Who grows fruit?

[miss_thenorth]

I planted an apple tree and a pear tree last spring. I will eventually get around to raspberries, and strawberries, but in all honesty, I have a U-pick 5 miles up the road where I can pick strawberries, cherries, blueberries, raspberries and peaches. About a 1/2 up the road there is a U-pick apple orchard. All of these I can pick for extremely reaonable rates, so I'm not in a hurry to plant my own.

 

[FarmerChick]

I wouldn't be in a hurry to plant my own with that so close to the house for you to pick. you are supporting the local economy and farmers so that is a good thing!!

 

[Kwynn]

Strawberries. Lots and lots of strawberries. :coolsun

 

[Dixiedoodle]

I live in NC and have Antique Southern var. of apples (7 different var.) 10 trees, I have blueberries (5 var.), I have thornless blackberries, dewberries, plums, pears (three var), I have fig, peaches (which have not produced -because I refuse to use that much chemicals), pecans and a small vineyard of muscadines (15 vines= 6var.) and three table grapes.. I have cherry trees but they have not produced. I have tried raspberries but they fizzled in my red clay and hot, humid summers.

All of my trees have done well, with no spraying (I have honeybees and refuse to use pesticides or other chemicals) except the cherry which I think has to do with the # of days that are cold enough for them to produce?? and the peach trees, which are always load with blooms, have great starts but are eatten alive by the Japanese Beetles and other pest and have some kind of fungus/rot every yr.. They are coming out this fall and I will replant with more/different var. of pears and other things I want to try..

 

[sweetshoplady]

I'm planting blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, cherries, persimmons, and nut trees. I have bananas, oranges, grapefruit, mangos, and tangerines. I'm also getting mulberries and olives and strawberries.

 

[PotterWatch]

We are putting in bananas, I have no idea if we will actually get fruit from them though. My husband says we should but I have my doubts. We are also putting in an orange, plum, apple, and perhaps lemon or peach. I'd love an avacado tree, but I'm the only one who eats them.

 

[Homesteadmom]

We have 2 valencia orange trees. Citrus does real well here. We plan on planting 2 lemon, 2 lime & 2 ruby red grapefruit trees all out front which is where the orange trees are located. All along the west fence line we plan on planting, cherry, apple, peach, pear, plum & nectarine trees. Not to mention concord, green & red grape vines(they grow great here too), rhubarb, bluberries, raspberries & blackberries. Along with a strawberry bed on the side of my shed so it will be shaded in the afternoon in my garden. The rhubarb will grow here I am just not sure about the other berries so I plan n tlaking to someone at the local nearby nursery to find out if they will & what types are best for our area. We plan to have all these done over a 3 yr period starting with the rhubarb this fall & a berry if possible. Then this next spring add grapes & about 4 trees, 2 citrus & 2 fruit. We figue they will do double duty. provide food for us & help shade the property so we will be cooler. I am thinking of avocado & olive too(just haven't told dh yet!! shh!!!!!!!). We will by the trees a little bit bigger so it won't be as long till we start getting some fruit off them, even if it is 20 pieces a yr to start that is better than nothing.

 

[enjoy the ride]

Isn't it amazing what people in those southern places can grow? I have tried bananas but all green and no fruit- I have loved bananas sicee I lived in Hawaii and had them in my back yard. All the difference between a homegrown tomato and store bought. Commercial bananas are not the most tasty variety and are picked totally unripe- yuck.
But here no one has to "grow" black berries- just try to keep them from taking over- we have wild strawberries and huckleberries too. That's ok too.

 

[Homesteadmom]

My brother has a banana tree he keeps in his house but so far no banana's. I told him if it works then I will get one for us too as we eat them like crazy around here.

 

[Nyappy]

We have one golden raspberry that is growing everywhere this year, we also ordered 3 red raspberries and got an extra, we have a plum tree but it never produced till the neighbors got one, I think theirs is dead it hasn't gotten any leaves and ours has a disease so we are going to try and cut it down this fall and plant a dwarf tree there. We also have some watermelon growing, were only going to get a few though, two small strawberry plants-since we hardly get anything from them, I give all the strawberries to the chickens, we have a vine peach, it was getting a fruit and the freakin stupid dog picked it off, but there is another one growing so hopefully we can taste it. The first banana plant I got the cat killed, so I got another one and so far it isn't dead, we also did some grape vines but we aren't going to get any grapes this year.
There is some virginia creeper growing, I don't know if the fruit is poisonous to people but we let it grow for the birds.