Usually quite productive
Muscadine grapes
Rabbiteye blueberries

Frequently quite productive
Japanese persimmon (Tanenashi)
Pecan (alternate bearer)

Occasionally moderately productive (multi-year producing, though not very large yet)
Pears (I think soon these will have a lot)
Loquats
Paw paws
Figs

To all: Please include where you live. What grows in zone 7 in Washington State might not be recommended for zone 7 in eastern US.
Thanks,
RM

Hi RM,

I'm just north of DC.

If I were to recommend for zone 9 California, and you don't want to spray it would just be Persimmons, Pomegranates, Apriums, Plums, Pluots and Citruses. If you don't want to prune, it would all just be the slow growing cold hardy citruses like mandarins and the cold hardy lemon types such as calamondins, sudachi and yuzu.

Straight from my memory, here's what's proven to be applicable to my yard, note that the tropical and subtropical types are planted in the warmer microclimates around the house:

Persimmons: over productive, no spray at all.

Pomegranates: Very productive. No spray at all.

Blueberries, raspberries: very productive, just make sure they have moist soil every day, never allow to dry or they will instantly die in the heat wave during summer, and that you regularly acidify the soil. Birds are the only major problem.

Bananas: although low yield, you can get fruits every year without any type of spraying. Proper drainage and irrigation. Occasional cold protection frenzy during freak cold events, but the cold hardy will survive and bear fruits for you.

Paw-paws: no spray, no fruits either yet. Takes a long time to establish before they will fruit.Plums, plumcots, Apriums, Pluots, Peach plums: very productive, no sprays, no care, just spray that you don't ave rains during peak blooms. When you don't have rains during the peak bloom, must thin out the flowers with broomstick, saves a lot of labor thinning out the crops.

Cherries: just spray once to control fungal diseases. Very productive, just make a contract with the pesky birds or scare them off. Netting is very problematic when you have high planting density. There are many bird scare tactics that work if you continuously change tactics during the season.

Citruses: Just control the ants, you control most of the pests that attack your citruses. Minor spraying of oil when the scales and aphids gets out of hand. Very productive, allows you to have crops whole year as most will ripen from November to June, the dead months of temperate crops. No regular pruning needed.

Figs: no sprays needed, they make a lot of mess and attract all rodents and ants if you forget to gather fruits just after one week. Your place will be feeling like you live atop a giant anthill.

Avocadoes: just occasional cold protection.

Guavas: just occasional cold protection.

Barbados Cherry: No spray, just occasional cold protection.

Jaboticabas: No spray, just occasional cold protection.

Jelly palm: no spray, no care, can live off via indirect watering, drought tolerant and cold hardy.

Apricots, peaches, nectarines, almonds: Spray three times during the cold season.

Quinces: just spray for fireblight during the blooms. Usually blooms late when danger of frost and disease pressure from fireblight are lower.

Apples and Pears: spray everytime you blink your eyes! Codling moths and fireblight will keep you busy every hour. Of course that was an exaggeration. During bloom, you will have to spray with copper every 3 days if it is humid and temperature is around 70-80 deg F. After the fruit forms, you will have to monitor for flight of coddling moths, then spray with Sevin. After that, you will have to bag each fruit if you don't want to spray until harvest. I have since grafted over and removed the fireblight susceptible types, but still have to battle with codling moths.

strawberries are only good during the first time planting, then it would be hard to keep them productive afterwards. I replant every two years if I want some. Slugs and snails will get to the fruits before you do.

blackberries: they are hard to keep in control, although wouldn't need a lot of care aside from shaping them up.

grapes: also difficult to control their growth as they would almost need separate irrigation schedule than the other crops. The pattern of irrigation changes to have good crops, so you have to reprogram the schedules, and if you have multiple varieties you would have needed multiple channels. Otherwise they will be very vegetative and you would have poor crops.

I still have many other container grown exotic fruit types that I bring inside during the winter like the Tomato Tree plant, Spondias dulce, Miracle fruit.

Also there's cherimoya, passion fruit, and other borderline fruit types.

I'm in zone 5 Wisconsin.

