amy, Scope out municipal parks, church landscape plantings, state parks & wildlife management areas, etc. I can't comment on ripening periods in the PNW, but here: Serviceberries are ripe in May/June - there's a nice A.laevis tree at the public library, and my kids & I planted several A.x grandiflora bushes at their elementary school about 10 years ago that are now mature enough to produce nice crops - if we can beat the birds to 'em. C.mas(corneliancherry dogwood) - several nice fruiting-age plants in a city park here; it's me vs. the birds in August, when the fruits ripen. C.kousa is a prominent feature at several of the churches around town, and at the satellite campus of the regional state university here, and nobody but me, the birds, and squirrels do anything with the fruits; usually ripe in Sept/Oct. Pawpaws are everywhere along creeks here - usually ripe just at the end of September. Persimmon season here runs from mid-September to December,or until they're gone, depending upon the tree. I'm currently gathering shagbark & shellbark hickory nuts, pecans, hicans, black walnuts, and bur oak acorns from my nutgrove and various spots around the community.

This is not uncommon for first year fruit, even after giving a season to develop the tree. Mulching and very consistent water help a lot as does a good manure with some nitrogen content. Citrus love nitrogen and it helps get a good leaf canopy to both grow and protect the fruit from the sun. With continued good care the fruit will improve with time. Many citrus growers say the fruit doesn't reach it's best til 10 or 15 years, but you should have better fruit next year. A good mulch is the ticket.

Walter So far as much as we can tell the crops are find. Spoke with others and they too are on high enough land they seem OK as well. The coast and the routes to them are in big time trouble. I-5 the main freeway in OR and WA is under water at Chelahalis in WA to get to Seattle you must go around robinhoods barn and many miles. Hopefully if no more rain it will reopen on Thurs or Fri. Catch is they are staying more rain is due. Vernonia a little town north west of Portland is an island now, no store, no hospitial...many homes LOST. Might be months. Both Gov. of WA and OR have declared most of areas as disaster areas. I feel for our lovely coast and all those who now are without homes or homes so damaged they can not live in their homes. D

I like the idea of suggestions from WSU but I didn't easily find the information. Check out the Oregon State University Extension as well. They are focused on the same climate issues and I have found excellent descriptions of how fruit performs in our area. I checked with the OSU extension site on the raspberries that I bought last year (after I bought them, of course) and sure enough the ones that were predicted to do poorly died. I sent right off for a variety that does well in our area and it is doing fabulously and tastes great. If you have a little patience I suggest any of the apple tastings that nurseries around here often have in the fall. It is one way to find varieties that appeal to you that are not readily available in the supermarket. Even if a tree does well it is no fun if you would rather be eating something else. Portland Nursery is one place that does apple, pear and Asian pear tastings in the fall and there is a huge selection to trial. There are a lot of growers that provide trees suitable for this area like Raintree Nursery so it is just a matter of what you like. And check out C&O Nursery's ripening chart if you want to plant more than one variety of a certain fruit and have them ripen in succession. For example, some apples fruit in July and others keep ripening way into late October. I personally stay away from the really late ones and leave them for the growers in the eastern part of the state. (If I remember correctly C&O also provides a wide range of rootstock so order their catalog and check it out.) I bought whips of "Honey Crisp" apple trees from C&O years ago when no one else was offering the tree. They have done extremely well in the microclimate you describe and are much sweeter and more wonderful than most of the "Honey Crisp" fruit offered in the supermarket. I don't regret planting them since they are so good off the tree even though there is now more of the fruit around. I have fruit trees, berries and vines tucked in everywhere just to keep the racoons and birds happy ;) They leave some for me most of the time. Have fun!