Low maintenance fruit varieties for the lazy gardener

General Fruit Growing
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MOY…you make some good points, but we’re not talking about a lot of backyard growers, we’re talking about Kate. In the grand scheme of things, pears don’t have to grow all that large. Really, how much larger footprint in percentage form does a pear take over another tree fruit of virtually any type? Rootstocks and varieties can be chosen to at least minimize the spatial impact of a larger tree like a pear. I could, right now, drive you around my neighborhood and show you very old smaller pear trees that are very doable in even the smallest yards. They are however typically bigger, I’ll give you that, but there are some big pluses that come with that also. Remember, low maintenance is the design criteria here.

Nonsense…if anything, their vertical growth is conducive to neglect more than anything else I can think of. Unless there is some unusual height constraints, this is a non issue in most cases.

Ok sure, but many varieties are not. You cannot seriously be claiming pears as a species are particularly vulnerable to disease when compared to other tree fruits. That dog just won’t hunt imo. Again, as with anything else, rootstock (limited) and varietal selection are paramount. They always are.

Well, ok, but this could be said about most anything else as well. Again, I can show you single pear trees all over my place that are super laden with fruit right this instant. In urban areas, I really could see this as a problem. It can be an issue no doubt, but it’s probably a lesser issue than the median of other tree fruits, excluding those which are self fertile. Again…varietal selection.

I’ll yield this, but only partly. You can get pole pickers that will allow you to get higher fruit and you might be shocked at the load that can be had from the ground. Going back to the beginning, remember the higher it grows the higher the fruit load per given area, so it’s somewhat of a relative trade-off.

The fact is persimmons are not a very popular fruit. I for one, (who wishes terribly that I liked them), think they are not very good. Jujubes…same thing. Yeah, they’re great fruits and everything, but they simply do not hold broad appeal. They’re marginal demand tree fruits at best.

Pears are disease resistant (despite fireblight), somewhat insect resistant, require no staking ever, can function without irrigation, are extraordinarily long lived, are attractive landscape trees without ever being pruned, cold hardy, generally keep better than most other fruits, preserve well (canned pears can be as good and sometimes better than fresh).
Maybe I don’t know Z7 as well, but I’m Z6 and I’ve never in my life seen any of the trees growing here that you’ve suggested, other than those that I’ve planted and cared for. There is a reason for that.
Pomegranates, Meyer lemons in Z7 as a low maintenance variety? I grow Meyer lemons too, they would never in a million years make it through November here. C’mon now.

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42

Appleseed70, you seems to take my advice a little personally.

Kate said that the trees are for an older couple that she is trying to help set up, not for herself.

If you think older folks are fine doing ladder work on a 20 or 30 foot pear tree, go right ahead.
I can pick all my fruit with a 3 foot step ladder.
Other than the usual Keiffer, Orient, Pineapple, what other MANY varieties can you recommend?
OHX rootstock is the only dwarfing rootstock for pears that is somewhat available, and good luck finding your varieties grafted on them.

Kate’s couple are in the same zone that I’m in, so I think my experience is directly applicable.

The USDA lab in Byron Georgia documented numerous russian pomegranates that survived -6F and produced. Your wonderful variety won’t cut it, but I listed the variety that I have that is one of the documented cold hardy ones.

The Meyer Lemon just survived. I said it shouldn’t have but it has and it has given fruit. I didn’t cover it and I didn’t spray it.
But there are numerous hardy citrus growers in Zone 7 and up that have grown edible citrus.
Citrangequats have fruited up in Tennesee as well as citrumelos, and no spraying required for coddling moth, no worrying about fireblight. Citrangequats, ichang lemons, Changshas have all grown and fruited in Zones 7 and up with good placement and no sprays at all.

She asked for low maintenance, and all the varieties are just that.

Why don’t you give your varieties and recommendations instead of pooh-poohing folks who are successful with varieties that you admit you have no knowledge of?

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First, I didn’t take your advice personally at all, forgive me if it sounded that way.
Secondly, I never said the ladder work was fine for older people at all, in fact, I eluded to the belief that it was not.
I can’t possibly name all the suitable pear varieties…surely you don’t think that what you named is it…do you?

