North Central Texas has a long growing season, relatively mild winters, and harsh summers. Many fruit trees find this perfectly acceptable. I’m going to give a nice list of the best fruit trees for our area if you want to create an orchard or food forest. I will also endeavor to give any tips about their cultivation or best places for them. Most of these trees do not have established guilds to support them, so have scientific permaculture fun trying to determine the best guilds. I would love to hear suggestions about what plants you have found to go well with a particular tree! Many fruit trees are self-pollinating (SP) but produce better yields if they have another cultivar for cross pollination. Some fruit trees require a cross pollinator (CP). Those are things to keep in mind about a tree and if you need to plant bunches of them for better pollination. For a food forest, where ease of maintenance is a lovely feature, try to get trees that have never been pruned. Sometimes this means planning a couple years ahead and requesting non-pruned trees from a local nursery. The advantage is that the tree will grow as it genetically is intended. It may not produce as much as a pruned tree, but it will certainly produce a lot. The problem with pruning is that though it can greatly increase yield, you MUST keep pruning the tree. You pay for yield with maintenance. If you want a tree that pretty much maintains itself, select a non-pruned tree. If you want higher yield, such as in an orchard or you can only have a small number of trees, pruned trees may be best. It depends on your situation. Modern fruit trees have been bred to be really high producing. Pruning increases this, to the point where the fruit sets so much fruit it may break, or you may harvest a lot of poor quality fruit. Thinning the tree helps prevent this. You simply remove the smaller, misshapen fruit when they are hazelnut size. Peaches tend to be particularly bad about this. They sometimes grow six fruit all clumped together and there is no way they will all have enough space as they mature. Thin so only the best fruits remain and you’ll be rewarded with a healthier tree and higher quality fruit. Always mulch trees out to the drip line, or as far as the branches spread, and water at the drip line also. Do not water at the base of the tree. That doesn’t help them. Water underneath the branches. It is also better to water deeply once or twice a week, once established, rather than light waterings every day. Apricot SP or CP Winter hardy, but like peaches, sometimes bloom too early and the flowers get killed by frost. This is likely to be your single biggest problem when it comes to getting a decent harvest with apricots. Select cultivars with ~600 chill hours for Bell County, or if not specified, late bloomers. In colder climates, planting along a south wall may help prevent flower frost. If pruning, prune to an open center and limit cuts, as apricots can be susceptible to disease (generally the same problems as peaches). Apricots don’t like a lot of humidity. This is one reason to prune for a breezy open center. Avoid trees grafted onto peach rootstocks. Apricot fruits dry well. If they produce well for you, they can be a great fruit to set up for winter and they make an envious jam. Like peaches, some varieties are freestone or clingstone. Susceptible to peach twig borer, brown rot, and bacterial canker. Plants that prevent these diseases or repel the offending insect would be candidates for a guild. Any plants that help peaches will probably also help apricots. Avocado SP or CP It is vital with avocados to get the right cultivar. Houseplant avocados don’t really bear much fruit, so you need to put it in the ground if you want a decent yield. For us here in North Central Texas, we may not be able to keep a tree fully outdoors like people along the Rio Grande Valley. Even if the tree survives the winter, the flowers probably won’t. The Mexican species (Persea americana var. drymifolia Blake) is the most cold-hardy. Planting along warm, south walls may be sufficient. Unless you get a dwarf variety, they probably grow too tall for the average residential greenhouse. Avocado need a lot of space. Even strictly pruned trees can reach 40-60 feet. They are sensitive to salt, so if you are on city water, you may need to filter your water before using it on your tree. If on a well, it pays to get your water tested. Mexican species are not salt tolerant. Usually an avocado tree dies because of salinity, causing browning of the leaf edges and eventually tree death. Don’t grow avocados from a supermarket seed. Avocado do not breed true from seed and it can take 15 years before it starts to bear fruit. If you really want an avocado, buy a tree from a reputable source that tells you what species it is (West Indian, Guatemalan, or Mexican). Cultivars to try here in Texas include Lulu, Opal, Wilma, and Pryor. Citrus SP Some will probably frown about me lumping oranges, limes, satsumas, and the like together into just “citrus.” I do this because it is easier to explain. Generally, citrus will not survive our winters without a south wall or a greenhouse. Many people have succeeded growing trees along a protected