Problem Free Varieties & an Introduction!

General Fruit Growing
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Hello everyone.

My name is Ross and I’m relatively new to growing fruits. For the past year I’ve been growing mainly figs. I find it incredibly rewarding, and now I want to try my hand at pretty much every fruit you can grow. I’ve been a member at OurFigs & Figs4Fun for the past 6 months or so… They’re an amazing resource for figs, but there seems to be a lot more to learn from this community regarding other fruits. I hope to learn from you all.

Onto my question… Just like many of you I’m after problem free varieties. I live in the humid northeast near Philadelphia, so I’m worried about disease and rot. I don’t want to be spraying fungicide if I can help it. I did my best researching and selecting varieties I thought would be the most problem free. Please look at my variety list and let me know if you’ve had any bad experiences with these: Cultivar List - Google Sheets

Thanks!

-Ross

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Hey Ross welcome! I’m glad to took my suggestion and joined this group.

You’ve certainly gone all in if you are planting all those fruits! There are more knowledgeable people here than me regarding the need for fungicides and other pesticides in your area. But will say it’s going to be tough sledding with things like nectarines and pluots.

I’ll make a couple of suggestions: Tomcot apricot and Sweetcrisp and Springhigh blueberries. I think Philly is warm enough in winter for those two blueberries and they are my best by far.

Good luck!

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Hi Ross. Welcome to the group.

I would advise you to learn about rootstocks. Some rootstocks will greatly improve your chances of success, and some guarantee death.

What kind of soil do you have? Loam? Sand? Clay? Rocky? Matching the right cultivars with the right rootstocks for your particular soil is key.

Redhaven (on a compatible rootstock) should do really well for you, and I think it is a wonderful peach. Contender should do well too (the tree and its buds are cold hardy), but I consider its taste and texture mediocre.

Santa Rosa is a delicious plum, but it is tricky to fruit. Poor set or fungal rots are your challenges.

Rumor is Green Gage is especially prone to rot. Pruning trees into a vase shape with an open center helps expose the remaining limbs to better sunlight and air circulation for purposes of reducing disease.

Fuji and Newtown Pippin are excellent apples. Scab and fireblight are your main apple diseases to guard against (possibly rust too, if you have any cedar trees nearby). Get apples on 111; B.9; or the Geneva rootstocks. Some reports suggest G.16 and B.9 might help stave off scab. Think about how big you want your apple trees to grow. This may also influence your selection of rootstocks. Some apple scion varieties are more resistant to disease than others. Do your research. The descriptions on the Cummins Nursery of New York website is an excellent place to start.

Salavatski is the best chance for getting a pom to survive. All the others are doomed outside in those Pennsylvania winters, except perhaps Lyubymi.

If you can provide deep dampish loamy well-draining soil-- all pawpaws should do really well for you. But they take lots of years of patience before they fruit. They are sensitive to sun-kill their first two years. After that, they thrive in shade or sun.

If you give them routine care, then Earliglo strawbs should do well for you too.

I’ll let others chime in.

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Hi, Ross. Welcome aboard!

Oh, my! That is SOME list you have! Are you planning on jumping into the deep end feet first, or wading in with a few choice selections to start?

Citrus will be an indoor/outdoor growing experience there. The only variety on your list that has the slightest possibility of surving Philly winters is the calamondin, which is a fruit that I don’t personally consider enjoyable. The others do well for me here in SC, but I do bring them in for the winter. I sort of go overboard pampering them in their winter home, but others have trees that do well next to sunny windows. I don’t grow a Valencia, but do have other oranges that grow happily and provide tasty fruits.

I have Wonderful and some type of Russian pomegranate. They are care free here, but from what I’ve read of other people’s experiences from colder regions than this, they will need winter protection in order to survive there.

You have some tasty stone fruits listed. My own experience in the east has been that the first few years were relatively problem free. Then the pests and fungi multiplied to the point that nothing was edible by humans. Since then, thanks to the advice from people here, I’ve learned that the pests and fungi problems can be managed, though not eliminated, by following appropriate regimens. In other words, it takes observation, timely application of appropriate controls, and work to get a good crop of stone fruits.

With pears, my opinion is that moonglow has an alluring name, but there are tastier varieties. I’ve found pears much easier to care for than stone fruit.

Apples I’ll leave completely up to other people to answer. It’s been 11 years for me and I’m still hoping to get my first good apple from a tree of my own. That’s not saying anything negative about apples - it’s me and the growing conditions I subjected them to.

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Here is one guide to apples and their susceptibility to the common diseases.
https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/BP/BP-132-W.pdf

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Hey Ross,

Good to see you here, too. As you recall I’m not far off.

Stone fruits will be your challenge, I avoid them by and large.

-Kelby

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If you don’t want to spray anything, not even Surround (which is quite a bit more work than synthetic pesticides), I think you can rule out all common tree fruit.

