I highly recommend trolling around the Dave Wilson nursery website:
http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/homeindex1.html

Google around for backyard orchard culture - the practice of "crowding" fruit trees. Lower yield, smaller trees so you can fit in more varieties.

Could you tell us more about your sun, wind, how cold it gets in winter, water requirements? How do you feel about applying pesticides, buggy fruit, high-maintenance pruning?

And another thought - you're in the heart of citrus country. Any reason you're not considering a line of evergreen, fragrant-blooming citrus?

I kinda think the same way as renataka -- where you are (San Diego), you have the oppoprtunity to grow so much more than apples and pears and such. Not that's there's anything wrong with those. But your palette is so much bigger than that.

Plus, since you're planting along the driveway, I'd consider the most ornamental edibles. Here's some options off the top of my head:

Guava, Mexican
Guava, Pineapple
Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba)
Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica)
Persimmon
Quince, Chinese (Pseudocydonia sinensis)
Nectarine  especially ÂDouble DelightÂ
Peach -- especially ÂFantastic ElbertaÂ, ÂLoringÂ, ÂRed BaronÂ
And many cultivars of citrus (some more "ornamental" than others)

Joe

Call your county's extension service office to ask for appropriate suggestions for your climate. Depending upon where in the county you live, both the apricot & apple will need to be lo-chill kinds.And you'll need to be choosy about a pear also.

Jean,
who gardened for 30-some years in Long Beach, CA

Loquat and pineapple guava for sure.

Apple: Anna, Gordon, Beverly Hills, Pettingill, Winter Banana, Anders -- all low-chill and yielding apples from June to October.

Pear: European: Monterrey, Hood and its pollinator Florahome

Nectarine: Panamint
Cherry: no sweet cherries with lower chilling needs, only sour cherries

Apricot: some luck with Katy and Royal/Blenheim

Plum: Santa Rosa and its genetic progeny like Beauty, most of Asian origin. Statsuma is a bit later. European plum/prunes generally require more chilling hours.

Hope that helps. We are growing these on the coast near Carpinteria, SBarbara county

Wow! Thank you for the responses!

Renetaka: I will look into "crowding trees", thank you. "sun, wind, how cold it gets in winter, water requirements? How do you feel about applying pesticides, buggy fruit, high-maintenance pruning?"

I do organic gardening, it gets down below 32 degrees occasionally, we have water piped to the driveway, it will have afternoon sun, against a white vinyl fence. Not too windy. I would really like to espalier at least a couple of them... but know that is A LOT of work!!

"Any reason you're not considering a line of evergreen, fragrant-blooming citrus?" I would like a Meyer lemon, a Tahitian lime, Orange, Tangerine but will probably get dwarfs and plant either in pots under my patio or tucked into smaller places. The driveway run is the only "big" tree planting area I have, and it's only about 3-4' across.

Hi Gardenguru:

I have three types of guava: pineapple, Mexican and strawberry. I don't want a loquat because so many people have them here and no one eats them, I figure if I want loquats I can bum them off of someone else!! I don't know anything about Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) or Quince, Chinese (Pseudocydonia sinensis), thank you for the suggestion, I'll look more into those. I'm not too fond of Persimmon.

Thank you for these suggestions:
Nectarine  especially ÂDouble DelightÂ
Peach -- especially ÂFantastic ElbertaÂ, ÂLoringÂ, ÂRed Baron'.

My neighbor has a peach tree that they don't want to trim so we've agreed to let it hang over our fence. We get more peaches on those three branches than we can use. I still have peaches in the freezer from last year! So I'm hesitant to plant another tree, especially since DH does not particularly A) like fruit or B) want to pick fruit and C) thinks I'm crazy to be planting fruit trees but will indulge me.

He has over 30 plants of 8 kinds of bamboo on our small lot so I'm standing my ground on the edibles!!

Jean: You're right about needing the low-chill varieties in my area. We have an Asian Pear, so I'm unsure about planting another one but pears are one thing my DH will eat, along with Apples. We also have an Almond.

Marshall: That's a bummer about the cherry. I love cherries!! Just talked to DH and he vetoed the apricot. :( My neighbor has Anna, so maybe one of the others would be good to have some variety in the neighborhood. Thank you for the suggestions on Plum and Nectarine, Pear and Apple. I'll have to look for those at my local nursery. Everything that grows there I know will work for my area :)

I really appreciate everyone's suggestions!!! Do any of you know anything about espalier? I am working on my pomegranate tree right now, it looks pretty good but I'm not that confident and am not following a certain technique, just using a trellis and doing it by "sight".

Are you going to have a problem with fruit dropping on the driveway? It can get pretty gross. Right now one of my walkways is landmined by my neighbor's fig tree as it drops it's bounty where I have to walk.

