Where do you live and do you plan on budgeting time and effort to tend to the tree, or are you looking for best return on minimum effort?

Have you seen other fruit trees thrive where you live?

My preference would be a blight resistent asian pear and I would graft a couple of diferent pears that I like onto it. Most asian pears to not spread out a lot so they will occupy less room.

Murky - I live near Raleigh, NC. Fairly long growing season, hot and very humid summers. Disease pressure is high due to the high humidity. I do intend to follow any schedule required to get the highest productivity out of this tree, within reason. I have no problem with spraying multiple times a year, winter pruning, and summer pruning if necessary.

My objective is to grow enough fruit for fresh eating and hopefully have enough left over for some sort of preserving, e.g. applesauce, canning, or freezing.

I currently grow 5 highbush blueberries (bearing), 1 muscadine grape (beared first time this year), 1 fuyu persimmon (not yet fruiting), 1 fig (bearing), and blackberries. I have room left for 1 semi-dwarf fruit tree.

Charlieboring - I'm leaning toward the asian pears.

This post was edited by Ferroplasm on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 13:52

My Meyer lemon tree.

given what you have, you are covering late summer and fall. Get a mulberry instead for early summer/late spring fruit. The usual advantages apply: no spray, productive, early, easy harvest while the tree is small.

Peach!

Apples and pears can be just as good from a local orchard or farmers market, but a truly tree ripened peachâ¦..forget about it! Heavenly

If you like plums and apricots, how about a fruit salad type tree with peach, plum, nectarine, and apricot grafts?

What Bart said. A tree ripened peach is without a doubt far superior to anything you could buy.

Concentrate on something you could not get otherwise.

I would absolutely do a peach tree. And it would be a yellow peach known for awesome flavor.

3rd Vote for peach and for exactly the reasons stated. A supermarket apple isn't quite as good as a tree ripened fresh picked one, but it is 100 times closer to being equal in taste than is a tree ripe peach compared to those from a store. If you haven't had the pleasure, you just can't imagine how good they truly are. My favorite thing about growing peaches this year was watching the face of friends and family as they bit into one of my tree ripened peaches. Without a single exception, they all went crazy over the taste, texture, and most of all sweetness. And don't let anyone scare you about peaches being too hard to grow. No one here knows less than I did/do, and I certainly made mistakes. But in spite of my ignorance and inexperience, I have several peach trees that I managed to grow from 3 ft baby trees to 7 foot producers without any MAJOR problems or failures. Of course tastes are subjective and different people prefer different fruits, but I'm willing to bet that if you sat up a table on a busy street with a tree-ripened apple, plum, pear, and peach and let people have a bite of each and then get a free take-home basket of the one they most enjoyed, the majority would take the fresh, ripe peaches! (sorry if I just offended some apple, pear lovers....I said its subjective!).

Hi, 4th vote for the tree ripened peach. One yellow, one white. The best! Mrs. G

Okay guys, we must not know how to count here. So far bart1, cckw, thecityman, MrsG47, and myself, have voted for peach. That makes 5. Then I would add a half-vote from Fireballsocal for recommending a fruit salad tree with peach.

Ferroplasm, if you don't get a peach we will be very disappointed in you. The good thing is that most peaches are self-fertile.

The answer for me is Mangoes.
But the reality is it is not possible in my climate without costly investments to generate an environment capable of growing them.
I had to look around my town and ask people what was the easiest fruit to grow that would yield regularly.
Pears and figs are in that position.
That still did not stop me from adding plums, apples, peaches and blueberries.
Murky has it right.
What have you seen in your area and what do the locals say.
I believe we should always grow what is most adaptable to our areas with the least problems and then look at the things we really want and measure their pros and cons.
I grow things that are marginal for this area but I am up to the challenge and hopeful for the rewards.
The challenge is part of the fun and frustration.

I'm certainly not one to ignore good advice, so I've decided on a peach!

I'm considering this 4-in-1 peach from Raintree Nursery. It appeals to me b/c I should get a long harvest period and the varieties are listed as disease resistant. What do you think of the varieties: Frost, Q18, MaryJane and Avalon Pride?

Here is a link that might be useful: Raintree 4-in-1 Peach

If you grow a peach, make certain to read up on peach tree borers.
When we moved into our home, there was a lovely, productive little peach tree in the back yard. Unfortunately, this was before computers and I had no knowledge of peach tree needs--so, by the time I found out about peach tree borers, it was already dying.

For springtime fruit, don't forget cherries--probably the most trouble-free fruit of all, except possibly for seckel pears.

A dead ripe peach is amazing....you made a good choice :)

This is all personal preference. What if this is for a person who does not even eat peach?

For me, it is:
1. what I like to eat first.
2. What I can't get easily and cheaply from market.
3. Any sentimental reasons to grow anything.

Here in NJ, we have so many local peach growers. So seasonal peaches are very cheap and good quality. Same with cherry, apricot and apples. Asian pears tend to be more expensive and not readily available, but easy to grow.

A lot of people don't even know what a ripe peach tastes like so their opinion of peaches can only come from grocery store produce.

One of my sons said he didn't like plums, which I couldn't believe. Then I realized he had never had a tree ripened plum. Once he tasted one I grew his opinion was quite changed. "Wow!" was his response.

If you don't mind spraying, then a tree ripened peach is a wonderful thing. If you want to reduce spraying, then I would get a multi-grafted pear (like Pineapple or oRIENT) or a hardy citrus (citrangequat or 10 degree tangerine). The pears can be eaten or cooked like apples. The citrus you could use for juice or cooking.