south wall made of concrete or brick and periodic cover during freezes. Satsuma and kumquat are more winter hardy than a lemon or lime (the ‘Miho’ satsuma can go to minus-fourteen!). It can be worth experimenting with a tree and location, for a tree in the ground is always preferable to a container if you can. Some producers have free-standing trees and erect plastic row covers over them in the winter along with prodigious mulch. Seasonal greenhouses. But not everyone has this option. Most decide to grow smaller container trees they can bring in the house when it gets cold. Citrus seem to not care. You can get a pretty heavily producing container citrus if you know what you’re doing. Regardless, citrus need 6-8 hours of sunlight. In the full heat of summer, they may prefer dappled sunlight. Lemons, limes, and grapefruit are the least cold hardy. Satsuma, kumquat, and ‘Changsha’ tangerine are hardy once established and even better when a few years old. If you want citrus in Texas, it will have to come from Texas. The state is under quarantine to prevent the spread of Citrus Greening Disease from Florida and California. For container trees, do not fertilize after July to increase cold hardiness. Let the top inch or two of soil dry out before watering again. Water deeply and less frequently. Water even less in the winter. Citrus actually don’t mind a bit of mild neglect. Thinning the tree is also recommended to keep the tree from overtaxing itself and decreasing its productive life. The general estimate is 4-6 fruit for a 5-gallon tree per year. Fig SP (at least the ones we normally grow) Figs are one of my favorite trees and a vastly underused tree in this area of Texas. My parent’s old house had a fifteen foot high fig that was just as wide and gave me a cowboy hat full of figs every day in August. They were luscious, succulent things and the tree did it practically by itself. All we did was prune the suckers and try to keep the horse from eating all the fruit. (I am a little partial to figs, if you can’t tell.) Our fig was on the eastern side of the house on top of a hill where it got a lot of wind (and near the gutter spout). Whether that was the ideal placement or not was irrelevant. The tree did great. Figs are not that picky, though they don’t like wet feet. Once established, they don’t need much extra watering except when it is really dry. A deep watering every 8-10 days during dry spells is adequate. Figs are a staple in the Mediterranean. Italians believe that a house is incomplete without a fig. Mediterranean plants tend to do well for us here in Bell County and the fig is no exception. Once established, the fig will bear productively and reliably for a long time. Prune for a breezy, open center and you will already avoid most fig problems. They like ample sun. You will rarely come across a lovelier tree to put a bench under. The fig produces almost complete shade. This makes it difficult to plant things underneath it, but that is not a bad thing. Mulching only and not cultivating reduces root-knot nematode outbreaks. Figs are highly perishable and will not ripen off the tree. There are a few ways to test for ripe fruit regardless of cultivar or color. One is the droopiness. The stem of the fig will be soft, pliable, and the fig will hang heavily with gravity. When pressed, the stem should pop willingly off the branch. Any resistance to being removed has a positive correlation with unripeness. Another is the sweet drop, literally a drop of clear, sugary goodness on the fruit. The more fruit you pick and eat, the better you’ll be able to know when it’s ripe. If you can find a fig growing somewhere that seems to be doing particularly well and produces good fruit, ask the owner for some cuttings in the winter. Figs grow well from cuttings and you know you will be getting a tree that is more genetically predisposed to do well for you. A fig is a great tree for food forests. They take almost no care (little or no pruning), produce well, and have few pest problems. Some cultivars produce a small breba crop early in the season if the factors are good and then the main crop towards late summer. The harvest lasts a good month or two. I would harvest the bottom half, climbing into the tree on its strong but flexible branches, and leave the top half for the birds. I never wanted for figs. ‘Celeste’ is a popular, tasty cultivar. It is generally preferred over ‘Brown Turkey,’ who seems to be hit or miss when it comes to taste. ‘Black Mission’ does not do as well. One thing to consider with figs is whether the cultivar is open or closed eyed. The fig fruit is just a big receptacle. The actual seeds are inside, which means the end of the fruit has an opening. In more humid areas, a closed eye variety is recommended to prevent disease and pest problems. ‘Texas Everbearing’ is a reliable, closed eye variety. Reputable nurseries should say whether the cultivar is open or closed eyed. Jujube SP The jujube is an exotic deciduous tree from China. Normally, being the avid naturalist that I am, I would hesitate to include it in the list. However, there aren’t a great deal of fruit-bearing trees that do so well in Texas with our wacky weather, so here is some information