggie garden. Pick your 3 favorite varieties (e.g., peach, apple, banana) and check out which of those I’m growing:
Placentia Walnut
Katy Apricot
Flavor Grenade Pluot
Spice Zee NectaPlum
Beauty Plum
Frederick Passiflora
Desert Dawn Nectarine
Mid Pride Peach
Snow Queen Nectarine
Cot-N-Candy Aprium
6GM25 Cherry
Violette de Bordeaux Fig
Izu Persimmon
Janice Seed-less Kadota Fig
Hollyleaf Cherry (a nut crop)
Evergreen Huckleberry
Jaboticaba
Hood Pear
White Winter Pearmain Apple
Gordon Apple
Garden Prince Almond
Li Jujube
Myagkosemyanni Rosovyi Pomegranate
Nordmann Seedless Kumquat
Conkerberry
Bearss Lime
Robertson Navel Orange
MidKnight Valencia Orange
Eureka Lemon
Frost Owari Mandarin
Frost Gold Nugget Mandarin
Suebelle White Sapote
Timotayo Mango
Green Sapote
Reed Avocado
Kei Apple (male and female)
Black Monukka Grape
Arapaho Blackberry
Southern Home Grape
Eastern Prince Wu Wei Zi
Gold Manukka Grape
Bababerry Raspberry
Pisang Ceylon Banana
Dwarf Cavenish (maybe) Banana
Sugarloaf White Pineapple
Gros Michael Banana
Namwa Banana
Cherry Of The Rio Grande (E. involucrata)
I would certainly get a lemon. It is the one that is cropping almost continuously, it is productive, and medicinal. Figs are good too, they give you two crops in a year, but continuous cropping is king for me.
My Top fruit would be Bella Gold Peacotums. Mine were very sweet and juicy. One of them scored a 26 brix, the second one a 25, some in the. The low 20s, and I picked two very early that scored in the mid teens.
The trick for very sweet Peacotums is to water the trees only twice per week. Sometimes three times per week when temperatures reach above 106F. I also used both organic and synthetic fertilizers.
Your lucky that you get fruit set. Bella Gold is notoriously stingy when it comes to setting fruit.
Three things I’d be sure to grow would be Flavor Supreme pluot, Goldrush apple, and probably Lapins cherry. Also, I know some of you rag on it but Flavor Grenade blew me away last year. I’d also love to find scion wood for plumogranite plumcot. The ones I bought last year had incredibly complex flavor that really did taste like pomagranite.
My top 3 would be:
Jiro persimmon – it is almost disease & pest free and bears reliably
Improved Meyer lemon – provides year round supply and is squirrel proof
Fig of any variety – disease and pest free
If I am allowed to have another one, I’d pick a navel orange which is relatively pest free and almost squirrel proof. It also has long harvest season.
I’ll agree with you’re enthusiasm based on the first to reasons, but in my lifetime I’ve yet to read any clinical justification for it being medicinal. But nutritious? – yes, definitely.
There are many locations in southern California where Figs only provide one worthwhile crop per year.
For me so far, Moorpark Apricot and Snow Beauty White Peach (however, both are not low chill and probably will not do well in So. Cal.). I agree that Panache Fig is among the best.
My encyclopedia of medicinal plants by A. Chevallier lists lemon as a major herb (100 in total listed). also in the major herbs list are celery and garlic (and corn, for the silk, avocado, for leaves, fruit and bark). The minor herbs list includes numerous edibles such as carrot, onion, watermelon, chicory and cabbage. Lemon is indicated for rheumatism, as an antiseptic, and to strengthen blood vessels against various problems. 8 uses for lemon are discussed in the self-help section. Then there are the non-medicinal but utterly delicious concoctions known as “preserved lemons” and “lemon marmalade”.
I am with Richard; I would buy a bigger place. When we were shopping for our house, it was all about the biggest yard we could afford and the house was secondary. Space is at a premium at our place; we are on a 1/12 of acre with about 60% of it taken up by house, long driveway, and garage.
3 Trees are just too few! But if I was forced to pick only 3, I would go with what is more expensive or hard to find in the store. I would go with:
Big JIm Loquat (on Quince if I get to pick rootstock for dwarfing). I love mine. Its about 13 years old, and has been in the ground since 2009. Its easy to keep only about 7 feet tall, but I pick great crops every year. It can handle greywater okay and a lot less water than many of my other trees. I can’t get good Loquats at the store or farmers market so its a must have. The flowers smell so lovely and it has attractive foliage all year. I got mine from a CRFG member that grew it, but I have seen them at Lowes and a nursery by me called H&H, but these are most likely grafted on loquat seedings. I see loquat trees most often available in March and April at independent nurseries.
A Fuyu type Persimmon. My neighbor grows Izu and its only about 10-12 feet and she rarely trims it. So for space, its a pretty good choice. She even grows it in half day sun and gets decent crops. She special ordered it from Armstrong. She wanted a variety that produced around her birthday in late September, so she went with Izu. However, any PCNA Fuyu would be fine (but I do have a favorite unknown cultivar that I got from an older neighbor and grafted it on to Kaki. Its not Jiro.) I like persimmon trees because they are okay with less water, few pest, produce when the summer bounty is over, and have pretty fall leaves. They are just super trees for SoCal. The fruits are available in the stores but at a premium.
A Violette De Bourdeaux Fig It isn’t as rampant of a grower as some of my other figs, tastes awesome, tolerates less than full day sun. I rarely find good figs in the store and they are expensive when I get them at farmers market. Most independant nurseries carry this variety or can special order. Lots of folks grow it and share cuttings.
Now if I could plant just four, I would also plant a Bearss Lime or a Lemon. Its is such a blessing in SoCal to walk out the back door and grab a lime or lemon pretty much anytime I need it.
I should have mentioned, I do not only have room for 3, in my introduction thread, you can see I have 8 trees so far. The reason for narrowing it down, is to see what are your favorite s that you couldn’t live without (sorta). I plan to add maybe just a few more trees so I want to include ones you guys have mentioned.
PS, Let’s stay on topic no need to argue about the uses of lemons.