Suggestions for fast-growing berries or fruits in Zone 9b/10a

Hello!

My parents have recently been interested in growing more fruiting bushes and trees in their backyard, and I've been helping them research which plants might work best for them. We've got about 2,000-3,000 square feet in a south-facing backyard--not exactly enough room to grow many larger trees, which is why we're more interested in larger berry shrubs or smaller trees to get a greater diversity. We live in a frost-free environment in the South Bay, CA (west of San Jose) and the passionfruit vine and dwarf mandarin in our yard seems to be growing well, as reference for what we've been able to grow. Some things that they are looking for are that they produce fruit quickly (starting within 1-2 years) and are heavy producers, though they particularly value the former trait.

Right now, I'm thinking that things like thornless blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, mulberries, perennial ground cherries, or low-chill blueberries. There are other berries that seem interesting, namely currants, elderberries, and honeyberries, though I'm not sure how they would fare in California Zone 9b/10a since most information seemed to be geared towards colder zones. Outside of those, I have heard that pomegranate, figs, and guavas are relatively fast-growing and fruit in around 1-2 years, but I'm uncertain about the viability to growing plants as tropical as guava or papaya. When I've been looking at what's being sold in some nurseries around where we live, there are just so many varieties available for some of them, which is why I'm hoping to get some input on what varieties have worked well, in that they produced heavily and/or started fruiting soon, for people living in zone 9/10, particularly with those that share a similar microclimate to SF Bay Area CA. Apologies if it seems like I'm throwing everything at the wall and hoping to see what could work, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I will apologize now for the rambling diatribe to follow.  I didn't realize that I was opening the floodgates and can't seem to find a way to effectively organize it.
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Where you are in the Bay Area will make a difference.  I lived on the peninsula for 20 years, and I can tell you, I could grow very different things than folks in the east bay.  The gentler weather on the peninsula opened some doors and closed others.  

The short version will be, go find a good nursery in your area (not a box store garden center) and start chatting them up.  I used to go to Wegmans and Half Moon Bay Nursery, but they were close to me.

If you're interested in quick production, you're looking at berries (strawberries, primocane blackberries and primocane raspberries).  Shrubs, vines, and trees will take a few years before you get production, but will be more productive in the long run.  If you're willing to wait a few years, most of your caned berries are forgiving and will do pretty well.  Blueberries, grapes and currents will do well with some amendments and management but you'll be waiting a few years for fruit.

I would also look at kiwis, they can be trellised over a large fence area and can be very productive.  Kiwi is gendered, so make sure you only get one male.

I think there are varieties of lemon and limes that will grow there.  I know the Eureka Lemon does.  I've also seen meyer lemons do well in the North Bay.

Apricots and Figs would do well down toward San Jose, and Paw Paw should do well just about everywhere. Just be sure to go the paw paw in a shady spot for the first few years, where it can get sun higher up.  They expect to be understory plants until the approach maturity - perfect for the north side of something.

Plumbs, pears, peaches, and apples can all do well there, but it'll be variety specific.  Again, talk to your nursery.

You'd mentioned pomegranates...unless you are very very east bay I would avoid it.  Pomegranates need a good deal of heat to ripen.  They thrived in Yolo County with their 115 degree July back when I was in college.  If you aren't pulling that kind of heat you could look at the haku-botan ( a japanese white pomegranate ) but it is a bit more delicate and grows as more of a shrub than a tree...same early shade thing with elderberry as well.

You'd also mentioned Mulberry.  I love them, and they do well there, but you'll want the less tasty white mulberry, if anything.  The regular purple berries will stain everything around them...and the bird poop will also be purple.  Your neighbors may grab torches and pitchforks.

Depending on how adventurous eaters they are, look at prickly pear.  It does well enough in the bay area and takes very low effort.   They can also fit in spots that little else can occupy...say under windows next to a house.  Both the pads and fruits are edible.  Prickly pear jam is awesome, and for recipes for the pads, go look for recipes for 'nopales'.

Dave’s post above is excellent.

I think with so many wonderful subtropical fruits that might be doable there, it may be easy to overlook strawberries. These are so much better fresh and homegrown (with diverse varietals available) than anything I have found store bought. It seems to me they would also probably fit your two main requirements of precociousness and productivity. They would likely tolerate or benefit from partial shade (unless this is the really cool part of the Bay) so using them as a ground-cover alongside taller plants would work well. They could also be grown in a vertical planting, or one where they pop out of raised bed walls.