Raspberries - planted Heritage spring 2006, had a small crop last year in summer but lost fall crop to freeze, bigger crop now. I'm trying for two crops again this year, but I might try mowing down the patch to get an earlier fall crop next year. I had rabbit problems last year, but no problems this year. I don't have many raspberries yet but the ones I've had are really good. I planted bristol black raspberries this spring and they have a little bit of fruit just now ripening.

Peach - my peach tree is several years old and came with the house. I had a great crop the first year as a result of the previous owner's work. Last year I had no fruit. This year I sprayed lime sulfur and have some fruit, but the tree is dying from a large opening in the bark on the trunk. I'm not sure if I'll replace it.

Cherry - I planted a cherry tree in spring 2006. It is a Danube cherry and fruited this spring. It had about 20 cherries. I ate one, the birds ate the rest. I'll have to net next year.

So far the most I've had to do is the lime sulfur spray in winter for the peach and cherry, and water the raspberries. And a bit of pruning. I have an apple that was planted this spring and I'll have to see what I have to do to that.

Zone 6b...Michigan (1/2 mile from lake Saint Clair)

Red currants....exceptionally productive. No spraying, few pests, will fruit in dappled to light shade.

Nanking Cherries...not even worth cutting for firewood. I've gotten about 2 dozen cherries in 4 years, and those were only ok.

Red Raspberries....no pests, no spraying, as long as I keep picking they seem to continue producing (I've got Heritage and another red I can't remember)

Yellow Raspberries, less productive than the reds but a family favorite. I spray nothing on them (or mostly anything else for that matter).

Pawpaws(6 trees)...still waiting for them to bear fruit, only 2 have bloomed and their bloom time was interrupted by the easter freeze here. I order fruit online each year and will do so again this fall.

Mulberries....taste great, productive my only but is that this is not likely a tree easily controlled in size by pruning. It has begun to shade out many of my other fruit plants in that area of the yard.

Boysenberries...tast great, not as productive as I would like to see.

Blackberries...tart and hugely productive. I could make wine with my 4 plants that is how productive they are.

Apples,plums, cherries, pears....still waiting most trees are under 4 years old.

Figs...not yet bearing...these are in pots and new (as of last year or so).

Goumi....one blooms heavily, the other (bought for pollenation purposes doesn't bloom at all) no fruit yet. I added the self-fertile one this year.

Che, Persimmon(kaki)...both 1 year old I have had no pests on the Che, the persimmon has had an attack of psylla this year.

Blueberries....netted this year so we can try the berries. Productive but under big pressure from the birds, squirrels, etc.

Serviceberries....1st year of production (2 of 6 plants)...My son and I prefer them to blueberries. They ripen a month before blueberries and are fairly good production-wise.

Hazelnuts....3 plants of which one has bloomed and no nuts yet.

Kiwi....8 plants. 3 males flowered this year the females are growing well, but no flowering (this is year 5 for them)

Seaberries....took me 3 tries to get plants established (and I tried named varieties the second time). Hopefully time will tell on these.

Gooseberries....pixwell (I guess "not the best tasting" was viewed as a poor name) is productive, invicta added this year as well as black currant (I forget which one) and clove currants (last year actually) none of the new ones have fruited.

Manchurian apricot...very slow grower, not flowering yet (year 4).

Jujube's....new this year. They are growing well and have even flowered but I will not let them set fruit til they are bigger...

I'm sure I'm forgetting somethings....wyeberries (haven't tried yet, 2nd year in ground) wolfberries (getting shaded out by mulberry, but growing well otherwise...silly thing bloomed last November...I picked it off)

~Chills

Oh yeah....

I have planted grapes twice. Canadice each time (I have a three strikes and I give up) Each time the vine has not returned after a mild winter (the grape does have to compete with the kiwis and a clematis monster).

~Chills

I've only been growing a few years, not all of my plants have fruited yet, but my triple crown thornless blackberry is the big winner. Easy to take care of, very productive, very tasty. It gets some attention from Japanese beetles, but not much.

My Adams and Johns elderberries are very vigorous and productive. A little out of control this year. The raw berries are almost tasteless, but made into syrup or jelly, they are very good. The JB's like to swarm on them, but somehow don't cause much damage.

