Hi! It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted here. I moved to Santa Barbara in 2018 and focused primarily on figs but I’m moving back home to TN and I plan to start growing lots of other fruits again.
I’d like 3-5 varieties of each of the below and would love your suggestions and if there are any other fruits you think I should grow, let me know.
Apples
Peaches
Nectarines
Pluots
Cherries
Pears
Watermelon
I’ll be growing blackberries and raspberries too but I have my selections of those sorted out already.
Limbertwig apple varieties. There are a lot to choose from but they are from TN.
I have only one growing in my orchard but I have had no apples yet. It is too young to fruit yet.
I have Myer’s Royal Limbertwig. I have also thought of Black Limbertwig or Brushy Mountain Limbertwig. Each one gets great reviews.
I live in NE Arkansas. I highly recommend that you pay close attention to GeorgiaGent’s list. I have learned the hard way that I seriously dislike difficult plants. Nowadays, I want a yard only full of honors students. Here is my roster for winners: mulberries, blackberries, rabbiteye blueberries, figs (Mt Etna types only), muscadines, jujubes, and Asian persimmons.
Asian pears are also great, but I personally prefer eating other fruits like figs, muscadines, and jujubes during Asian pear season.
I dislike pawpaws because I can’t stand how slowly the trees grow.
@Evdurtschi yeah, I’m liking @GeorgiaGent ‘s list.
I’m in middle Middle TN - if I can assist or if you want to visit in pawpaw season (august), check my profile here and contact me accordingly.
Good luck and welcome back to the best state in the union
What part of TN will you be moving to? As you know, there is a huge difference between the cool, mountainous region of East Tennessee and the hot, humid, and often swampy areas of West TN. I’m in middle TN which is a nice average of East and West.
I think pretty much all peaches and nectarines do well here. I’ve grown 26 varieties and they all produce here, so it just comes to taste and a few other issues. I’d say just about the same thing with apples. I’ve had about 16 apple varieties and they all did pretty well. Some require more spraying though, for sure, and cedar apple rust is an issue almost everywhere in TN.
Plums and pluots do great here as well, but by all means you need to know that they are high maintenance (as are peaches and nectarines). Brown Rot and insects are your big enemy and require frequent spraying, so know that before you start if you want stone fruits.
Cherries are simple: If you grow sour cherries aka pie cherries, you won’t have any problems at all (though you;ll have to spray them at least twice- much less than other stone fruits). But if you are thinking of sweet cherries like you see in grocery stores, my suggestion is you don’t even try. I’ve had a little success with a couple varieties but “success” when it comes to sweet Cherries in the south is a word you really have to define. Success here with sweet cherries means tons of work and spraying and pruning and fertilizing and so on, to get a fairly low yield that birds will take most of. So in short I recommend against it.
Pears are the easiest of everything on your list, but are not a sure thing. I have major problems with various types of Rust on Some pears, but others do fine. Unfortunately, my experience is that the best, sweetest pears that soften on the tree are the ones most prone to rust, while harder pears that have to be picked and refrigerated and aren’t as good (to my taste) are more rust resistant.
Watermelons are very well suited to TN soil and climate. My favorites are Jubilee, crimson sweet, and Charleston grey. But I’ve grown about 55 varieties and they all produce fairly well.
You should listen to @GeorgiaGent 's suggestions for low maintenance fruits! Everything on his list shown above all do great here and are much easier to grow in TN than anything on your list except maybe some apples that are low maintenance like Liberty, enterprise, freedom, etc. Good luck!
What will you be doing with your fig collection? Are you able to take any plants with you or do you have to sell them off? Good luck with your move and new plantings. I’m sure you’ll have more space moving from SB.
Take your time; do your homework.
When I first started out, I went in heavy on ‘heirloom’ apples, like Limbertwigs, and others that had really interesting catalog descriptions. Of 60 or more apple varieties planted, all are gone except a half-dozen - and none of those are ‘heirloom’ types.
Stonefruits were pretty much a waste of space, other than native Chickasaw plums.
I’m NOT going to spray ANYTHING… apples mostly don’t work for me… pears, persimmons, mulberries, blueberries are our fruit mainstays.
Seems like several people have suggested steering clear of stone fruits. What a bummer. I love fresh peaches. Are they just too descriptible to pests and disease?
I haven’t grown many things easier than pawpaws. Plant them and leave them alone. Water if needed. I’ve had seedlings start producing fruit in 6 or 7 years. Grafted trees are even faster.
I have not removed my pawpaw trees (three seedlings and two grafted [Mango and Prolific]) even though I have yet to receive any fruit. But if I were moving to a new property, I would not plant them again. Figs, muscadines, jujubes, and Asian pears all fruit in a similar window, and all of these plants want to give me fruit very quickly, which is a trait that I deeply admire. I’m in this game to eat lots of delicious organic fruit from my property. I personally have no interest in the collecting side of the hobby.
But once I actually taste the pawpaw fruits, maybe I will change my mind and think that they are worth the wait. In the meantime, I do appreciate the tropical look of the trees.
I’m 100 miles NW of Lebanon, near Hopkinsville KY. Routine spring frosts take most peaches at least 3 out of every 5 years. Without sprays for brown rot, PC, OFM etc., there are virtually no ‘good’ peaches here. I’ve never cared much for peaches, and even in ‘good’ years, my wife wouldn’t bother to pick them, or do anything with them if I picked them for her (and I only planted them because she wanted them).
Apples that have made the grade here: MonArk, Centennial Crab, Kerr Crab, Bastian Orange crab, Stayman Winesap. Still have an ArkBlack and Goldrush, but I’ll never get a ripe fruit from either of those… end-of-summer pests (wasps, European hornets), deer, crows will always get those long before they ripen. I’ve pulled out out all other apples, and replanted pears, persimmons, or blueberries.
Pawpaws… I can eat one fruit, and that’s all I want 'til next year. But… my trees are not occupying prime real estate, so they get to stay, for now.
Thank you for your suggestions. I am surprised at how many people are suggesting figs. I had assumed that it would get too cold but I was just contacted by someone 20 minutes away that has lots of in ground fig trees. Some don’t die back at all and others die back but grow from the roots and with minimal protection.
I will definitely be bringing some of my prized figs to trial in TN
I would definitely bring the figs as what ever growing zone you are moving to is probably a half a zone warmer than officially listed. You could always wrap them as well.
You know, for 10 years after I started growing fruit, those would have been fighting words! I loved my stone fruits more than anything I grow in terms of eating/cooking enjoyment. And it pains me to say this now, but I am getting closer to agreeing with you on that every year. The older I get, the more I detest spraying. Not so much for the health concerns - though I understand those - and not even for the expense- which is great. But I’m just starting to hate the labor of it more and more! Most of mine have to be sprayed every 14 days, and those 2 weeks fly by and its spray time again every time I turn around. So yea, I’m far less enthused about stone fruits than I used to be even though they are still by far my favorite fruit to eat.