In food forest plantings I have used them as bridge plants to quickly get delicious daily fruit for 4-6 months per year. Strawberries are also one of the top fruits for pesticide use in “conventional” production, so switching to homegrown is one of the best ways to avoid the gick. I would grow all of the above if possible, but don’t overlook the obvious and miss out!

Oh yes, definitely lean into strawberries.  I'd forgot all about the vertical gardening stuff after moving out of the bay area and onto land.  That is definitely a way to go, you can get *massive* amounts of productivity out of them and with a timed watering system they can be relatively low maintenance.

Vertical systems can be pretty easy to build yourself for not that much, honestly.  A perfect example is replacing a fencepost with a hollow fencepost made from 4 1x4s.  Drill holes in it for plants, set it in the ground, fill it with soil, and run an irrigation tube to it on a timer.  

Search for "vertical growing wall for strawberries" or even just "vertical gardening plans" and you'll get plenty of ideas.

Hey Dave,

No need to apologize. Thank you so much for your detailed message! I'll see if I can edit my original post, but we live in South Bay, west of San Jose.

Thanks for suggesting some of the faster-fruiting berries and providing a rough timeline. I think they could be interested in interspersing some of the quicker fruiting berries with those that take a bit longer establish. It's just a priority for them since they've felt a bit burned by the dwarf mandarin tree, which they'd bought when I was young and only began fruiting 5-7 years later. From what I understand (and seen with the Himalayan variety that has taken over all the hiking trees), is that blackberries and raspberries tend to sprawl, so I was wondering about their compatibility growing alongside some other berry bushes.

I hadn't though of Kiwis--from what I can gather, they seem to be somewhat aggressive growers, even if it might take some time to fruit, so I'll look into low-chill varieties more. And yes, apricots really do well around here--our neighbor's tree leans a bit over the fence and it's full of apricots in the summer. A shame about pomegranates though since my parents enjoy eating it, but thanks for suggesting a less heat-seeking variety. Given your warning about mulberry, I think we'll definitely steer away from the purple varieties. As for prickly pear, as well it does around here, I'm afraid my parents aren't the biggest fans of growing cacti, but thanks for the suggestion. I'll also definitely look into vertical growing of strawberries.

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Hey Ben,

Thank you for emphasizing strawberries--I'd definitely overlooked them. We used to grow them when I was younger, and they'd send runners and spread everywhere, but some disease must've hit them because they all vanished a while back. I don't think many nurseries around me are selling them at the moment, but I'll look into it more. There are quite a few variants available, so I was curious about whether you had positive experiences with any of them?

Peaceful Valley sells a lot of varietals by mail and is in central CA. I believe they do sets of 25 as well as bulk boxes of 1500 crowns for around 12c/per last I bought them for the Crescent City Food Forest project.

I second the suggestion made by Dave about buying from a local nursery.

Plants grown in Minnesota will not do as well as plants grown in California.

Please take what I am saying with a grain of salt as I have no actual knowledge of growing conditions in your area.

Do some research into the tree fruits. There are now some varieties that will bear within 1 or 2 years of planting and if you use the techniques in the book "Grow A Little Fruit Tree" you can keep them at about 6ft tall making them easier to care for and harvest.  Remember that many types of fruits and berries require 2 plants to get a harvest so always plan on two..

Apples mostly need two apple trees and you must make sure the varieties are compatible.  However many Crabapple varieties work very well as pollinators for eating apples and some have longer blooming times so can pollinate more types of apples.  I have found this web site  really useful when looking at apple varieties to add to my little tree area.

Looking forward to hearing more about your plans as they develop

Hey Ben,

Thanks for directing me to Peaceful Valley. The site seems to have a quite a few strawberry types and sells them very much in bulk. I'm not sure whether we have that much room in our backyard to plant 1,500 crowns, but the prices seem very good.

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Hey Anne,

Yep, we've been looking at more local nurseries for selections. Definitely don't want to be growing something that needs cold or long chill hours to thrive.

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Hey Dorothy,

Thanks for linking the site! I hadn't really considered apples because I heard that they could take a while to establish, but I'll see if that book is available in a local library to check out since it'll be useful for my parents. I'm not sure how comfortable they'd be going on a ladder to harvest fruit on trees that get a bit too large.