Hi fruitnut,

When I lived in Houston I had a nice persimmon tree at the house and it had tons of fruits. I used to put some of the unripen fruits in a paper bag with an apple in a dark place for a few days and they would ripe nicely. Try that and let us know if it works for you.

Sandra

Thanks alot Fruitnut. (heavy sarcasm) That's yet another fruit tree that I now feel that I can't live without. How's its growth habit? Do birds go after the fruits? Self fruitful I assume.
For anyone looking for a source, watch out, TyTy has alot of hits under google search. Aaron's Farm is another that I suspect is actually TyTy in disguise. I saw a post where Jellyman said he was happy with his from Womack Nurser in Texas. I checked and sure enough they list that variety at:
http://www.womacknursery.com/persimmons.html
Maybe next year.

Well, I'm sure it depends on where you live :)

I don't have any fruit I don't have to do ANYTHING to, but closest I would say are my established orange trees or my black mulberries.

The mature orange trees only need branch thinning when they go crazy with waterspouts, and occasional frost protection (hanging Christmas lights) when our temps get in the 20's.
The mulberries need almost nothing (a branch trimmed for future shape), and their only difficulty is harvesting the mulberries without squishing them. And keeping the neighbors from stealing the delicious little morsels, haha! So I guess the mulberries win!

Carla in Sac

For me, this would be persimmon Jiro. No dieback, no winter protection, no pests, reliable crop of wonderful fruits in the fall. The taste is great and they are non astringent.
Some berries (raspberry, currants) are also trouble free and very tasty in my opinion.
Olga

Sandra:

Thanks for that tip. I think I can remember to try that because that is about like other fruits.

tc:

Self fruitful and very rare seeds. My tree planted in 2004 is about 8 ft tall and 5-6 ft wide with no pruning. Ya the birds like anything this good. Try the nylon footies, they work great for me. I ordered 4 more trees this spring from Womacks ~$16 for beautiful big trees. Gave two away, planted one in the greenhouse and potted one up. One of those that wasn't cut back has 30 blossoms. The one in the greenhouse is growing like a weed and looks fabulous.

Carla:

I once had a Pakistan mulberry and plan to get another maybe Cooke's selection from L E Cooke Nursery via some retail nursery. Fruit are supposed to be even larger. I'll pot it up and grow it outside in summer and winter in the greenhouse.

My oranges are easy to grow...but have to have a greenhouse.

Olga:

Well, guess I'll have to try the Jiro,aka, Fuyu. If you can grow it maybe I can too. Raspberries don't do too well here although I've grown Jewel in Amarillo and it was a pretty good black raspberry. I'm trying some of the western trailing blackberries like Marion berry.

Strawberries fit the bill for me. It's a shame how little attention they get and yet they crank out yummy berries year round. I'm growing Quinaults and Sequoias, some in beds and some in hanging pots. Tasty berries even in the dead of winter -- it just doesn't get any better than that. Now mine don't come close to market quality in terms of size, mostly because of neglect and lack of thinning, but the sweet/tart berry goodness is all there. The aroma of fresh berries in the morning when the water hits the plants is an added bonus as well.

I don't have anything that is completely reliable without any work but my Honey Jar jujube comes close. Its a wonderful tasting fruit which needs no sprays. The only downside is is doesn't pollinate well every year, and the ants go after them (easily solved with tangletrap). These grow in any part of the US with a long hot summer.

The blueberries and currant/goose are probably next in line, all they need is netting at harvest. Raspberry and blackberry beds need renewing so they are a bit more work due to that. The only "regular" fruit that might make it in is Tomcot apricot which is early enough that it doesn't get much insect pressure and so I don't have to be so vigilant about spraying. I don't have a reliable and great persimmon, my favorites are Hachiya and Chocolate but I have not gotten consistent crops. Chocolate was doing well for several years but last year it didn't get pollinated, I think the tree that was pollinating it nearly died. Once I get a decent pollinator for Chocolate I think it will be right at the top of this list. Hachiya is not reliably hardy so it doesn't fruit every year. It will probably die to the ground one of these years but I've kept it going for eight years and I'm looking at a real nice crop this year.

Scott

I would have to say P. cattleianum lucidum most productive fruit tree with little care. It gives very tasty yellow strawberry guavas in a container, practically all year round in southern california.

Two other great low care fruits for me would be boysenberry and loquat.

Tree ripened fruit purchased at Costco.... (the ones grown locally).

You didn't say home grown or least expensive! ;-)

Where you can grow it, citrus. It tolerates little to no care and still produces well. In southern Florida probably more were killed by kindness (too much watering or else mulching), but that was prior to the recent diseases there.

I used to love astringent persimmons- still like them some, but much prefer the fuyu types that can be eaten at any texture. I like them when they barely give in to a firm touch.

I'm growing Shin here but haven't gotten any really sweet fruit from it yet. Last 2 seasons have been cool and wet while this one is showing promise of a real growing season, so I'm hopeful.

I'd have to say Montmorency cherries. I have an older dwarf Monty that I've done absolutely nothing to: no pruning, no bugs, no disease, no sprays. It has set a crop reliably now for years. Being a dwarf, it doesn't yield as much as I'd like, but what a pretty, dependable tree. For some reason, the birds leave it alone too.

Brook

My sour cherries, minus the birds (easy enough to net) are also spray free/pest free.

My Reliance grape is also pest/disease free, although i think its in a prime location. The fruits are outstanding.

The european pear I inherited when I bought my office building, the pear I've been unable to identify. Never gets sprayed, or water, or fertilizer. Never bother by fireblight. Never gets thinned. much better looking than keiffers. Always loads of perfect apple like pears for 6 weeks