Nick Bonta

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.

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?

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!