Low maintenance fruit garden in zone 5?

Hello everyone,

I’m currently trying to add some more fruits to my parents home. I know every fruit has pests or problems of some sort, but what does everyone consider “low maintenance” for zone 5? I have experience with raspberries, gooseberries, currants, mulberries, blueberries and honeyberries being seemingly low maintenance, at least in the few short years I’ve grown them. Any input would be appreciated!

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I would second mulberries, gooseberries, and currants. For zone 5 I would expect you don’t have the heat/humidity problems I have in Richmond, and gooseberries/currants don’t seem to have other problems here.

You might be too cold for maypops, and they are kind of a pain to eat anyway since you basically have to blend and then juice them.

The more cold hardy figs might work, if you have a sheltered spot, or pawpaws. Pawpaws are not a widely loved fruit though.

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Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve considered maypop but after previously doing some digging, it sounds like unfortunately it doesn’t fair well in zone 5. Chicago hardy fig is suppose to be the hardiest of the figs and even that variety seems to die back to the ground each winter which is ironic as we are in the Chicago land area. Im definitely leaning towards gooseberry/currants/mulberries.

You might want to include elderberries. They make excellent jam and wine.

your best bet i think would be berries.

I have no experiance with zone 5.
But you could have a look at
Rubus phoenicolasius
blackberry
cold hardy grapes (hybrid or labrusca)

there are also quite a few different currants, like black white/red and hybrids like jostaberry.
So that alone can give you some variation.

i think plums and green gages also could do well in zone 5. IMO plums either like your climate/spot/soil and thrive on benign neglect. Or get diseased and struggle.

Raspberries and perhaps Hardi Illini blackberries… also Goumi berry and strawberry.

Here in my TN zone 7a…

I have strawberries that start ripening mid April (June bearers)… and some everbearing that we got fruit from last August thru Dec 1.

My Goumi bushes ripened fruit 5/10 thru 5/30.

Loganberry ripens fruit 5/24 thru 7/10… a super producer for me in a morning sun only location.

Red and gold raspberries (everbearing) ripened fruit. 9/5 thru 12/3… last fall and started ripening fruit 5/26 this spring and are still producing. Looks like they may produce until end of June

My Illini blackberries ripen berries from 6/15 until early August (if we get a few good rains).

Just these… give us fruit for most of the growing season.

I have lots of other stuff growing peaches apples plums cherries jujube che… hickory muscadine grapes apricot, blueberry, jostaberry, currants…

Josta currants gooseberry honey berry may do well in your zone… so far for me not doing so well… very low to no production. May be too hot humid here.

Chicago Hardy will fruit even if it dies to the ground, and you can probably keep some of the wood alive if you have a particularly good spot (or put some work in, but that kind of defeats the point).

Speaking from zone 5b Omaha, I’d second the berries thing. Especially raspberries. I’ve had good luck with them and almost no problems, so far (only 3 years in production so far though, so might still be in the ‘honeymoon’ phase). I also have a Hinnomaki Red gooseberry that’s done so well so easily that I’ve put in 3 more gooseberries this year, though of other varieties. I also have elderberries and they’re pretty easy too, aside from bird problems. But if your folks don’t want to put the work into preserves, elderberries are probably not worth it. A lot actually probably depends on just how much work your parents will put in, and also how adventurous their tastes are, and if they like making preserves. not everyone likes gooseberries fresh off the bush for instance. If they’re somewhat adventurous, My understanding is that American persimmons are pretty trouble-free.

As for what I would avoid, I tried maypops last year, and discovered that they apparently(?) need another pollinator. So you’ll need 2, and I assume they can’t be clones. Also maypops seem to spread extremely aggressively by the roots, so if your folks don’t want to deal with that, I’d avoid them. I thought I got lucky and this last extremely cold winter killed the roots, but apparently it only killed the roots of the main plant which was where I wanted it, and not the various root suckers in the lawn. All that said, they’re very pretty, can easily cover a trellis in zone 5 growing from ground level in one season, and pollinators LOVE them. I’ve never seen so many different ones on one plant. Jap beetles unfortunately love the blossoms and kind of destroy them like a bull in a china shop though.