about the Chinese date. Some jujubes are for fresh eating while others are for drying and processing. Know which kind you want. The fresh ones are reported to taste like sweet apples. The drying ones, when dried, taste like a date and are often turned into jujube butter or honeyed jujubes. They are generally used like apples. Fresh ones are best for pies. Harvest date and fruit size depends on the cultivar. Fruit can be ¾ of an inch to 2 inches. Fresh cultivars: Honey Jar, Sugar Cane, Chico, Winter Delight, Li Drying cultivars: Lang, Li, Shanxi Li Jujube is known as a problem-free, low maintenance tree that does not require a lot of water. They are also really long-lived, like several hundred years old. A jujube grows to around 20-30 ft tall and adapts to a wide range of soil types. They are cold hardy and bloom in late April, so flower frost is not an issue. Unlike loquats, they are not understory trees. They want all the sun. All the better in Texas. Fresh fruit must be eaten or processed with 3-4 days. Dried fruits can be stored for several years, making the jujube a good survival tree and a welcome addition to the family orchard or food forest. Growing two or more varieties is not necessary, but it can increase yield. One thing to consider is sprouting. A mature jujube produces underground roots and suckers that can take over if left unchecked. Unless you want a jujube thicket, cut sprouts off at the ground. Don’t plant jujube next to fountains, septic tanks, or other underground water pipes. Loquat (Medlar) SP The loquat is an understory tree, meaning it prefers dappled shade and produces best underneath the protection of a taller tree like an oak or elm. It can get 15-20 feet tall and when mature, produce thousands of golf ball-sized yellow fruits. It rivals the fig for sheer production numbers. The tree is quite cold hardy, though the flowers die at around 27 degrees. One reason why they do well underneath the moderated protection of a bigger tree. The tree blooms in late fall and the fruit matures during the winter, so without some protection, you may not get a harvest. It is not as sensitive as mango (its flowers frost at 45 degrees), but it behooves you to plant it on a south wall or underneath an established tree. Loquats are not as regulated as peaches or plums. Cultivar quality varies widely. Find a good tree if you can and take cuttings or buy from a reputable source. The Rainbow Nursery in San Antonio has a huge, ridiculously fruitful loquat they may consider propagating if you ask. Cuttings are the best way to ensure you get the same tree. They do not often come true from seed. Don’t prune. The tree doesn’t need it. It is a good option for a food forest due to its ease of care and is a fruit tree that can fit the understory niche. The yellow fruits make a great jam, though can be tedious to pit and peel. You may consider planting a loquat as a supplement for your livestock and as a wildlife food source. Mango SP I include the mango in the list just because I positively adore mangoes AND if you have the right setup, they can be a great tree for you. Because mangoes. Problem is, if you read the loquat section, their flowers frost at a balmy 45 degrees. Since they flower over the winter, this basically means you can’t grow mangoes outdoors in this area of Texas. Well, you can, but you won’t get any fruit. They are strictly tropical. However, you can grow them in a greenhouse. Other problem, mangoes normally grow about 40-60 feet tall and can take decades before they fruit. Solution: buy an established dwarf tree. The smallest mangoes get to around 10-15 ft tall. With pruning, you can keep them to around 8 ft, which is doable in a greenhouse. I would do it just because I love mangoes. However, as a permaculturist, I recognize the relatively exorbitant cost of growing mangoes versus other fruit trees like peaches or figs, so I cannot say I recommend mangoes for anything. It is a tree to grow out of love. If you don’t absolutely love mangoes and salivate at the thought of a ripe mango, I wouldn’t do it. Benefits do not outweigh the cost. If you do want to grow a dwarf mango, your options are limited. There are not many and they are not cheap. One good thing is that it can be 110 degrees in your greenhouse and your mango will love it. I don’t think it is possible to scorch a mango tree. They like it hot. They need it hot too. When buying a cultivar, buy from a reputable source. Monoembryonic cultivars do not breed true from seed, so you have to be careful. Don’t even try growing a mango from the store. How your mango ripens depends on the cultivar. Some must be removed unripe or they will never ripen, whereas some ripen best on the tree. The mango is a tree that requires a lot of research. Again, if you aren’t fond of mangoes, don’t bother. Mulberry SP Another unappreciated and often maligned tree because people plant varieties that produce hoards of catkins, but no fruit, and are therefore a complete nuisance. A fruiting mulberry, however, is a joy. Will stain your face and hands worse than a beet, but that’s part of summer, isn’t it? We have two native mulberries, Morus rubra (red), and Morus microphylla. The Asian variety is Morus