Rhubarb isn't really a fruit, but I've got to mention it. I have a Victoria green rhubarb, and fresh rhubarb from the garden made into strawberry rhubarb pie makes all the difference. I used to use frozen or fresh from the produce section, but there is just no comparison. It gets quite a bit of JB damage, but it puts out new leaves so fast, it's good as new a couple weeks after the beetles are gone.

I had a volunteer peach tree. It fruited in its third year, but what a hot spot for trouble. Borers in the trunk, JB's on the leaves, some kind of black spots on the fruit, and OFM larvae in the fruit. I cut it down.

Alex

4 peaches-some fruit-easy to care for, fastest growing of my trees. Last year one of them was a stick (in the spring) its almost 10 ft tall right now. Other three are growing great. My favorite so far (peach is my favorite fruit).

2 apples-no fruit(second year)-a few bug problems (chafers) and some aphids, although ladybugs have been doing their job (i see them on all my fruit trees, patrolling).

1 pear (need another)-no fruit-no problems-slow growing (second year)

2 plums-no fruit(first year)-fast growing, spreading habit. Chafers devoured the leaves about a month or so ago. Came back strongly.

2 blueberries-no fruit yet-growing great in pure peat moss, were small pruned sticks, now close to 2 feet tall.

It'll be another couple of years before i really see some results. I plan on putting in a large bed of blackberries and blueberries and maybe some other small fruit trees.

I can't get melons to grow, but I have a peach tree that came with the house. Last year it did nothing, and I thought maybe it would never give forth any fruit. But this year it was all over pink with blossoms, and now I have quite a number of peaches on it. I've never sprayed or done anything to it, but the peaches look healthy enough, what the squirrels haven't grabbed and chewed on, or just plucked off and thrown to the ground.

The cherry tree (no idea what variety) also came with the house, and has fruited this year and last. Earlier this year it was caked with black aphids, but I ordered and released 1000 plus ladybugs a couple months ago, and they did their jobs like troopers (those that stayed). The cherry is pretty much aphid free now. The cherries are getting ripe. I haven't harvested any, so I don't know if they're buggy or not, whether they're good to eat or not. For next year, I'll definitely read up on cherry trees and see what I can do to assure I get an edible harvest.

I live about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. Nothing we have planted is over three years in the ground.

The best for me, so far has been my citrus. This year will not be good because of a late frost at bud time.

Valencia, blood orange, tangerine, Ruby Red grapefruit and Louisiana Sweet produced heavily. The Owari and Brown Select Satsumas have not grown enough to produce well. Meyer and Lisbon lemons are doing well (planted next to the south side of the house). I spray when I see white flies. There has been a bit of leaf minor damage, but that will be less of a problem as the trees grow.

I planted an American and a Fuyu persimon. The American is growing slowly, the Fuyu has died three times in the same spot. The next Fuyu I buy will go in another spot. No bugs were noticed, they just dried up (after looking lush and beautiful) and died. No spraying on them.

The muscadines are growing beautifully and quickly. I may have a monster to tame with pruning. The Cowart is loaded with fruit I hope to get some before the animals get them all. The other varieties are Carlos (for wine), Summit, and Fry. One vine makes all the muscadine I can use, if the animals would leave them alone. I had 2 Fry and 2 Cowart at my last house. The only problems so far, with no spraying, is a few aphids.

The peaches are a different story. The 2 Florida King, which ripened first, gave us enough fruit to eat and preserve. The other 3, LaPeche and La Festival, ripened later and were beset by bugs and squirrels. It also started raining every day, so I couldn't effectively spray. We lost all those peaches, except a couple we picked still too green to enjoy. Peaches look like they will be a lot of work, but we love them.

We planted 3 apple trees (Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Ein Sheimer). Two died (I think because of root damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One bent the trees to the ground from the North, the other bent the trees to the ground from the South.) and of course I didn't mark which was which. I was going to mark them later and then after the tags fell off, I was going to identify them from the fruit. I think I may try to replace them. I had 2 fruit on the remaining tree, but something wanted them more than me and was willing to eat them green. Not much bug problems yet, but then no fruit.

The pears are growing well and I have some fruit on the Keiffer. The Pineapple and Orient are growing well, but no fruit yet. They are young trees. Had one banch with fireblight, which I removed. It has not returned, yet.