I’d also caution against mulberries, depending on if you or your parents are going to keep them pruned or not. If they grow to a full size tree, your parents need to be ok with purple bird poop everywhere. I consider them weeds here and dig them whenever I find them - and I find them a lot, as they spread very easily via bird droppings, and are very vigorous. Of course these are not highly refined varieties either.

I’ve also had 0 luck with apricots, due to late freezes, so I’d suggest avoiding them too unless your folks are right by the great lakes, maybe.

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I’m in zone 7b and no experience in zone 5 but based on what I’ve read the following are options that have (relatively) low maintenance:

certain varieties of blackberry and raspberry are able to grow in zone 5
some hardy kiwi can survive to zone 5
some strawberries can survive to zone 5
sugarcane and honey jar jujube are said to grow in zone 5
some mulberries can survive down to zone 5
some American and Asian persimmons can survive down to zone 5
most pawpaws can survive down to zone 5
a hardy Chicago fig may be worth a try

those best adapted are likely:
Ribes (currants/gooseberries)
U of S Bush Cherries or nanking cherries
Juneberries
Haskap/honeyberry

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I second gooseberries. Blackberries and raspberries aren’t bad but with the coming of SWD I think that may change a bit and they may require spraying in the future. Also you do have a fair amount of pruning with cane fruits which does count as maintenance. Cornelian cherries are fairly pest free and low maintenance.

Apples I think in some ways can be as easy cane fruits but you have to pick the right cultivar with resistance to your local diseases, the right rootstock, and you will have to bag your fruit or do a minimal spray program. But if you have dwarf trees the pruning is much less than is demanded by cane fruits. Also dealing with weeds is much less of an issue and you can eliminate most of the weeding.

To a certain extent I think all fruits require maintenance it’s just that the different fruits require a different mix of different types of maintenance.

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In addition to the things you already mentioned, Adam:

My parents have blackberries more or less naturalized in their zone 5b yard, with no maintenance other than cutting the spent canes. Good for several pies a year.

My parents also had some old quince bushes (chaenomeles) that produced a good amount of fruit without care, and my understanding is that they can be used in cooking, though I’ve never tried.

Their neighbors have an elderberry bush that seems to be decently productive with very little care.

I am finding Nanking cherries to be pretty carefree, and the fruit makes for a refreshing snack off the bush, though my understanding is that it doesn’t keep well and it seems like it would be a pain in the neck to process.

Aronia seems pretty tough and I’ve heard that the fruit is good for jam, etc.

Juneberries can be pretty low-maintenance (or not, depending, but they can be).

Rhubarb is also pretty easy and fruit-like in its culinary purposes.

All of the above are things that generally look nice in the yard, as well.

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I am in Chicago land out in north west suburban. There is no low maintenance fruits plants. Many have mentioned currants/ gooseberry/ elderberry / raspberry/ strawberry etc. These are all more diseases resist less spray plants compare to the stone fruits. These plants are easy to grow for sure but to harvest fruits is different story. My gooseberries mostly are picked by chipmunks. Strawberries by squirrels and chipmunks plus slugs. Currants are better, little higher off the ground, some birds might pick few but they are tiny. Compare the work of picking a pound of low maintenance currants to a pound of stone fruits, I much prefer to pick high maintenance stone fruits say peaches. I only need to pick one it is a very large peach or two medium size peach where with?the currants, you have to pick many strings of currants. It is too time consuming and boring. Plus it doesn’t tastes as good as stone fruits. I would like to say that you should forget about low maintenance thing,and grow the fruits that you really enjoy.