10 years ago my nephew married a city girl. The first time he brought he to the house was mid Sept. He had told her about me that supper was meat and potatoes, and both could be anything from bear to coon/ red to green mountan. She was at the house 15 min. when wife handed me bags and said get supper. I told her to ditch her heals and use poohs flip flops and come with me. We started with rasberries only need a cup then peaches. she said "I realy don't like peaches" I made her try one bight from an all star, then one of a red haven. we finished the walk with melon, apples, potatoes, and corn that was husked and put into boiling water without being set on a counter. Jump forward 10 years,She has peach trees that are cared for like bonsai, apples that I think she polishes on the tree and tomatoes for her flower pots.

Raven,

Love that story!

I liked the story too, but who is pooh?

That 4 in 1 from Raintree.. I don't know any of the varieties. But they are in Washington, you in NC. Peaches have different outcomes in different regions. For example Red Haven is hard to beat in the midwest, but according to Harvestman it is easy to beat in NY. So do look into those varieties a bit more. Now having said that. Any variety that doesn't work for you can be fixed by grafting new. I have a whole tree I am making over into 12-15 in 1. The original variety was not so great. Started the makeover last year and next year will be the last year I get a single peach from the original tree. Grafting is easy and fun (once you get your mind around it and practice) It is not hard to find people that will send you clippings to use.

See the attached link. It is just one in a series, you can find the rest from there.

Here is a link that might be useful: SC peaches

I agree with everyone on the Peach, but only because of the self fertility advantage. I also agree that a tree ripe peach trumps everything else in regards to tree ripe vs. supermarket bought.
The big disadvantage as I see it is that contrary to some posts here I know that for most people in most places peaches are also easily the biggest PIA of the bunch as far as ease of growing. The reward is perhaps a bit greater when successful, but the frustration quotient is equally greater if not moreso.
For all those reasons I'd suggest a good pear. Pears are the easiest to grow, require lower input and even if the owner turns out to not enjoy growing fruit because of the work involved, pears stand the greatest chance of producing good fruit even through total neglect. That could never happen with a peach, usually not an apple either.
I also like apples (obviously) and apples are (in my mind at least) easily the most versatile of all tree fruits. They (along with pears) also have the great advantage of long term storage (many varieties) and are easily transportable.

After I posted about peaches I thought, if I were in zone 7, the first thing I'd plant is a fig! Self fertile and easy to grow.

I have six 2 year old fig trees. Before I got them I'd never had a fresh fig. They are "ok". But just ok. Trying to guess when they are ripe is an art that I haven't yet mastered. They go from green to mushy in a day.

I think they are going bye-bye to make room for more peaches to extend my season.

gary

Peaches are difficult to grow here, so I'd have to go with an apple: variety and ability to grow and eat from all months of the year.
JOhn S
PDX OR

AppleSeed.

For all those reasons I'd suggest a good pear. Pears are the easiest to grow, require lower input and even if the owner turns out to not enjoy growing fruit because of the work involved, pears stand the greatest chance of producing good fruit even through total neglect. That could never happen with a peach, usually not an apple either.
I also like apples (obviously) and apples are (in my mind at least) easily the most versatile of all tree fruits. They (along with pears) also have the great advantage of long term storage (many varieties) and are easily transportable.

The first tree that I planted was a pear tree with five disease resistant varieties grafted onto different limbs. The only thing I do is bag the fruit.

appleseed
Pooh is the person who for the last 35 years has made it her goal to put flower bed in places that make it a nightmare to mow the lawn.

Pears are not always easy to grow. Here in the northeast many varieties are susceptible to scab and psyla which can be more of a headache to manage than anything nature throws at peaches or apples here. They are also exceedingly attractive to stink bugs which seem to take a higher percentage of my crop each year because stinkbugs can require regular sprays throughout summer to control.

20 years ago, pears were much easier to grow here and often produced fine fruit with no spray at all. I could go to an abandoned orchard and harvest limitless and mostly unblemished Boscs and Seckels.

Harvestman:
I didn't know stinkbugs bothered pears so much. Are you speaking of the native SB or the vile BMSB?
My neighbors completely neglected pear tree has unblemished beautiful pears on it right now, but they are nowhere near ripe yet. I don't know the cultivar.
The stink bugs are here this year, but nothing like they were two years ago. If you look at the USDA's map on BMSB dispersion I sit right smack in the epicenter.
I did have to spray a plum that was suddenly covered with them and after spraying...poof...they were gone.

It can be any stinkbug or even tarnished plant bug. I usually don't see them on the pears- more likely to see them on my peaches but the damage is much greater on pears. Deformed and bumpy pears with hard spots in the flesh. I should probably go out at night when they are likely doing the damage and positively identify the culprits, but I'm certain it is plant bugs and probably stink bugs because the damage is so much more on pears than peaches.

Three seasons ago I had green stinkbugs, mostly juveniles, which aren't actually green, all over my peaches, and they were on them day and night.

Stinkbugs are much more prevalent if there are wild hedgerows nearby, or between the woods and the orchard or if the orchard is growing in a seldom mowed "meadow".

You are less likely to have them on your fruit if you are in suburbia with lots of mowed lawns comprising most of the landscape. I suspect many are killed every time the lawns are mowed, but also the grass doesn't offer much nourishment to them. If there's clover in the mix, that will provide food for plant bugs. They say the TPB,s leap from the clover to the fruit trees when you mow, but they are quite small.

I have read the BMS wounds leave a bitter taste in the fruit, and if this is always so than it is certainly another species in my fruit, although I've seen a few BMS on fruit in my orchard.