alba (white). They are in the same family as figs (Moraceae). The fruitless cultivar of M. alba is what makes people hate mulberries. Fun fact, silkworms eat mulberry leaves as their main food source. Another fun fact, the milky sap can cause contact dermatitis and possible hallucinations in large quantities. Imagine a blackberry bush the size of a tree. That’s a fruiting mulberry, and that’s why I love them. M. microphylla is a bit…wilder than M. rubra. Its fruit is smaller and just seems like the wilder counterpart, similar to how a Mexican plum produces smaller, wilder fruit than a modern plum. Still a wonderful tree, and still produces hoards of fruit, but it is something to keep in mind when looking for trees. You will not find M. microphylla in a nursery. You’ll find it in the wild. The mulberry is a great food forest tree. Its harvest season is good, April to June. The tree has fruit at every stage of ripeness at any one time. It stops producing just when the fig is starting to pick up, so the two go well together. However, because they drop almost constantly for so long, people consider them a nuisance near patios, streets, and driveways. The fruit stains. No way around it. The tree shines out in the bush where it belongs. It thrives with almost no care and doesn’t require any pruning. All it requires is a little bit of breathing room. M. microphylla gets about 15 ft, whereas M. rubra gets 40-60 ft. There is also the Middle Eastern mulberry with fruits that can be up to 3 inches long. These are the ones you are most likely to find in a nursery and are the most coveted (as well as the most expensive). Pakistan and Persian are popular. Leave the tree empty underneath except for a good layer of mulch. The easiest way to harvest is to spread a sheet or tarp below and shake the branches. Ripe fruit drop onto the sheet and can be easily gathered. Do not worry about birds or wildlife. The tree makes plenty for all of you. It’s a delicate fruit and perishable. Makes a great jam, pie, or syrup. People often plant mulberries on the edges of their property for wildlife food, and if you are looking for Wildscape certification, this is a great native tree to consider. You can also grow it for your ducks and small livestock. Olive SP or CP (depends on cultivar) Olives are a Mediterranean tree like the fig. They prefer long, dry summers. Olives only grow above 70 degrees, so the farther north you are, the more difficult olives will be for you. Cultivars differ with the vernalization temperatures required during the winter (cool evenings, warm days). You may have to try several different varieties before you find the one that performs best in your area. Olives are cold hardy to about 23-27 degrees depending on their age. Some are better about that than others. It is recommended to plant them near warm, protected south walls or use row covers. Gradual hardening off is the most important factor for olive cold hardiness. They do not like it when the temperatures are unstable. The wider the temperature change, the harder it is for them, and the likelihood of damage increases. Since Texas is infamously ornery when it comes to weather, this can make growing olives a bit of a challenge. Plant trees in areas that do not experience wide temperature changes. A suntrap created with thick trees might be a good idea. Most cultivars are SP, but some are CP, and all will benefit from cross pollinators. Arbequina is a common variety to plant for cross pollination. Olives do not put out particularly deep roots. They spread wide. Soil must be well draining. Olives, though they appreciate water and produce higher yields with regular watering, do not like wet feet. They are like polar bears in the summer. A polar bear is more likely to die from heatstroke than from the cold. Olives are more likely to die from too much water than from not enough. If you have thick, clay soil, you may want to consider planting on a slope with a small swale to catch some (but not too much) water in the event of heavy rains. Olives need full sun to fruit. Space trees far enough apart so they do not overly shade each other. They are bad understory trees. They require little fertilization and generally do well with little care. Olives also have relatively few pest problems. The weather is the hardest part about growing olives in Texas. Olives do not produce well until they are 10-15 years old. Until this point, they are inconsistent. They don’t particularly care that you want a big harvest. They just want to grow into a solid, mature tree. If you want fruit for your homestead now, you may have to wait awhile. In the meantime, plant other fruit trees like figs or plums to feed you until then. Some cultivars are better for oil or as table olives, so choose your variety based on your desires. Pawpaw (Custard Apple) CP The pawpaw is a medium-sized native tree that bears fruit about the size of your hand. Many people say the fruit tastes great with a custard-like consistency. Some don’t like them. So before you think about planting a pawpaw for your own consumption, eat a pawpaw. I have honestly never had the chance to eat one. Otherwise, you may consider it as a wildlife food tree or food forest backup. Young