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It would be helpful to know HOW you intend to incorporate the additions into the landscape. Are you using the plants as decorative landscaping, or will they be in raised beds or in a small orchard? Depending on the answer, certain plants are likely better suited for the job. Also, does low maintenance include the effort required to harvest /process the fruit as some have alluded to, or just a low/no spray preference for the plant themselves? Based solely on research, I would suggest Jeanne gooseberry (compact form and highest disease resistance) , jostaberry (supposedly bulletproof and deer resistant like gooseberries) , currants (low maintenance in cooler climates) , JT-02 persimmon (known cold climate performer), H63A persimmon (supposedly the best tasting American persimmon), NC-1 /PA Golden /Halvin/Summer Delight /Allegheny /Kentucky Champion /VE-21/Caspian /Sidewinder /Maria’s Joy pawpaw are all either early ripening or bred in the northern part of their range.

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This is a really good point, and of course it also applies to many non-fruiting plants as well.

For example, when we moved to our house, the space where I’ve planted our aronia and Nanking cherries was occupied by a row of yew bushes. I guess you could say that the yew bushes were very low maintenance in the sense that it required virtually no effort on my part to keep them alive. However, if I didn’t prune them regularly, they would have shaded and eventually swallowed our porch. Pruning them was a pain, disposing of the prunings was a pain, and we didn’t like the way they looked anyway, so I dug them up (also a pain!) and replaced them with things that were more fun and actually quite a bit less work. (With the aronia and the Nanking cherries, I put something up to protect them from the rabbits in the winter and that’s pretty much it.)

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The amount of maintenance you have also has a lot to do with the initial planning you make and the amount of research you do before you plant. I recommend you do as much research as you can in advance before you plant anything if low maintenance is your goal.

Think about all the tasks you need to do to get a good harvest. Try to figure out the best way to accomplish each of these tasks. For things you can change easily it’s ok to add them later. Things like plant spacing, location, and layout often can’t be changed after the plants are established. It’s best to get these right the first time if you can. Watering, pruning, spraying, weed control, and harvesting all need to be considered.

My best example is this. For raspberries I planted my bed against a fence. The reason I did this was to help provide support, keep the berry planting out of the center of the yard and take advantage of a slope that underlies the fence. I was concerned about root rot and hoped the slope would help prevent this. Unfortunately, planting the bed against the fence meant only one side of the bed was accessible. This in combination with a wide bed makes pruning and harvest harder than it needs to be.

If I could do it over I would make a raised bed with full access from all sides and keep the bed narrower. I would make sure the bed was narrow enough that all the fruit and canes could be easily reached without having to walk into the bed. I would also think about a drip system or a soaker hose. I normally don’t water raspberries except in drought. However, if I had a watering system in place I would water more frequently and get better crops.

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Jujube might work, but that requires a long, hot summer.

If you want fruit, you will have to net the plants so keep that in mind. Birds will strip everything non-thorny otherwise.

You do realize that low maintenance is pretty much wishful thinking? No matter what if you want them to produce you (or them) will have to dedicate a good amount of work.

Lowest maintenance would be a tree or upright bushes with well defined trunks; with bushes you have to stay on top of weeding and well, you have the bush in the way. For ease of work I would put all other bushes on raised beds.

Saskatoons have been pretty bullet proof for me. The only pest are moose.

Bush cherries would be a good fit. Once established they are big bushes with a strong root system that won’t mind grass. Carmine jewel doesn’t mind sending roots through a lawn and sprouting a new tree 10 feet away.

North Star and Comet cherries are natural dwarf trees. Evans, Montmorency, all can be found on dwarfing rootstocks. I’m in zone 4 so I’m not familiar with sweet cherries.

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Labrusca grapes (like Concord) do well for me in Ohio with just a few sprays of immunox, and maybe one timely insecticide spray for japanese beetles. You might want to find something to rotate bi-annually in lieu of immunox, though, to combat any tolerance/immunity build up. I don’t have to spray Paw Paws at all, but so far frost has zapped the blooms more often than not. Still a nice looking tree in off years.

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Kiwiberries are hardy to Zone 5! The University of New Hampshire has done extensive research and growing of this fruit with much success and has resources available for those who are interested in growing this (vine) fruit.
http://unh.edu/halelab/kiwiberry/

Actually USDA zone 3, the hardy kiwi does well around Anchorage.