Figs normally do well down here, but I'm having trouble getting them established. Most froze back to the ground or had major limb damage from the last frost we had. All the trees were sprouted and some had breba crops. Now we have a few fruit on the LSU Gold and the Ventura, but as they ripen the birds get them. My neighbor has 2 well established trees, but I looked at them yesterday and all the ripe ones were split from the rain. I don't think he is even picking any.

I tried growing pawpaw, the seedling died and the grafted Mango variety died to the root. The root is coming back and is doing okay as I am now shading it. I thought planting them between my shed and my neighbors shed would be shade enough, but they got direct, middle of the day sun and were fried. I plan to try another grafted pawpaw in the future.

I have a wild mulberry. It grows very fast and produces a ton of fruit. This year we had tent catepillars (after the fruit was gone). I sprayed the tree once for a scale infestation. I need to trim some branches, but overall a no care tree.

I have 2 jujubes (Li and Lang). No pests, no problems. We have fruit this year for the first time. I sure hope I like them. I have never tasted them before. The biggest problem has been root suckers. I mow most of them and cut by hand the ones close to the trunk.

I planted some wild cherry trees, but a rabbit ate the bark of and killed them. I will try again.

I planted some banana trees a couple of months ago. So far, so good.

I planted two Cherry of the Rio Grand and a Strawberry Guava. The goats ate them to the ground, but one of each is coming back. They are very small.

I have two English walnuts. I thought they would never break dormancy, but finally did and started growing like gangbusters. Then something (Junebugs?) ate all the leaves off. I sprayed, but it has been raining every day so I don't know if I did any good. They are sprouting again.

I have two pecan trees (Sumner and Elliot). They are finally starting to grow. I hope to try a few in about 5 or 6 more years.

I have 3 loquats. They produced one year and then I pruned drastically to correct a shape issue. Just a few this year, but should be great next year. No bug problems, except a few leaves were chewed on the edges. I guess the bugs needed something after the walnut leaves were gone.

I have (had) 5 plum trees (Methley, Santa Rosa, and Bruce). Several died and yes, I didn't mark the varieties. They seem to have problems with mosses and lichen growing on the trunk and need to be sprayed a couple of times a year. I've used copper and lime/sulphur. Both seem to work. No fruit to speak of yet. The couple we had were small. They may be getting too much shade from an oak tree.

I have one seedless concord. It is very slow growing (at least compared to the muscadine) and has not produced any fruit yet.

Grapes, all labrusca, are far and away my most productive plant. No pests or diseases. Fuyu persimmon has had monster crops from 3 years on, no pests or diseases. Pomegranates nice crops, completely trouble free. Fig and mulberries productive and trouble free. Cherries have huge crops with occasional pests. Peaches and nectarines very productive, minor diseases, but overlap grapes which I prefer. Blackberries productive with no problems. Filberts moderate crops no problems. Santa Rosa and Mariposa plums variable due to late frosts. Will remove Santa Rosa. Harcot and Chinese apricot grow like weeds but always drop their crops at slightest temp stress. I have been messing around with hardy kiwis for 5 years and have yet to see a flower- just can't seem to give up on them. Just put in Mesa walnut and Che. Aronia got pulled because of undesireable fruit. Almost forgot highest return fruit of all- hen fruit.

i've planted pomegranates, jujube's, asian pears, asian persimmons, & figs here in dallas this year

jujube's are growing like weeds. pomegranates doing well. figs growing albeit a little slow. asian pears & persimmons kinda sitting there

I have 5 Doyle Blackberry plant that produced 175 # last year. Would have been 200#'s but I quit picking. These are 4 years old. I am in central Indiana. They had a name change to Overflow a few years back. The Doyle family took it back and I think they are back to Doyle.

have 3 older apple trees that came with the house when i bought it 3 yrs ago..i have some luck in saving these 3 trees...tons of apples but some apples have worms...i bought 2 mcintosh and planted this year so i'll have to see what they do next year... my cherry tree bloomed and set cherries but all the cherries dropped off...i suspect too dry this season or the tree has some kind of blight...i did get enough cherries to make 3 pies the 2nd year i had the tree. that was 2 yrs ago....
In the 2nd year with my june bearing strawberries...had to cover them with a screen to keep out the resident chipmunk..this year and last year were terrible for my 2 blueberry bushes...only a handful of blueberries and it wasn't because of birds..Planted 5 chinese chestnut and 2 filbert trees 3 years ago...nothing on the chestnut and only 5 nuts from the filberts..i did have 2 peach trees 2 years ago. they had small peaches on them then suddenly shriveled up and died......i got rid of the peach trees...i plan on getting more blueberry bushes in the future..cannot this year due to problems with the summer pool and my car!

