Permaculture, Top Ten Deciduous Trees?

Skandi Rogers wrote:Not sure all of these would be hardy with you but..

Hawthorn; A small tree, leaves berries and flowers are edible. produces a good burning wood. Tolerant of high wind and damp.
Wild: cherries medium sized tree, produces berries but normaly only for the birds. good pretty wood.
Birch; medium tree, usefull for brooms and the sap can be tapped like a maple.
Oaks; large trees, acorns are edible after processing, make good pig feed, and can be used as a source of tannin.
Apples; medium tree Plant some on non dwarfing stock
Plums; medium tree Any of the smaller fruited plums
Mountain ash/rowan; Small tree eddible berries
Hazel nuts small tree, can be coppiced for firewood, hurdles baskest etc, and provides tasty nuts.
Elder Small tree Flowers and fruit.
Seabuckthorn Small tree/bush Fruit and a good set of spines!

None of thoseexcept for the oaks are particularly long lived (so you might want to add some Ash and other longer lived trees for the future

Alder Burns wrote:More detail as to your location would be helpful.  Zone 6A in say, Ohio, is a pretty different climate than 6A in Washington or Utah.
In any case I have not seen chestnuts mentioned.  They are a premier human and animal food tree wherever they grow, and Asian and hybrid varieties will thrive in the East, as well as the irrigated West, along with pure Americans where introduced in the West....

Gifford Pinchot wrote:How about shagbark hickory? I've never been a huge hickory fan but they are growing on me.

Nut tree has tasty nut for you to eat.

Hard mast (nuts) improve food sources for wildlife.

Wood burns great.

Wood make for excellent tool handles.

I've heard of people making some sort of syrup out of it, the bark i think.

Wood chips are great to add to the BBQ for hickory smoking.


I'd avoid Ash in the Northeast, Emerald ash borer, a fatally damaging pest of ash, is either here or on its way depending on exactly where you are.

Jese Anderson wrote:If I were shooting for some type of "food Forrest" outside of your typical fruit trees then I'd go with:

Sugar Maple (it will take a few years but they are quick growers). Use - tap them and make syrup.

Persimmon - Honey bees love the blooms and the fruits are a tasty treat for both wildlife and humans (make sure they are ripe otherwise it's like eating alum). I have one 70ft tall persimmon in my yard, in the spring/early summer it puts off a steady "hum" from the thousands upon thousands of honey bees dining at the blooms...it's really remarkable (I have a few hives and closest neighbor 3/4 a mile away has 20 hives or so).


Jese,

I was actually considering sugar or black maple for the syrup and there is a third maple for syrup but I can't remember which one.  Maples grow like weeds around here so they are pretty low maintenance.   I will definitely check out Persimmon.   I planted four mulberry, 80 baby-white willows, and a couple of chestnuts.  I don't have any oaks or walnuts.   As I write and think about the things I've planted, I'm probably over planting but my 3 acres is nothing but grass and some islands of wood chips.  

Marcus Billings wrote:Hi Scott,

Great list Marcus and thanks for the input.  This is a great reference list.   I have planted some of this stuff but not nearly all.  I have major issues with cedar apple rust. Just to show how prepared I was when I started planting I had never heard of it before.  None of the varieties I have are even mildly resistant.  The rust even hammers a crab apple.  

I purchased Liberty apple trees and their pollinators.  They are supposed to be resistant to Cedar Apple Rust.   If these don't work I will be yanking some apple trees.  

I've been thinking about planting Cherries I just haven't gotten around to it.   '

Not sure if you like Apricots but besides Italian plum, they are my hardiest fruit tree so far which surprises me as I have read that they are finicky.  

 I had my first Pear harvest this year but something is making the pear tree drop its leaves.   I figure once I get the bio-diversity up some of the pest issues I'm having will disappear.    Pretty sure Cedar Apple Rust is here to stay though.  

Chris Kott wrote:Mulberry trees are great. They bloom and fruit for something like three months in the year, and they're understory trees. And mulberries are delicious.

Thanks, Chris,  I'm feeling the Mulberries for sure.  I have four of them planted but they are all the same variety.  Once these get going I may try some others, can wait to make a Melomel (fruit mead) with mulberries

Scott Foster wrote:

Marcus Billings wrote:Hi Scott,

Great list Marcus and thanks for the input.  This is a great reference list.   I have planted some of this stuff but not nearly all.  I have major issues with cedar apple rust. Just to show how prepared I was when I started planting I had never heard of it before.  None of the varieties I have are even mildly resistant.  The rust even hammers a crab apple.  

I purchased Liberty apple trees and their pollinators.  They are supposed to be resistant to Cedar Apple Rust.   If these don't work I will be yanking some apple trees.  

I've been thinking about planting Cherries I just haven't gotten around to it.   '

Not sure if you like Apricots but besides Italian plum, they are my hardiest fruit tree so far which surprises me as I have read that they are finicky.  

 I had my first Pear harvest this year but something is making the pear tree drop its leaves.   I figure once I get the bio-diversity up some of the pest issues I'm having will disappear.    Pretty sure Cedar Apple Rust is here to stay though.  

Hi Scott,

Liberty is good, you might try Empire as well.  

The folks that controlled the property I'm on before me loved the look of cedar trees and promptly removed just about everything but them.  I've set on a reverse path and am turning then into outdoor furniture.  Less cedars =less cedar apple rust?  I do think proximity is a factor, I'm not saying it will eliminate rust, but of the old apple trees that were here when I got here, the ones farthest away from the cedars do seem to do the best.

Also, I know the feeling of not knowing where to start with a large blank canvas.  I just started buying a few trees and plants that I liked and looked good and stuck them in the ground.  I always loved blackberries, so---Bam!, I put in 50 blackberries.  No rhyme, and a little reason.  But as I've progressed, the shotgun approach is working!  Some plants thrive and other don't always make it, but then I come back with something else.  Now, I don't just put anything anywhere, like with a cherry, I make sure it has excellent drainage.  But I mixed it up pretty good and fill in where I can.

The other thing that has helped with the blank canvas is just letting stuff grow.  I've had some amazing trees, bushes and plants pop up on their own, I'll keep some and get rid of others, but it's definitely a fluid situation where the environment is putting it's stamp on it as well.

Good luck with your project!

Paul Lutz wrote:Skandi, I think it hit 90F here a few days this year. I doubt persimmon need much in the way of heat.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:Lots of good ideas already, here are the ones I have planted or were already growing on Buzzard's Roost.

Persimmon, Pear (two varieties), Plum (two varieties), Arkansas Black Apple (you might want one of a different variety for pollination), Mulberry (red, white, black), Fig ( brown turkey and celeste), White Oak, Hickory.

Persimmon is a great wood and fruit, if needed you can carve your own golf woods from mature pieces, it makes a nice sounding flute too.
Pear, fruit and smoking wood are prime uses but you can also use it to weave baskets and make branch furniture (last two when still green) and bright sounding flutes.
Plum, fruit and smoking wood are again prime uses, this wood also makes good baskets and branch furniture and flutes.
Arkansas Black Apple, fruit, smoking wood, flutes.
Mulberry, fruit for wine, jelly, not a good smoking wood but does make nice mellow flutes.
Fig, fruit, the wood makes a nice pipe stem.
White Oak, fire wood, baskets, chair seats, whisky barrels, acorns of the white oak are larger than the red oaks and deer and pigs love them, plus you can make acorn flour for yourself.
Hickory, nuts, handles, firewood, smoking wood, baskets, chair seats.

All of the above can make lumber if they get large enough.

Redhawk