Less common native fruits may work well. Amelanchier, Paw Paws, native but selected persimmons, for instance. Also brambles and blueberries, but blueberries have to be protected form birds, squirrels and chipmunks if they are around your property.

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Welcome Ross!

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Ross,
Welcome. You got loads of good advice. What zone are you in? 7b?
Anyway, you statement about not wanting to spray fungicide, (and insecticide, I may add), will make it very hard to grow fruit trees in your area.

Would you consider starting small with fruit trees like jujube, persimmon and paw paw first? It will give you a good opportunity to succeed.

If I were you I would leave stone fruit alone for now until you have more experience growing fruit trees. Most of them are definitely not as easy as figs, where you are.

You may be able to plant a few pear and apple varieties spray free or minimally. I will leave pear and apple selections to more experienced growers to advice you.

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Pears do often succeed without spray, at least for a while. You need to choose varieties that do not usually succumb to fireblight, scab or pear psyla. These can show up on a site several years after planting.

I strongly recommend Harrow Sweet. Korean Giant can work as an Asian pear if you are lucky and don’t have too much stink bug and coddling moth presence. In some areas it is susceptible to fireblight though. FB has never touched any of the many Asian pear trees I manage in southern NY.

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I agree with many of the things mentioned. You can grow some pears spray free such as Kieffer for a time. Some other edibles you can grow spray free are juneberries, jujube, figs, mulberry, blackberry (only certain types), raspberry, gooseberry, persimmon, pawpaw, nut tres, strawberries, Aronia’s, and kiwi. It depends on amounts and planting strategies so don’t plant 50 Kieffer pears together. If you plan to spray or don’t plan to spray ever the idea of planting all one variety can be a mistake. If a pest or disease lets say Fireblight hits a pear orchard it hits the first susceptible pear ( eg. clapps favorite pear) and kills it to the ground the next and so forth like dominos until it hits a mulberry which does not get Fireblight. If you plant a mulberry then pear then persimmon no one disease takes out your orchard and typically you lose a tree rather than an orchard. Some shrubs such as buffalo berry, Goumi, autumn olive are nitrogen fixers ( provide their own fertilizer) and produce fruit. I would not grow stone fruit such as cherry, peach, plums, nectarines without planning to spray. I would not attempt apples without spray. Many people will disagree with my advice because every area is different so the advice they give may be true for their area but what I told you is true for mine. I spray many of my trees but those I told you I can grow spray free I do because why spray if you don’t need to? Concord grapes may be grown spray free for a time or forever until black rot finds your orchard. Red canadice and other grapes are black rot magnets and once it hits them it will hit your concord so it’s best to avoid canadice and stick with concord. Good luck with your new orchard we wish you a fantastic gardening year!

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Since Philadelphia is in hardiness zones 7A and 7B you might also consider zone stretching a little with Pomegranate like this one http://www.naturehills.com/pomegranate-wonderful. Here is another website you might be interested in Mckenzie-Farms if the idea of zone stretching appeals to you. Something like Citrange might work for you. Citrus will not have many natural enemies in zone 7 since few people grow them. This is a map and discusses how zones translate to temperatures http://plantguide.lowes.com/ColdHardinessMap.aspx

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I’m overwhelmed by the large response everyone! Thank you. I probably should have noted that pomegranates & anything else that isn’t hardy will be kept in pots and overwintered with my figs in a roofed greenhouse. It’s cold during winters, but also heated to not drop below 32 degrees. Citrus will be grown indoors during the winter in windows. I know it’s a lot, but I will be going all in with these. They’ve already been purchased, but it’s not too late to change my orders on some, so any variety recommendations would be appreciated. If I have to spray, I’ll spray! But any varieties that are a lot less hassle are what I’m looking for!

@fruitnut Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve heard a lot about Tomcot, but it seems to be sold out almost everywhere! As for the blueberries… Sweetcrisp keeps popping up and I’m told by many that it’s the best Blueberry variety out there. I was a little hesitant though. I did read the thread on here about it… saying that it’s hardy, but I think you were the one concerned that it may be too early to bloom for my climate. My plan was to overwinter them with my figs, but I fear that will only make them bloom earlier. The sun easily makes my greenhouse go up 20 degrees. This past week it was 60-80 degrees… it easily reached 100 in there. If you think I’d be fine, I’m definitely gonna see about getting my hands on those two varieties.

@Matt_in_Maryland Matt, It’s mainly a loamy soil. Definitely holds moisture extremely well & has some clay and rocks. I was digging holes all day yesterday and I fear that the roots won’t be able to penetrate further down than what I dug. It’s a tough soil further down. Maybe you can put my mind as ease, but most of what I’m growing will be kept in pots. I’ll probably only plant 10 trees, my grape vines, kiwi, raspberries & blackberries. What do you recommend planting? Any rootstock recommendations?