Nobody recommends Meyer lemon for Z7.
My wonderful variety? You must be confusing me with another poster.
Edible citrus is one thing…decent citrus is another thing altogether, and let’s be honest, there really aren’t any good ones for Z7. I know of one (I’ve grown many of them) edible citrus that will grow and produce fruit like crazy in Z6 (probably Z5)…but it’s horrible, useless and full of seeds and covered with killer thorns. You keep mentioning “edible”…acorns are edible…perhaps an Oak tree would be a good suggestion?
Why would a Meyer lemon which barely survived and as you say “shouldn’t have” be a better choice than even a susceptible pear? I suppose you could grow bananas and coconuts too in Z7, but it would seem a rather silly suggestion to me, particularly if pears seem a silly suggestion to you.
OHXf rootstocks are easy to find.
Your suggestions are anything but low maintenance. What they are is risky, poorly suited suggestions that will almost certainly lead to disappointment. And btw. what exactly makes you think I have no knowledge of the varieties you mentioned. Quite assuming of you…don’t you think?
Oh…and for the record…you pooh-poohed first. lol

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There’s a question that’s bothering me. What is meant by “older people”, or in this case “older couple”? Is the couple currently frail or in poor health? Or maybe they simply want an edible garden area that they can enjoy, but are at a stage where they are enjoying reducing responsibilities as opposed to taking on more upkeep.

Also, those pole picking baskets work great for pears, and they extend quite a long way.

I’m probably the one with a Wonderful that does well in winter. Kate lives near my daughter, just over an hour away, but they get colder weather there, but less heat in summer.

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I was curious about that too. I kept picturing this old frail couple with a hand truck moving in and out their citrus trees everytime it got cold.
Then being disappointed when their annual harvest (if they were lucky enough to get one) could be carried back to the house in their hat.

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For me, here in my Mi zone 6-ish garden, I would have to say that my most carefree fruit are currants (black, red and white as well as my favorite the clove currant) goumi, strawberries, hardy kiwi, pawpaw, mulberries, blackberries, serviceberries, sour cherries and apples. My pears and hazelnuts get devoured by squirrels and I haven’t gotten more than 2 nectarines in 6 years. Figs (in the ground) are hit or miss with ripening heat being my biggest limiting factor. Raspberries don’t lie, where I keep planting them. Seaberries have done better recently, but I’ve killed more of these than I want to admit. My dog loves the two remaining blueberry bushes I have, but since I have the serviceberries I’m ok with that.

My poncirus (3 of them) survive, with the largest being about 5 feet tall, but I haven’t even gotten it to bloom yet. Che seems to like starting fruit and dropping it (last3 years). Bamboo is confined and well behaved in its shady area. I’ve struggled with grapes, but would have gotten some this year if it weren’t for my neighbor’s mom cutting a main step a month ago.

Among my potted fruit figs are very easy, Meyer lemon too. I am trying Chilean guava again and I can say that it’s done much better this time the last.

Scott

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Yeah…currants I think would be a great suggestion. It is your mention of grapes that really drives home the idea of low maintenance fruit. They too have their issues, but few, if any, other fruit will deliver the same volume or weight of quality fruit as grapes per given amount of effort or input. They do all that while being fairly reliable at it as well. They are also very versatile in their uses and do hold broad appeal.
As far as the Meyer lemon though, Chills, you are in Z9, that’s a world away from Z7.
Cherries, even sour ones are a bit trickier in Z7, but were great producers this year.
Apples are the over-the-top obvious choice for a Z7 fruit, but for some reason gets little play here.
Seems the theme for this thread is “What could one possibly grow in Z7?”.

Thanks Chills for some reasonable and common sense suggestions.

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Well I’ve been dealing with a sick horse and missed this for a while, sorry.
I was just curious as to people’s opinions on what fruits were the most low maintenance for them, for their zone. Even within the same zone there can be A LOT of differences, so opinions are going to differ, and that’s OK.
Also, “Low maintenance” is a very relative term and means different things to different people. That’s OK too.
As to the couple in zone 7b/8a I’ve gotten some good suggestions and have made a list for them to pick from and I thank everyone for their opinion on it.

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I don’t want to be a party in hijacking the thread any longer, other than to say that at least one other person quoted my recommendations as working just great for them as well being low maintenance.

There are easily citrus good enough for cooking and eating that can thrive in 7b unaided, as many of us know. The Meyer was more an example of how some things can survive despite neglect.

And another person has yet to give a single recommendation for a single variety other than asking about Pears. If everyone would actually give the recommendations that Kate asked for instead of flame wars, I’m sure the thread would be much the better for it.

Some people don’t like figs, some don’t like persimmons, some don’t like pears, heck some people don’t really like apples. Since fruit preferences are so subjective, let’s just throw out the “low maintenance fruit varieties” that she asked for, and she can determine their preferences.

