Dallas Morning News – May 7, 2020

Fruit Crop Choices for North Texas

One key to success with fruit is choosing wisely which varieties to plant. Here they are starting with the easiest and increasing in difficulty. You don’t necessarily have to have a dedicated orchard. These food crops can be used as part of the landscape plan.

Blackberries – Arguably the easiest fruit to grow. Thorny choices – Brazos and Rosborough. For thornless, go with Arapaho and Navajo. Fruit produces on second year growth.

Figs – Texas Everbearing and Celeste are excellent. Animal thieves can be frustrating – especially squirrels and possums. That’s the case with most of these crops however.

Figs

Grapes – Black Spanish and Champanel are two of the easiest but mix in a few other varieties you’ll find at nurseries.

Elderberries – Our native Elderberries grow easily and produce well but also try Adams, Black Lace, Black Beauty and Blue.

Grapes

Pomegranate

Jujubes – Plant Lang and Li for easy to grow, consistent yet unusual fruit, but be warned – these small trees are well armed with thorns and the plants tend to spread by root suckers.

Pomegranates – Bushy, easy to grow small trees but a little inconsistent on production. Plant Spanish Sweet, Surh Anor and Wonderful. Even if fruit production is lacking, the red flowers are worth the effort.

Pears – Under an organic program pears are hard to beat for ease of maintenance and delicious fruit. Go with Orient, Moonglow and Kieffer. Asian pears are a little more difficult because of fireblight sensitivity but a little hydrogen peroxide spraying solves that.

Plums – In the low maintenance category, Methley is the easiest to grow but also try Ozark Premier and Bruce.

Peaches – Getting into the slightly higher maintenance group now but don’t be afraid to try Denman, Harvester, Ranger, Redskin and Spring Gold.

Jujube

Apples – Braeburn, Gala and Fuji should be on your list but Holland will be the easiest to grow in most cases.

Pecans – If space allows, plant some Sioux, Pawnee and Desirable. Besides the delicious and health giving nuts, pecans make great shade trees.

Citrus – Best in this category for gardeners in Texas are Satsuma and Meyer Lemon but they need winter protection and are normally grown in containers. An extremely easy to grow citrus is Trifoliate Orange. It is cold tolerant and can be grown in the ground. Fruit is inedible but can be used to make orange oil for cleaning and organic pest control. Also an excellent barrier plant because of being armed with serious thorns.

Crops that you can try if you like but won’t be in the “easiest to grow category” include (but are not limited to) cherries, apricots, nectarines, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries.

More about all these crops in my Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening book. Yeah – bad title. Decided to add fruit to the book after title was set. Next we’ll cover pest issues you might have to deal with on these rewarding crops.