trees are very light sensitive, so you will only find these trees as an understory tree in the wild. When older, they prefer more sunlight. If you have a 3-5 year old tree, you can plant the tree almost anywhere, but younger trees need protection. The leaves are rather large, so windy sites should be avoided. Pollination will probably be your biggest issue. The tree is NOT self-pollinating and requires insects to pollinate flowers. It is better to bunch trees together rather than in rows for better pollination. You also need at least two trees that are not genetically identical, obviously. You can also hand pollinate trees if you only have a few of them. The pawpaw prefers rich, acidic soil (5.5-7.0 pH). It’s most often found in East Texas and the eastern parts of the Post Oak Savannah bottomland. Pawpaw is adaptable, but they require good drainage. They like humidity and at least 150 frost-free days to ripen fruit. The fruit begins to self-ferment the moment you pick them, so they must be consumed or processed within 1-2 days. The flavor also changes with age. It changes from banana to more caramel. Depends on what you like. Fruit quality is also variable. Buy trees made from cuttings of a known high-quality tree instead of a riskier seedling tree. Or if you are lucky enough to find a tree in the wild with fruit on it, take a bite, and then take some cuttings if you are satisfied. For those interested in medicinal things, the seeds can be dried, powdered, and used externally to control lice. It is also a host plant for the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly. A pawpaw may be a great addition to a butterfly habitat, regardless of the fruit. The pawpaw is an easy to grow fruit tree for those with more acidic soil and offers special benefits. A pawpaw may be just the right tree for a particular niche in your food forest. ![]() Peach SP Ah, peaches. Practically the quintessential Texas fruit tree. Go down towards Fredericksburg and all you will see, other than the wineries, are peach orchards and roadside stands selling fresh peaches, peach preserves, peach jam, peach pickles, peach pies, and anything else you could possibly think to do with peaches. When people think of a fruit tree to put in their yard, peaches are almost always on the list, if not first. Peaches do well in Texas, obviously. If you are mindful of their needs. Cold hardiness isn’t really an issue for us, but peaches will burst into full bloom in the spring…and then a freak frost kills all your flowers. If you know nothing else about selecting peach trees, learn about chill hours. Chill hours are the hours below ~35 degrees that must elapse before the tree will break dormancy in the spring. Higher chill hour requirement, the longer it takes. This map taken from a great article done by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, shows general chill hours by county. You can expect that if you live in a 700 zone, but have a 400 tree, the tree will bloom way too early and the flowers will die leaving you cropless. However, if you are in a 400 zone with a 700 tree, the tree will bloom way too late, probably make stunted fruit, and not have enough time to ripen the fruit before it gets cold again, leaving you will tasteless pucks of what wanted to be peaches. Try to get a variety within 100 of your zone. A little less is okay. Texas A&M has a nice list of good Texas cultivars and their chill hours at the end of the article. aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/files/2010/10/peaches.pdf Playing around with the chill hours can net you a longer harvesting season, though you do run the risk of a fruitless variety or two per year. If you live in 600, plant 700, 600, and 500. If you have a mild winter and no freak frosts, you get all three cultivars producing. If the frosts are particularly bad, you still have the 700 to fall back on. Diversity is your friend with peach trees. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Peaches are generally clingstone or freestone, which describes how tightly the pit sticks to the flesh. Home canners often prefer freestone peaches because they are easier to process. Clingstone are better for fresh eating and getting peach juice all of your face. Something to consider, especially if you plan on putting up gallons of jam every year for the market. As far as cultivation, peaches hate wet feet and do not like to be waterlogged. Good drainage is a must. This can be difficult for us on Blackland. Putting the tree up on a high berm or hill may help prevent problems while the tree is young. Peach trees are heavy feeders, so expect to use lots of compost and rotted manure. Keep the tree completely weed/grass free out to the drip line. Peaches in particular do not like competition. Place trees on higher elevation than elsewhere, such as the upper half of a north-facing slope, to minimize frosts and save those precious flowers. Thin fruit. Peaches often try to set too much fruit and break themselves. I’ve seen a peach tree so heavy with fruit that one of the main branches broke right off, taking half of the tree and its hundreds of peaches with it. If pruning, and with our modern varieties you probably will have to, prune