I live just outside of Las Vegas. All in one almond, Mission almond, Satsums and Blue Giant plums, Nectarines, Wonderful pomegranate, Key and Bearss lime, Eureka lemon, Peach, apricot, Concord (seed and seedless) Fantasy, Thompson, Flame grapes. I also have male and female pistacio. They are only 3 years old which means I have approx 5 or 6 years to go for fruitation.
Not so good: FHIA23 banana, Ice cream banana. They flurish until winter then die off and come back in the spring. I am going to try protecting them this winter but I don;t have much hope for fruit. Dragon fruit in containers. 3 years old and no fruit.
When the wind blows(every day) I get every kind of desert plant. Instead of fighting it, I should take them to U.N.L.V., have them indentified, buy a camera and put them on Ebay for 10 bucks apiece and make a fortune.
John

Grapes - Himrod Golden Seedless produces more grapes than I can deal with. Spouse is going to try making wine.

Gooseberries - reliable as heck every year.

Apples - Don't produce every year, but when they do, I get alot.

Various European Plums - the freeze catches the blossoms almost every year.

Pie Cherries - I would get a great crop if it wasn't for the birds. The trees are too big for netting.

Russian Huckleberries - self seeding annual that's really reliable. I have never seen seeds sold for this particular vaiety, but they are way better than those that are available.

Peaches - couldn't handle the cold, but I may try again since winters are warmer than they were 20 years ago.

What a great thread! I haven't posted here in ages. I'm in So. CA, Zone 9, Valencia/Santa Clarita area. Most of my fruit trees are 8 years old, and time has really made the difference. I don't spray any of my trees.

Wonderful Pomegranites: The bush is loaded. I have lots of hummingbirds because of the feeders I put out, and the flowers that I planted. They pollinate this one very well for me. My neighbors have these growing wild in their yards. The birds plant the seeds.

Santa Rosa plum: This is the first year I've had a bumper crop. I was going to pull this tree last year because it only gave me a couple fruits per year, and it looked like it had fire blight. I hacked it way back, and this year it was loaded with fruit!

Satsuma plum: I love this tree. It produces very well every year. I don't thin the fruit, which I probably should.
Flowering plum: This tree gives me tons of little cherry plums that I love. The blossoms in the Spring are beautiful, too.

Apricot: This is a dwarf, and once it's life span is over I think I will buy a Dave Wilson standard and just keep it trimmed. It's doing pretty well, but is too small.
Gravenstein apple: These aren't recommended in my zone, but I love this variety. It has about 12 apples on it this year. They are very sweet and tangy.

Hachiya persimmon: I almost gave up on his tree, but this summer for the first time it looks very promising. Lots of healthy looking fruit...patience seems to be the key.

Pink lady apple: This tree needs to be weeded, so it doesn't look too happy right now, but it does well in this area. It's a delicious Australian apple.

Volunteer peach tree: This tree came up from a pit in my compost pile. It is huge, and filled with fruit! Peach trees grow like weeds here. The pits are a bit large, but I like the novelty of it. It's a late peach...I think it's a freestone.

Brown turkey fig: This tree has done well, although it looks a little stunted. It gives me a lot of fruit, though. I think it needs more water than the others.

Pineapple guava: My fuits on this tree are super tiny, it's weird. Maybe the honeysuckle is too close...the flowers are beautiful, though.

Citrus: I have Meyer lemon, Algerian tangerine, and a Ponderosa lemon. The freeze turned them brown, but after trimming off the brown, they are coming back with a vengeance! Oh, I also have a blood orange, a navel orange, and a Valencia orange. The citrus do very well here, but need to be fed. (I use compost tea.)

My chickens have helped the soil greatly. When I first moved here, I layed down layers of mulch, because the soil looked like white sand. Now it's very healthy, and I have lots of worms. The main thing it's taken is deep watering and a long time!!!!

Stephenie