We are buying a new house a few miles from our old house on a 2/3 acre lot in western Louisiana near the 8b/9a line, which means mostly starting over with fruit trees. This has all came about fairly suddenly (our offer was just accepted yesterday, closing should be mid February) so, I do not have much time to plan for this springs planting season, or get orders in on trees for stuff that is not available locally. There is currently a mature Satsuma tree, and a single non productive rabbit-eye blueberry bush, otherwise it is a mostly blank slate with about 1/3 acre of open sunny area on the south side of the house. I will try to attach a satellite photo. (Satsuma is in the NW corner, blueberry bush is on the west side, and there is a large live oak tree that covers the NE corner of the property).
I don’t want to go too overboard on things, but here is my thoughts,
Another citrus tree, probably a Cara Cara orange tree, maybe also a Meyers lemon, add another variety of blueberry for cross pollination. Beyond that I am thinking maybe a couple of plum trees, mostly likely a couple of varieties that were developed at Auburn university as they seem regionally appropriate, then perhaps a couple of plum hybrids, maybe Pluots. Not really sure beyond that, thinking maybe an Asian Pear. What do you think, I don’t want to go too overboard for the limited space.
I would plant a couple of fig trees, some Asian persimmons, muscadines, blackberries. some native plums if you like making jelly, more blueberries and whatever citrus you like. I am suprised the satsuma tree made it through the February 2021 freeze up there. Good luck with your new place.
Congrats Isaac, I second the vote for persimmons and figs. LSU Ag Center has a nice publication with recommended varieties for a variety of fruits. For plum hybrids, you might want to check out Spring Satin plumcot. It was developed in Byron Ga and the flavor is very good. It might do well in your climate. A loquat might also be a nice addition although you’d probably get frozen out of fruit some years. They are very common as front yard ornamentals in my area (solid 9A) and produce pretty regularly. You could plant as a landscape tree and conserve space a little more.
Thanks for the ideas, some fig varieties are probably on the list, perhaps some thornless blackberries, I too am a bit surprised about the Satsuma. We lost 3 of our 6 in the big freeze last year, one of which was about 15 feet tall and that was with covering them and providing heat lamps.
There are some excellent Louisiana fig varieties. Smith has a long history there and some people consider it among the best. I have one and I agree about the flavor, although it doesn’t bear much in my Pacific NW climate. It should do much better in LA. With pruning, mine stays reasonably small.
I suppose bananas don’t grow there? Do citrus do well? That orange would be nice!
Thanks for the replies, I am continuing to follow along, just busy this weekend with getting stuff in order, we have the home inspection walk through scheduled for noon on Monday, so if that goes well it is pretty much a done deal.
As to what grows here, some people have more cold hardy Bananas, though they must be located in a sheltered location, even then they often freeze, citrus is similar, cold hardy Satsumas, Meyers Lemons tend to do ok, but do get wiped out by the once ever 30-50 year freeze events, and generally require active freeze protection the first 3-5 years in ground. Some more cold hardy oranges can be grown if you are willing to cover and heat a few nights per year most years.