to an open center. How tall you keep the tree depends on you. Most try to keep the tree under seven feet for easier harvesting. Peaches are very short-lived. You can expect them to live about ten years. They live hard and fast, do peach trees. Plan this into your succession model. They may not be the best option for a long-lived food forest, but are great intensive orchard trees. Also keep in mind that you shouldn’t plant peaches where peaches used to be for at least three years to prevent disease. Peaches have several disease issues and can be kind of needy compared to some other fruit trees. Nematode problems can be a big issue in sandier soils. Look for nematode resistant rootstocks (avoid cherry or plum rootstocks as a rule). Don’t plant peaches next to nectarines, which are even more susceptible to the same things and just bring their problems to the peaches. Smother the ground underneath a peach tree with plants that repel moths, aphids, Japanese beetles, scale, and other pests, and attract their predatory counterparts. Garlic can repel the hated peach tree borer, so plant a lot of garlic. Some plants to consider are yarrow, Queen Anne’s Lace, angelica, and alliums in general. I’ve heard that the classic apple guild works well for peaches also. Pear CP Pears come in a few different types: European/French, Oriental hybrids, and Asian. French pears like Bosc, Bartlett, and D’Anjou don’t tend to do well here in North Central Texas (they also tend to be the ones available at Lowe’s and Home Depot, which may be part of the bad reputation a lot of pears have here). French get fire blight something fierce. The Orientals and Asians can be productive however, so I will focus on them. Pears are like peaches in that they hate weed competition and they need thinning to keep from overbearing. Not thinning could cause the tree to skip a year from just investing too much energy into too much fruit. Oriental pears don’t ripen well on the tree, so they are removed when relatively firm and let to ripen on the counter. The harvest is from August to September, so a pear can be a good option to follow up after earlier harvesting trees like figs. Unlike peaches, pears are not self-pollinating, or if they are self-fertile hybrids, you don’t want to chance it. You should plant different compatible cultivars in order to produce good yields. Choose cultivars that flower at around the same time. Fire blight is our biggest problem here in Texas. Select resistant varieties and pay attention to your trees. Avoid fertilizing with a lot of nitrogen, as this increases the chances of fire blight. They are also susceptible to iron deficiency, but that can be amended with iron chelate applied to the soil. On really alkaline soil, your pears may suffer from cotton root rot. If that is the case, try another tree. Pears just won’t work for you. Pears have become popular as wildlife food plants for agricultural exemptions and Wildscape certification programs. You can afford to plant extremely resistant, but maybe not as tasty, cultivars if that is your goal. A pear tree is a great addition to the home orchard or food forest. Cultivars to try include Warren, Magness, Ayres, Moonglow, and Pineapple. Persimmon SP We have a native Texas persimmon, Diospyros texana, that produces small, chocolate colored fruit on a short, bushy tree (if it’s a female tree!). It is mainly planted as a wildlife food tree during the winter, since many find the tree useful for little else. I think it has a place in the Texas food forest provided you have the space. It requires no care at all and will grow just about anywhere, though you often find it in rocky woods and along streams. You can use it on the perimeter of your food forest to feed the deer and other wildlife so they leave your more precious plants alone. A sacrifice tree, if you will. The Oriental persimmon you’re likely to see in a store, D. kaki, is more likely to give you a crop writing home about. Many Orientals trees you can buy here use D. virginiana (our only other native persimmon) rootstock to make them more adaptable, which means that the Orientals won’t have a lot of the problems they would have otherwise, mainly, root rot. An ungrafted Oriental will probably die. Grafted onto a D. virginiana it will thrive quite nicely. Persimmons are highly adaptable as long as they don’t stand in water. They hate wet feet. Employ a good thick mulch to prevent fruit drop. They have few pest problems. A cultivar can be either astringent or non-astringent. If at all possible, leave astringent ones on the tree until after the first frost, or remove them and let them ripen up until that point. You’ll know when the fruit softens. Non-astringent cultivars can be eaten regardless. Cultivars to try include Eureka, Fuyu, Izu, Fankio, and Hachiya. The fruit makes a great jam. They are often peeled, strung on cotton line, and hung from the rafters to dry for winter storage. Their high vitamin content makes them a good source of nutrition during the winter. People wanting to live purely off the land may consider persimmons for this purpose. Their ease of care makes them good candidates for a food forest. Cold hardiness and blossom frost are not issues. Plum
