Fruit Trees that like their feet wet in Zone 6

I’ve got a spot in my woods half way down a slope where it seems like the water table is bubbling up to the surface. I’m thinking there is an underground stream feeding the creek at the bottom. Mostly it’s just standing mud 80% of the year. Right next to it a grove of wild paw-paw was discovered when we cleared the honeysuckle but it looks like it’s growing up to the area but is moving away from it. Will anything besides a wild persimmon survive there? Would a grafted American persimmon work?

Thanks

I think American persimmon would work. You could also graft named varieties to existing trees. I'd check to see if edible hawthorn, quince, medlar, and the good varieties of highbush cranberries would be hardy there (I know some would work). Medlars here are sold that are ostensibly rated to zone 4. I would plant all of these trees in mounds to raise them out of the water.

Elderberry would be happy with the wet, but would need sun to produce fruit.

Here in the PNW native crabapple would be high on my list, with the plan being to graft onto it... obviously you are not in my region if you have pawpaw, but it might work anyhow..

This is an issue for me too in Zone7/Virginia.  I have an eroding creek bank with full sun, clay soil about two feet higher than the creek, floods regularly in rainy times of the year but otherwise drains.  I put a lot of elder/willow/birch stakes in but would prefer more productive trees/bushes for food.  What is the most productive yet wet-tolerant fruit/nut tree?  

I've seen healthy, large and productive apple trees growing in swamps here in zone 5, and not just a few. Wild roadside apples. So while I doubt that you could successfully plant a grafted apple tree in wet soil, I'm fairly certain that a handful of seeds planted in place would grow a productive tree in time.

James Landreth wrote:I think American persimmon would work. You could also graft named varieties to existing trees. I'd check to see if edible hawthorn, quince, medlar, and the good varieties of highbush cranberries would be hardy there (I know some would work).... I would plant all of these trees in mounds to raise them out of the water.

Hawthorn is native here I think. There is a small grove of Rose of Sharon growing in the mud. Just found out it’s edible so won’t destroy it for now. Couldn’t find any info on grafting to it.  

There is some sun. I think I will try and get some dwarf persimmon next year, seems like they are all sold out for now. I picked up a couple native plums I got to pollinate future plums and to control erosion on a slope. I was thinking to plant them on mounds by the edge in full sun with an elderberry i’ve Been growing in a pot a few years and see where they want to go.


I think the paw paws are following the underground stream while the hibiscus is happy in the mud. They make a good guild as somehow the hibiscus makes great effort to stay out of the sun of the paw paw behind it.  One of the largest paw paw babies was crushed by a 40+ foot tree and yet still flowered this year. I was going to make a rooting of it as my rootstock for all future paw paw.

Thanks for all the ideas.