If people have said that they grow pears, apples, and cherries just fine with low maintenance, great…

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ManFY, I don’t think you received more than maybe heat lamp level feedback, but we all have varying levels of sensitivity and standards of what is polite. Appleseed tends to organize his points like a prosecuting DA but to me he was well within the bounds of civility here. We are all passionate about the trees we love and I was set off a bit by your dismissal of pears myself- and I know that they can be difficult. But they can also be easy, if you are lucky or do your research and find the easiest varieties for your area.

Pears require less pruning than any other common fruit tree I grow- unless you happen to plant Bosc or a couple of the other freaky growing pears. Bosc would be a terrible selection as a lazy man’s tree anyway- at least here in SE NY where it is highly prone to FB, scab and pear psyla. .

Your suggestion of pears being excessively tall is reasonable if 5 minutes of pruning a year to keep at pedestrian height is too much work. Mulberries and native persimmons are much harder to keep in bounds. There are varieties that don’t even require branch spreading, such as Seckel and Harrow Sweet. Both often produce fruit without spray, especially HS. Same deal with Asian pears, which are naturally dwarf trees on any rootstock. Korean Giant AKA Olympic would be my suggestion. Asian pears are self fruitful as are a surprising number of E. pears when grown in areas that tend to have warm springs.

A problems with some pears (especially when you reach your life’s final quarter) is they can take a long time go become fruitful. This is not the case with Asians and Harrow Sweet is as precocious as any Asian.

If a site has a lot of stinkbug pressure then pears might become difficult but often the right varieties require very little work. What’s more, older people often like low acid fruit that can get soft ripe like pears.

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Appleseed… Im actually in zone 6. the Meyer lemon is in a pot.

Scott

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For most homeowners, low maintenance means something they can plant, not water, not prune, not spray and still get some usable fruit. Various berries used to fit that bill here, but now w/ SWD they must be sprayed. I suspect most areas with zones from 5 to 7 will eventually have to deal with SWD if they receive a fair amount of summer rainfall.

Euro pears are generally a good choice for a fairly low maintenance fruit and are generally recommended in discussions like these. With no care, they generally produce some fruit. I’m obviously not familiar w/ z7 pear growing. Fireblight is more of an issue in the South, but it’s my understanding there are some proven winners for the South. Both Warren and Magness are supposed to be blight resistant. I grow Harrow Delight, Harrow Sweet, and my newest edition Harvest Queen, which are all supposed to be blight resistant (although Harrow Sweet did have some blight this year - but not near as bad as Bartlett, which is about dead. Harrow Sweet is right next to the dying Bartlett, so that may have something to do with Harrow Sweet having blight.) Other Harrow pears (Harrow Crisp and Harrow Gold) are also supposed to be blight resistant. Green Jade is supposed to be blight resistant and I’ve not seen any blight yet on my tree.

Several years ago I pointed a friend to some supposed blight resistant pears -Blakes Pride, Potomac, and Ubileen. I think the nursery was out of Potomac when he planted them, but the other two varieties were doing OK the last time I saw them (quite a few years ago) with no care.

Other varieties noted for blight resistance are Moonglow and a newer variety Shenandoah (Developed by the USDA in WV).

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No worries,

where I normally post, we don’t normally call others’ experience “Nonsense” or tell them to go “use some common sense” when relating their experiences. No-one else seems to think the response is out of line (heat lamp ehh), so I guess I need some thicker skin on this community…

Good suggestions all around for the trees…

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OK, you have a point. Somehow I missed that in my skim reading. The nonsense is just a matter of tone- one might say that like " oh piffle!"- at least it’s about the point and not the point maker. Use some common sense is not about the point. That is outside the rules, I believe.

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yeah…saw that little symbol ahead of the locale and for whatever reason, thought it was a 9.

My Myer lemon is potted also…all 200 lbs. of it.

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MOY…I never told you or anyone else to “use some common sense”. If you are going to quote me in regards to forum rules, please be kind enough to quote something I actually said.

I found your quick dismissal of a suggestion that actually grows well on it’s own in Z7 a bit arrogant especially when you yourself are suggesting things out of their comfort zone. Further, you went on to “school” me as if to assume I had no idea what I’m talking about. In fact, you even said

I never said I didn’t have any knowledge of them…never said or implied that at all. The use of the word “nonsense” was used exactly as Alan said, maybe I should have chosen another word.

I wasn’t mad or upset pal, and I appreciate straight talk, but you must expect to receive the same. I replied with due courtesy but I gave it to you straight and limited it more than I needed to.
Fair enough?

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Curious how the low maintenance fruits turned out?

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