Houston Food Forest Project

I'm starting this thread to track progress on my Houston project.  It's the back 1/4 acre at my mom's place.  I will probably inherit it someday, so I've started putting a food forest in.  I have a tool shed and greenhouse plus established pecan over-story trees.   I'm currently spreading wood chips and nurturing some blackberry patches.   I only have about 4 weekends to work out there per year, so anything I do plant has to survive without me.

If you guys have any suggestions for fruit bearing plants/trees that will do well in Houston climate ...I'm all ears.

Here are some pictures of this weekend's woodchip haul -- my mom's neighbor wanted to clear some 60 year old oak trees that were growing over their house ...I got the chips!

About 10 years ago, my mom had to get hip replacements, and so around that time she couldn't do in-ground gardening as much as she wanted.  So, I built her a couple raised beds out of old pallets.   She really uses them.  Her kohlrabi puts mine to shame ...the secret -- patrol for kale worms early, and water with chicken poop tea!

Her Christmas present is two new raised beds, installed in the location of the original ones I built for her.   It's hard to replace her beds because she always has them planted.   Fortunately she let one bed go, so I was able to easily move the soil over from that (falling over bed) to the new ones.  Then I added some of my potting soil to enrich.  Although, her chicken poop tea does better than anything I have.

I am refining these raised beds.  1st I put down rubber mats to prevent weeds, then a layer of mulch, then rocks or bricks to keep the pallets off the ground.   Then I put another rubber mat over the pallets to keep them dry.   I got a bunch of tree pots from a landscape company, and those work great and come out at about waist high to my mom when sitting on two pallets.

Watch in the pictures for perhaps the better way to support the pallets on the rocks

James Bradford wrote:
If you guys have any suggestions for fruit bearing plants/trees that will do well in Houston climate ...I'm all ears.

Figs, any variety.  most will give 2 harvest per year.  Low chill hour peaches.  Any citrus trees.  You will lose the crop some years, but have abundance in others.  Banana trees but give them shelter.  The fruit does not make it many years, but it is still cool to see bananas on your trees some years.  Persimmons.  Look in the bottom lands and woods for native strains.  Pawpaw if you can find.  Grafted pecans.  Mulberry, white and red.  Strawberries, but protect them when it gets cool.  Blackberries, raspberries.  There are a few avocado species that are being refined to stand the 8b climate zone.  ask your extension agent for contacts at Texas A&M for information.  

The greater Houston area is around 500-600 hours.  Use that to shop for trees and research.  fruit with a rating over 500 are questionable but may produce some years.  The lower the number the more probability of success over the long run.  Houston Garden Center will have trees marked with chill hour ratings.  The Arboretum Society may also be able to help.  They have a tree sale once a year.  

Thanks @ Jack ... I'm sooo gonna drop a mulberry tree in over there, and you are encouraging me to try rasberries also!   If anyone from Houston to Austin happens to have any fruit trees/plants that you wanna share ... I trade plants, maybe I have something you'll like.   My mom sent me home with 120 strawberry plants from a line she's kept since the '60's.

my mom does work hard ... @91 and she's already given away 60 of these plants to other friends/family

I got another Houston trip in.  New planter installed for mom, setup 275 gallon water collection, spread a load of wood chips, planted two date palms, palmagranite, mint, bunching onion, garlic, peach, flame acanthus, twisted leaf yucca, and napales cactus.

Hi James, another Houston homesteader checking in.  Some quick tips I've learned about Houston over the years:

-Chill hour maps are unreliable for the whole city, and some maps use different calculations for the values.  Based on a range of temps 32-45F, Cypress had 300 last year, League City had 350, Spring had 430, Katy had 460, and Conroe had 570.  It was a really warm winter
-We get a soft freeze usually once a year which kills everything tropical, but the plants come back if they're capable of growing from roots.  My Cavendish bananas set fruit and would have ripened if we didn't get that February frost
-Afternoon shade is a MUST for any normal garden vegetable that isn't okra
-Seems that many SE Asia/India plants do well in the summers here, like malabar spinach/ginger/asian persimmons

Howdy Mitchell!

Thanks for the info.   I trade plants, so if you get any good cuttings/rootings/scions from your fruit bearing trees and shrubs, hit me up.   I'd be super into your Asian persimmon.  From the Houston site, some of the best things I have are a well acclimated strawberry, Kona blackberry, and a couple varieties of fig that do well if you plant enough to feed all the birds and squirrels.  

The Fuyu persimmon does especially well down here.  I get tons of fruit every year... or at least, the birds get it

I haven't successfully taken a cutting from it yet, sadly.  If anyone has advice, I'm all ears

My Wonderful pomegranate trees are only 2-3 years old but are producing!  I got three at Houston Garden Center in November for $10-15 each a year and a half ago, and all three survived the winter with no problems

Mitchell Johnson wrote:The Fuyu persimmon does especially well down here.  I get tons of fruit every year... or at least, the birds get it

I haven't successfully taken a cutting from it yet, sadly.  If anyone has advice, I'm all ears

I just read up on it ...looks like mid-July is a great time.   I have some from seed Virginian trees growing in Jarrell, and so I would love to get some of the scions from you if you're down to meet on one of my trips back from Houston.

All you'd have to do is cut some pencil sized branches  and put base of the scion in a cup of water.   Later in fall, I can bring you seeds from the trees I got my fruits/seeds from.

I have some loquat seedlings when you're next in Houston, if you're interested. They seem to grow quickly based on the 5-foot tall two-year old one that volunteered and I left in place.

Mj Maguire wrote:I have some loquat seedlings when you're next in Houston, if you're interested. They seem to grow quickly based on the 5-foot tall two-year old one that volunteered and I left in place.

I would love to get some of your seedlings.   I just got back from a quick trip, but I'd for sure like to get your seedlings next time.   Let me know what's on your wish-list!

Quick updates from a quick trip to Houston.

My favorite pecan tree is loaded this year.   We had plenty of rain, and so now we just need to get thru the rest of the season with no pecan blowing tropical storms for a bumper crop.

I still got wood-chips to spread, and they are composting down great in the piles.   Last time, I buried a load of lemon rinds in the chips, and that really composted up nice in only a few weeks.

The newest beds for my mom are working out great, and my brother is helping to decommission beds that are furthest from the house.

There's been a terrible infestation of pharoh ants, with a perk that they have completely displaced the fire ants.   Hopefully these guys will atrophy at some point ...they're everywhere.

Everything I planted last couple of visits seem well without much attention:  1 peach, 2 date palms, 1 pomegranate, bunching onions, and mint.  No trace of the garlic, but I bet the bulbs are down under the chips somewhere.