Do you recommend an alternative to Contender, Matt? Something that’ll do just as well, but tastes better?

Green Gage was scion I actually got from a member here. I’m glad to see him here, but I had no idea at the time stone fruits were so hard to grow in humid climates. I’m gonna graft it and see how far it takes me.

I’ve had some rust & anthracnose on my figs. Nothing too bad… it doesn’t defoliate them too much. Cedar trees cause rust??

@MuddyMess_8a Thank you! My citrus will be grown in windows during the winter. I fear that the lack of heat during ripening may ruin the flavor on these varieties and it may not be worth growing them. What’s your take?

Do you recommend an alternative to Moonglow? Something that’ll do just as well, but tastes better? I don’t necessarily need another pear, do I? If Korean Giant & Perdue do well… I should be fine on the pollination front?

@chartman Thank you. I’m taking my chances with some of the apples, I know. Hopefully, I can get some of these to work.

@ampersand Kelby! Glad to see you here! I’m gonna try my best with them. We’ll see what happens.

@alan Where do you buy your Surround? Definitely my best bet for insecticide?

What problems do stink bugs cause? They’ve unfortunately been all over my basement this winter.

@speedster1 Thank you!

@mamuang Yes 7B. And No! I’m going all in. The only way forward is to learn from my mistakes. I’m sure I’ll kill a few trees, but that’s part of it. I just don’t want to do anything that will cause irreversible damage.

@clarkinks A few of these varieties I received as scion before I new anything about the trouble they’d cause. I decided to go ahead and graft them to just see how well they do, but like you said… it may have a domino affect. Should I even bother with some of the more susceptible varieties?

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Seven Springs organics is probably your best source if you are not near a commercial agricultural chemical supplier (to perhaps reduce shipping). It is used by even non-organic growers for pear psyla control amongst other things.

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If you know they will be work I would weigh out if they are worth it. For me things like cherries are worth it and other things are not worth the efforts. My strategy is to grow some things spray free so that the things I do need to spray I can focus my attention on. If you spread yourself to thin you will wind up doing everything half as well as you should.

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Hi @ross,

Welcome, you’ve gotten some excellent advice so far!

Since you asked about not wanting to spray, you could check out localharvest.org and contact/visit some organic growers in your area. You may find some less toxic/organic sprays that are effective. All gardening is local, so it’s important to do your homework. :slight_smile:

EDIT: I should have mentioned that localharvest.org is a starting point. Drill down or expand your search as needed, and just because peaches, apples or plums aren’t listed doesn’t mean they don’t grow or offer them. You may need to contact some of the farms or CSAs directly. Hope that helps!

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Mr. Clint, I checked your link and if I’m not mistaken there is not a single grower of organic tree fruit listed. Am I missing something?

I figured there would at least be an organic apple grower- there are a few in NYS. It probably does get tougher the farther south you go here in the humid region.

I doubt there is a better source of info on what can be done organically in the mid-Atlantic than from our own founder, Scott.

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Yes. Rather than Contender (which is not bad), I’d recommend Harmony peach (aka “Canadian Harmony”). Just as cold resistent; similar ripening window; even better taste and texture.

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Hi Ross,

For problem free varieties generally I would recommend focusing on fig, persimmon, pawpaw, and blueberries. Generally, they have fewer problems with pests and disease.

For a peach I would recommend Elberta or Redhaven which you already have on your list. Prune to open center, spray copper and find a spray for oriental fruit moth. Spray every 2 weeks and you should do okay.

For persimmon specifically I would recommend against the varieties you have listed (Hachiya and Fuyu) because you’re zone stretching which means freezes and more work. I’m convinced it’s better to look for varieties that give you more breathing room regarding Zones, freezes and average lows. Instead of trying Hachiya and Fuyu, maybe try any American variety or possibly a hybrid such as Nikita’s Gift or Rosseyanka. I’ve planted Nikita’s Gift last year so I am still testing it. So far so good.
http://ediblelandscaping.com/products/trees/PersimmonAmerican/RosseyankaPersimmon.php
http://ediblelandscaping.com/buyPlants.php?func=view&id=855

If you’re looking for problem-free varieties I would advise avoiding plums on the east coast due to disease pressure. If you have to go with a plum, maybe try Jefferson instead of green gage. Jefferson is supposed to be self-fertile and have less problems with rot.

If I could change what I have planted (which I won’t unless and until it dies) I would probably plant more varieties of fig and persimmon instead of apples and plums, due to less disease pressure (and because I really like fig and persimmon).

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You may want to look at jujubes and mulberries. Bass at Trees of Joy lives in your region and may have some additional suggestions. Most stone fruits and apples are going to difficult to grow without some spraying, so as some have mentioned, you may also want to look at persimmons. I’ve heard that Williams Pride is a decent, fairly lower maintenance apple in your zone, but Alan would know better.