I’m very particular about fruit flavors, so I’m hoping some of yall can give me good suggestions!
I want to grow just about anything that can grow in zone 8, but I want it to be sweet with no tart. I don’t need a strong flavor, I just need a lack of tart or sour.
I know Opal and Fuji apples are like that (I can’t find Opal trees anywhere though, I absolutely love how they taste)
I have a bunch of blueberries that are fairly sweet, a raspberry shortcake raspberry, that new arkansas blackberry, Ranier cherry, etc but I want more suggestions to write down and potentially get in the future
Especially tasty, bright-red cone-shaped berries can tolerate temperatures over 100 degrees. Specially bred for the southeastern US, ’ Eversweet ’ yields continuous harvests of large, sweet strawberries throughout spring, summer and fall. Especially tasty, bright-red cone-shaped berries can be enjoyed fresh or frozen.
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I planted 25 plants in a new food forest bed last year and kept the blooms and runners off until late July… and they immediately started fruiting and kept it up thru the hottest part of summer for me (here in Southern Middle TN 7a)… and kept fruiting until first frost.
They did not produce large berries for me, med to small, but I did not water them either…
They were sweet and very tasty…
I have heard that there are Mulberries that are (sweet only)… no tart (Strudledog mentions that in his video on youtube)… In his case he did not like the sweet only… preferred the sweet tart mulberries.
I am sure there are some here that know the sweet only varieties.
Don’t think I have ever had a Peach that I would say was tart… if ripe, just yummy and sweet.
Good Luck !
TNHunter
Pic below July 27 2020 - deep hay mulch food forest bed.
Look for low acid peaches (I prefer white nectarines), figs, Eversweet pomegranate. I think pluots are sweeter than plums. Shiro plum is easy I hear. Persimmons are just bags of sugar when ripe. Jujubes - no acid at all for most varieties.
You might like Arkansas Black apples. They should do really well in Zone 8. They are slightly tart to me and taste sort of grapey. Very easy apple to grow for me, not really prone to fungus or bugs.
There are a few pawpaws I would suggest based on their descriptions. Shenandoah, Ark-21, Sue, and “Sweet”, a newer cultivar from Tom Wahl at Red Fern Farm would be a good starting point.
Also another vote for persimmons. You should be able to grow any of the Asian cultivars in your zone. I’d pick the non-astringent ones to be sure you get a more mild fruit. Others can guide you on what that may be. Good luck!
That’s one on my list but ice never actually gotten to taste one to be sure. The cosmic crisp is too tart for me, so if it’s like that I won’t use it for fresh eating xD but I’m still planning on it for the storage and ease of growing
I had a Fuji at one time… and about 40 ft away a couple of pear trees… and about 80 ft from my orchard a bradford pear tree… with a prevailing wind that blew from the bradford pear… towards my orchard…
I repeatedly tried different varieties of pears… they would live 2-3 years, start blooming well, then get Fire Blight… and well that FB got to my Fuji too and wiped it out in 2-3 years…
A LONG Hard lesson learned… Bradford Pears carry FB, and will pass it on to your Pear Trees, and if you have Pears near your Apple trees… well can spell Doom for your apples too.
I have a Mac Apple that survived thru all of that, and now is only pollinated (at least until this year) by a crab apple… so it makes very tart Mac apples. This spring I have 3 other varieties that may cross pollinate it some, so may have some better apples off the Mac this year. My Mac apples are quite tart until the very end of ripemess… when extra ripe they are a bit sweeter.
Many of my favorite Grocery Store Apples I have just not been able to grow here… not near disease resistant enough… Fuji was one of those… but also HoneyCrisp… but they are described as having the perfect balance of tart and sweet… so you may not like those. IMO a good HoneyCrisp is just hard to beat.
Another very common grocery store apple that I consider to be Sweet and Very Good is the common Gala Apple.
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Below are come comments I found online about it…
Apple purists tend to dismiss supermarket varieties like Gala as bland and boring, often with good reason. However it has to be said that if you want a reliable sweet easy-eating apple, Gala is actually hard to beat. It is also important to compare “apples with apples” - a locally-picked specialist variety in a farmers market is inevitably going to taste better than a supermarket Gala which has travelled from another country. However, anyone fortunate enough to have tried a Gala straight from the tree will know that it has a surprisingly punchy sweet flavour, not found in supermarket specimens. In freshly-picked examples the sweetness typical of Gala has a pear-like quality - which is perhaps more fully expressed in one of its offspring, Jazz.
You might check out OneGreenWorld.com and the White Mulberry options there (several).
The “White” mulberry varieties all seem to be described as Sweet, sweetest, less tart… and they don’t stain like the black or red varieties… and may get less pressure from birds.
Most are listed for Zone 7-10 with some being hardy to USDA zone 6.
If you go to youtube… and search on “sweetest mulberry”… you will see the White Shahtoot listed… and comments like “the sweetest fruit in the world”…
I have a Illinois Everbearing Mulberry, that should fruit this year… it is a black variety, described as sweet/tart… Looking forward to trying those.
If you didn’t know Opal is a “club Apple” - that means it’s propagation is very tightly controlled. So, as a backyard grower it will be nearly impossible for you to get hold of a tree. A few here tried to grow seedlings but I’m not sure what’s the status now.
I’m assuming you don’t want high acid fruits. BTW, at high sugar levels, the high acid fruits develop incredible flavor but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. For low acid stone fruits, I’d cite the following
