View Full Version : Suggestions on fruit plants..
Kittikity
08-19-2009, 07:49 AM
Ok, I really want to have some fruit plants in my yard but I don't want something like an apple tree that is going to take 10 yrs to mature.. A couple of years I don't mind, but I want to be able to harvest before my kids go to college.. So I need suggestions on other fruit type plants.. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are obvious ones.. Anything else? My kids really love fruit and I'd like to add this as part of our self grown food supply..
Garden Green
08-19-2009, 11:42 PM
Grapes, kiwi, gooseberry, dew berry, paw paw, muscadine, chockberry, rosehips, quince, loquat, huckleberry, wineberry, Oregon grape, May apple, salmonberry, boysenberry, cloudberry, huckleberry, elderberry, currant, dragon fruit, prickly pear, bilberry...
There are a lot of fruits out that you can grow and have a harvest same season or next season. It would just depend on your taste. There is just a huge list of different fruits that you can grow
Don't discount fruit trees, though. A lot of fruiting trees start producing fruit as young as 4 years old and you can purchase them when they are right at the age where they should start producing within a year or two. And a lot of those trees can be purchased as a dwarf variety that will get 6 to 10 feet tall. Apples, pears, peach, plum, cherry, banana, pomegranate, oranges, and a lot of others are out there that can be kept small, produce a reasonable amount of fruit without extreme excess and are easily maintained because of their smaller size. If space is an issue, then you can get a 4 in 1 or even a 6 in 1 tree that has multiple fruits on it that will produce in a short period of time.
I'd check with your local extension service to find out what grows well in your area. Considering you're in Florida, you will probably have little to no trouble growing just about anything minus extremely dry loving fruits but you can probably adapt if you set your mind to it.
I hope this helps!
Kittikity
08-20-2009, 07:35 AM
I've never heard of most of those.. I'm so used to the regular supermarket fruit selection.. My parents weren't very adventerous in their eating so I wasn't exposed to much.. Which is a shame since I love trying new things.. But I try to get my kids to try as many different things as possible.. I've thought about dwarf trees.. But wasn't sure about how long it would take for them to mature.. I looked up semi mature regular sized trees and they wanted close or over $100 a tree.. I don't have that kind of money so that quickly got passed up.. But I did find a place with some dwarf trees which were reasonable.. Right now we spend crazy amounts of money on fruit every week so being able to grow my own would be a big bonus.. But I'd much rather them being eating fruit than junk foods..
Garden Green
08-21-2009, 02:50 PM
I know where you are there, my family wasn't very adventurous either. But then again where I'm from mayhaw, huckleberry, wild blueberry and muscadine were normal food that everyone grew or picked wild. It was novel to eat from a grocery store and until I was like 7 or 8 I thought that people who purchased their fruit from the store were really rich! :o I mean all those bags of fruit and cartons of berries really cost (even then). So I suppose I was right and wrong.
But you can get really inexpensive fruit trees from a couple of nurseries not far from where I live. summerstonenursery.com and autumnridgenursery.com. They have reasonable prices (most of the time under $10 a tree), give free shipping, and occasionally have buy 3 get 1 free type deals. Dwarf and regular size trees and other stuff, too. But keep in mind that they are shipping when they are 2 1/2 feet tall which means most of them won't fruit for 3+ years. But to me it is worth the investment because the price of the tree is what we spend on the fruit in the store every time we go.
gardengirl72
08-22-2009, 09:46 PM
A great time to purchase and plant fruit trees is in the fall. They also tend to have sales then as well. Don't let another year go by.
Kittikity
08-23-2009, 08:01 AM
Awesome sites, gardengreen.. But they seem like the exact same site.. I'll definitely bookmark one though for when I do get my first trees.. Can't beat those prices!
Garden Green
08-23-2009, 06:26 PM
Hehe, they do look exactly the same, don't they? But they are actually two different establishments that I think are affiliated in some way. A lot of the nurseries here have carbon copy websites. They are located in a densely populated area of nurseries so who knows. I gave you both because they seem to run specials at different times, too.
Good luck!
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