raspberries

And why?

I love raspberries I could live with that! I have about 20 plants. So easy too! I would need 20 plants though. One would not be enough, not even close. A close 2nd would be blueberrries. I'm glad I don't have to choose. if I had limited room it would be blueberries. As you can harvest a lot more per plant than raspberries. Currants are awesome too. I'm certainly glad I can grow all of them. and about 20 other fruits!

Thanks guys; very helpful!

And why is because they are easy to grow, pretty much pest free, or have little problems. And will grow well in zone 5 no problems there.
Blackberries may or may not grow there, depending what cultivar, and if you plan to protect them.
Fruit trees are a lot harder to grow, some exceptions.
I grow them anyway. Many will not grow in zone 5.
Plus I just love berries the best. Many here like their fruit trees. I prefer berries. Currants, honeyberries, elderberries, dogwood cherries, goumi, other Rubus berries, blueberries, gooseberries, and strawberries.
Oh I forgot magnolia vine berries, mulberries (how could I forget them?) , wintergreen berries, autumn olive, silverberries, and buffalo berries.

I'm in zone 8 but I'd probably put raspberries at the top of the list too.

They are easy to grow, they bear very quickly. When you pick them from the cane and put them directly in your mouth they are much better than anything you can get from the grocery store or even farmer's market.

They are expensive to buy, fragile, and difficult to wash. I don't like soggy or squished raspberries, but I also don't like the idea of eating them unwashed relying on the cleanliness of the picker's hands and the treatment they've gotten after being picked.

Mulberries (with raspberries as a close second) because they are easy to grow, delicious and you can't find them in stores.

I might have said raspberries before this year, but I found SWD in my fall crop of my raspberries this year and got to eat just a very few of them after the weather turned cold and before the first serious frost. I have never sprayed my raspberries in the past, but might need to in the future to harvest anything there.

If I had to name one fruit now to grow at home, it would be peaches, because although apples can be stored longer, are versitile, and are a wonderful fruit, I can buy very good apples at the supermarket, fruit stand, local orchard, etc. I can't buy decent peaches anywhere local.

I will second the comment made by eboone, above, with regard to raspberries. Our patch was infested with spotted wing drosophilia (SWD) this summer, so it became difficult to harvest any edible fruit. Our blueberries were not affected, at least, not so far. They ripen around July 15, and I did not see any sign of SWD until August. So for me, the "one fruit" would be blueberry.

I'm glad someone mentioned SWD. I'm not sure I want to plant my favorite blackberry again just for that reason.

As to original question; Honey Royale nectarine in the greenhouse and Eureka persimmon outdoors. The nectarine tastes the best but the persimmon is more reliable outdoors.

Never saw so many folks agree on a ? of best fruit on this forum before.

Fruitnut, Eureka would not survive outdoors zone 5 without a lot of protection

This post was edited by strudeldog on Thu, Dec 5, 13 at 14:45

I too agree w/ Ebone's comments w/ regard to raspberries and peaches.

If I were to grow only one fruit, it wouldn't be the easiest care fruit for me, but the fruit which tasted the best home grown.

Peaches would be near the top. Home grown tomatoes are a close second.

My choice would be apricot for my area. They naturalize here and are very well adapted, requiring pretty much no care or pruning. Even though they may not fruit every year due to late spring frosts, they are gorgeous, exceedingly long-lived trees, and the fruit is so delicious.

And you just can't get good fresh apricots from the store, unlike with many other fruits.

Earlier today I almost put out a comment on SWD as well, but got called away. If you don't have them yet it is almost surely just a few seasons away. They have really put a damper on blueberries and raspberries which used to be the easiest thing to grow.
I think their is a good chance that early/earliest raspberries may continue to sneak past the pest window for SWD but it is hard to say at this point.

Good point on the SWD. I was busy this year and wasn't really taking it into account, but they did take a toll.

I was planning to put in my favorite raspberries, Amity, at my place but maybe I should switch to just an early one instead of everbearing.

Agree with berries. My family eats near 100% of the berries I harvest while with most of the other fruits (except fig and nectarine) > 50% ultimately get trashed, many > 90%.

Will SWD attack mulberries too? Probably, I guess, but if not, a mulberry would be my choice. Other relatively pest free fruits in the area would include grapes and chestnuts, though chestnuts have a protocol for squirrel-free harvest.