We are assuming that you will actually harvest your fruit to eat, yes? And that means picking the fruit before it falls to the ground?

And here's some more ornamental edible trees:

Cherimoya
Capulin Cherry
Longan
Lychee
Weeping Teas Mulberry
'Pakistan' Black Mulberry
Rose Apple
White Sapote

Joe

The place you should start is by looking at Bay Laurel's low chill fruit tree list and suggestions. After you have your list of what sounds good to you, post it here for more specific recommendations from those who have actually grown your varieties.

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: Low Chill Fruit at Bay Laurel

Plant stuff you are actually going to eat. What fruits are you always buying at the grocery store that can be grown in your climate? Plant that. You will be happiest that way.

I have a relative who has every kind of exotic fruit, and all of it falls to the ground and rots, while she complains how expensive oranges are at the store. If she had planted some orange trees the fruit would be free and organic.

An asian pear is likely going to perform better in your mild climate--if you like those. Some are really good.

I have an espaliered apple and pear. What helped the most was having a very knowledgeable person at the specialty nursery pick trees with good branch structure for training into the shapes I wanted. Then I just tied them to appropriate trellises. I'd say think about the shape you're trying to achieve before you buy the trees.

Ruth

@ Davissue: That's exactly what my DH is worried about. :) The mess. And I say, like GardenGuru asked... I'm gonna eat it first!!!! Or turn it into preserves of some sort. Or juice. Or pick it and give it away.

@ GardenGuru: Yes!!! I'm going to pick it and eat it :) I love fruit, and I love picking fruit, and I love making things out of fruit, and I love giving it away too :) Thank you for the suggestions. I was raised in the tropics so much of the fruits people would consider "exotic" are pretty common for me. The Cauplin cherry looks interesting but 30' tall is really much too large for that area I think. I love Lychee but they can't tolerate frost and they get too big. We already have a mulberry.

@ Hoovb: Good suggestion. I know it sounds unimaginative to want to plant such "common" fruits as plums, etc. but to me they were always picked early and shipped long distances so to eat a fresh stone fruit is my idea of heaven! I buy a lot of bananas but they die back with frost here and I could never grow enough to feed my habit. Plus they're cheap :) I love cherries and blueberries and all berries. I need to have a berry section but don't know where to do it. Our Asian pear has put little fruits the past two years but I've taken them off in order to encourage the tree to put its energy into growth.

@ Socalgal: Thank you. I guess talking to the nursery is a good plan for the espalier. What kind of trellis do you have? I am considering running a trellis/fence on the inside of our white fence and training them on that. Or, just getting dwarfs and letting them bush out.

Here's a picture of the driveway. The house in the picture is my neighbors. My driveway is the long one on the left and my house is in the back. The fruit trees will go along the white fence. On the street side where there is no fence we are planning to put some clumping bamboo (for privacy) for the first 10' or so, then something small and hedge-ish for the last 10' for visibility issues. The length in front of the fence is approx. 40' long x 4' wide. And there is another 30+' past where the fence ends.

{{gwi:538171}}

As important as the chill factor is, I'd say fungal issues are a bigger concern even still to CA coastal gardeners putting in new fruit trees. Once you've watched a blight or rot sweep through your fruit trees and turn them into dead twigs or a gloopy mass of brown rot, you learn to start paying attention to stone fruit & nut cultivars' particular resistances and weaknesses.

The June Gloom is unbelievable in LA this year and the heat and humidity have got me trying to head off spore-driven diseases left and right. Not sure what your garden niche is like, but if it's anything like mine, half your list means taking every precaution against fungal pathogens. If you are growing organically, this can be a lot of work, which is why I stay away from planting apricots, nectarines, peaches, cherries and most nut trees here.

Hi Dicot,
We don't have June Gloom this far East. I'm in the foothills of North County San Diego about 20 miles inland. Average max temp in August (our hottest month) is 88.7 and min temp in December is 41.7. For the past 30 years our annual average is high 77.3° and low 52.3°.

Every great once in a while we will have fog but it's really rare. I don't know anything about fungal pathogens... but there are a ton of citrus farms around me and nearly every house has 6-10 fruit trees.

I would vote for SEMI-DWARF of the varieties that grow large and maybe others that don't get over 10/15 ft. Depending on your age, you at some time [age] may find the pruning/spraying/harvesting of larger trees to be too difficult.

Re: the Cherimoya ... some varieties self-polinate, but I don't know where to find them. [25 years ago, we had self-polinating Ch. on our property in Vista. The new owner cut all trees down...go figure] If you don't get a self-polinator, you will need to hand polinate. The tree can be kept to a reasonable size with pruning. Very attractive tree.

Re: trellises, I just used individual ones for each tree, purchased from a nursery. The size and shape depended on the tree. the trellises eventually disintegrated due to termites, but now the fruit trees are in the desired shapes.

Ruth