SP or CP depending on cultivar You will come across two species of plums, the European Prunus domestica, and P. salicina from Japan. If in doubt about a cultivar, the Japanese plums tend to do better in Texas. Try Campagna, Ruby Queen, or Superior. They are reputed to have a great taste. There are some hybrids that may be worth experimenting with as well. Other cultivars to try include Methley, Morris (CP), Bruce (CP), AU Rosa (CP), and Santa Rosa. Cultivars vary with their harvest date, so play around with different types of plums to extend your harvest season. Planting several varieties also increases yield even in self-pollinating trees. Like peaches, plums are hard producing and short lived. They have the same general cultivation requirements as peaches and suffer from many problems common to peaches, so a guild that does well with a peach will probably do well with a plum and vice versa. If pruning, prune European plums to a central leader and Japanese plums to an open center. Thinning is often necessary. Pick Japanese plums early and ripen indoors, and let European plums ripen on the tree. We have native plums, but they are really only good as wildlife food or as an ornamental. The Mexican plum, P. mexicana, produces really small, tart fruit. Pomegranate SP The pomegranate is a medium-sized tree/shrub with thorns. If grown as a tree, you will have several branches coming from a single crown, not a single trunk. I often fed the pruned suckers to my goats and they love them. You may consider a pomegranate hedge as an animal deterrent. Winter cuttings root easily, so this would be easily managed. It is actually a kind of attractive plant, with bright orange bell-shaped flowers. Hummingbirds love pom flowers. Cold hardiness is not a problem up to about zone 7 and pomegranates enjoy our long, hot, dry summers. They ask for little in the way of soil except really good drainage. They like rock and tolerate salty soil. Poms need full sun to fruit at their best. They will grow in partial shade, but they won’t like it. They are drought tolerant. Fungal and insect problems affecting the fruit are the most dangerous. Too much rain during the ripening season can cause fruit rot or make the fruit split, inviting other problems. Just pay attention to your tree. Keep the base of the tree trimmed of lower branches and suckers to increase air circulation and don’t crowd the tree. Cultivars to try include Wonderful, Sumbar, Al-Sirin-Nar, and Salavatski. Pomegranates are hardy, maintenance-free trees that generally exist by themselves. They would do well in a food forest. Other Trees Apples seem popular here in Texas, but I have never had success with any. They usually have a really high chill hour requirement that makes them unsuitable for us and they do not easily tolerate our hot summers. If you know of some varieties that have worked for you, please contact me. A lot of people like apples and I’m interested to see if there are any we can reasonably grow here. Bananas are not cold hardy. Well, citrus are not either, and you may a valid point. However, most bananas that produce decent fruit are so big they cannot be planted in containers. This makes their permaculture usefulness in this part of Texas rather slim, since bananas take 10-15 months to fruit. Bananas outdoors will just freeze and die. Now, you can dig up the plant every winter and put it back in the winter, but this isn’t great for fruiting. There are dwarf bananas, but then you have the general requirements of a citrus. Since bananas are so cheap, I would save my effort for a plant that doesn’t require as much work. Cherries usually require too many chill hours to bloom and fruit properly. Anyone north of Dallas may be able to grow a sour cherry, but sweet cherries are generally not adaptable to our part of Texas. Cherries also require pollinators, so you can’t just plant one. People are breeding cherries with lower chill hours, but I want to stress to anyone who is thinking about getting livestock that a cherry tree can be dangerous. A handful of dried leaves will kill a mature goat almost immediately. Even if I could grow a cherry tree, I would not plant one for the safety of my livestock (and I love cherries). I do not know how sensitive horses and cows are to cherry leaves, but I would not risk it. I also want to state that the requirements for a blooming cherry and a fruiting cherry are not the same, just like a Bradford pear isn’t the same as a Moonglow. Guava have basically the same problems as bananas. They are tropical and are not cold hardy enough for our area. They grow better near the Gulf where it is warmer. Pistachios do not tolerate humidity and require hot, dry summers and moderately cold winters. Consequently, they do quite well out West in the desert they are best adapted to. I do not think they will do well in North Central Texas. Comments are closed.
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Rebecca Burrow
I am a Christian permie designer trying to spread the word about Christian land stewardship through permaculture. I like goats a lot. Maaaaaaaah. Archives
September 2016
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Burrow Permaculture Consulting | Permie Blog |