Glib, are chestnut weevils not a problem in northern Ohio? I know there are cultural controls that can help a lot but chestnuts from just a random yard tree are mostly no good in my area of North Carolina.

My vote would be for a hardy kiwi (actinidia arguta), very simply because they're so delicious. They're also very ornamental and could probably tolerate some shade if need be. They're virtually pest and disease free, but they require substantial work with trellising and pruning (but that's the kind of work I enjoy.) They seem to be reliable producers in some locations but very unreliable (if not reliably unproductive) in others (due presumably to frost damage, poor pollination, and/or difficult pruning), and I think that would be the greatest strike against them, although I'd still bet on hardy kiwis before I'd bet on something like no-spray peaches in northern Ohio.

I don't know if blueberries would be as easy to grow there as they are here, but if so blueberries would about be a tie. A northern highbush blueberry might be as easy as a rabbiteye is here, but North Carolina soils are probably more broadly suitable for blueberries than Ohio soils. Here blueberries are one of the easiest fruits to source from other good local sources, though. The best thing about blueberries here is just the combination of fruit quality and trouble-free productivity.

As has already been said, the versatility of apples (fresh eating, pies, applesauce, sweet cider, hard cider, cider vinegar...) and the potential to enjoy them over most of the year (with early and late and good storage varieties) makes a great argument for apples, although pest and disease difficulties (which may be a little lighter in northern Ohio than here) definitely detracts from their case, especially if you'd like a no-spray option.

I could also be happy (insofar as I could be happy with any one fruit) with a persimmon, either a native or an Asian hybrid like Rosseyanka. A persimmon is a very ornamental option, especially comparing it to other trees (as opposed to vines and bushes), and to me it's such a visually appealing fruit (even when others might think it looks half rotten as the ripe native fruits kind of do), and that visual appeal really adds to the enjoyment. I think it would be the easiest to grow and most adaptable fruit of the four I've mentioned.

If you had asked about my location, I might choose figs over all the others.

Hi All, my favorite would definitely be peaches. Although I enjoy the heck out of my raspberry, strawberry, blackberry and blueberry patches (I have about 14 blueberry bushes), nothing satisfies my heart more than growing peaches. When I first moved to Georgia I thought I would be engrossed with peach trees all around me in the metro Atlanta area. There are many peach names of the streets in Atlanta, so I figured that name had to be represented. For the first 3-4 years, I searched and searched and I never found a sweet peach anywhere-not even at the farmers market. A few folks told me that I had to head further south to get the good peaches and I thought to myself, why go there when I could start growing them myself? Although I have to spray and take the necessary measures to maintain them, it is all worth the effort! It is so addictive growing all kinds of fruit and fruit trees but as we fruit lovers know, there is no satisfaction like eating them at harvest time. I don't even look at the ones in the markets! I am so happy I can get all my information about caring for them on this website. I love this forum! Good question Natures Nature!

Here in Michigan chestnuts are, at least now, trouble free. Then again raspberries used to be. I have not seen SWD anywhere so far. But I will have to vote down hardy kiwis, in Zone 6 they take too long to fruit, in my case 11 years. They are trouble free otherwise, and an handsome plant, but they do lose a lot of leaves to late frosts, and pollination is poor. If wait is not an issue, shipova would be a good candidate too. Obviously, we are a bit biased in favor of no-spray, and sure, if you have only one it is best to no-spray, once you are above, say, five, it is worth the time and effort to set up a spray schedule...

Thanks for all the great posts guys, very informative! Keep em coming!

"But I will have to vote down hardy kiwis, in Zone 6 they take too long to fruit"

If i were to grow them here in zone 6 I would first try the MSU kiwi. Developed by MSU, well discovered on the tennis courts from what I understand. i went there, and have been on those tennis courts, before it was discovered, man I missed it! Although everything there is covered in vines. I left the Lansing area in 1987. MSU class of 81. I would think the MSU kiwi would grow fine here?

Wow, triplicate posts! Yikes! The server is messing up big-time! No SWD seen here this year, but has been seen in Michigan.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Fri, Dec 6, 13 at 15:04

I have no room to try kiwi, but may once I move. 11 years to fruit! Wow, yeah that is not cool! If SWD comes around though, you bet I would grow them! I could use the raspberry trellis.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Fri, Dec 6, 13 at 15:09