Fruit Trees and Berries that Grow Best in Your Area Naturally

James Landreth wrote:It would be great if people would talk about their thoughts on how climate change will affect what is easy to grow. For example, here the summertime droughts are a big challenge and we're able to successfully ripen things we previously didn't have enough heat for. A big challenge for me when selecting what to plant has been that just because something has always been easy to grow here doesn't mean it will thrive any longer

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:According to the maps I mentioned in my last post we are zone 9a and we can't move for cherries here. It is like walking on ball bearings in many places!

James Landreth wrote:I suppose it matters also how the fruit trees and bushes will be managed. For example, I'd like to select for very drought tolerant plants that could survive without irrigation if necessary. We're entering unknown territory in that regard, at least around here.

Many plants will thrive with very little water if they're trained for it from the beginning.

James Landreth wrote:It would be great if people would talk about their thoughts on how climate change will affect what is easy to grow. For example, here the summertime droughts are a big challenge and we're able to successfully ripen things we previously didn't have enough heat for. A big challenge for me when selecting what to plant has been that just because something has always been easy to grow here doesn't mean it will thrive any longer

Jay Angler wrote:I have been disappointed at times that the correlation between Climate or Hardiness Zone maps and what actually produces well doesn't seem to exist.

If we permies are going to work on what sounds like an excellent resource, I'd like to suggest that we need to know things like "minimum temp X number of days for fruit to ripen". I'm on the Pacific Wet Coast, a little colder than what Meg Mitchell is describing, but despite having a plenty long enough "frost free" period to grow tomatoes, it's a struggle to get them to ripen and if we get the wrong weather at the beginning of Sept, we can easily loose the entire crop. If anything, the info on "how hot is too hot" seems more available. Similarly, many people don't realize that some fruit needs a minimum "cold period" in order to set fruit (such as apple), so moving that plant to a warmer location may not work. Maybe I'm the only person who took way too long to figure out these two factors, but I have difficulty believing that. The info just doesn't seem to show up on many plant descriptions. Getting help from Permies who are actually growing these things, seems like a fine idea!

Is the plan to eventually make some sort of a chart under each of these headings? That would be awesome!

I'd also remind people that sometimes knowing what people try and it just didn't work out (Gooseberries *should* grow fine here, but I've had no luck with even getting the plants to look happy, let alone get fruit set) is also useful info. It doesn't mean that someone else might not have better success, but it would warn them to do a little extra research on what might make that particular species happy.

Although I agree early training and a good tap root are huge assets, I moved onto a property with well-watered apple/plum trees and I weaned them off gradually by watering deeply with longer gaps until at this point they get some occasional grey water if the drought is particularly bad. I also gradually added extra mulch and simple polyculture around some of them, although I'd like to do more of that. That said, I lost several plants two summers ago that I thought had been weaned well enough. That just tells me it was time to plant something else in that location!

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:Try https://www.plantmaps.com/index.php

Leslie Russell wrote:

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:According to the maps I mentioned in my last post we are zone 9a and we can't move for cherries here. It is like walking on ball bearings in many places!

Amanda, I'm in 9b.I've never heard of anyone growing cherries here! What variety do you have?

Daniel Schneider wrote:Hej! What a useful idea this is! But, I'm having trouble figuring out where to input my information. I live in an area that is climate zone Dfc (boreal), but the continental links are called continental -4, -3, etc. What do those numbers correspond to?  Thanks!

M. Crex wrote:One thing tricky about this for the continental climate section is how much snow cover an area receives.  We receive so much snow locally that it provides insulation for roots and we can keep trees and shrubs that have no business surviving in our zone.  Would the idea be to still list in our technical zone based on temperature scale with the caveat that we have this insulation boon?

James Landreth wrote:That's good to know Lauren. What other plants have you found that survive without irrigation after establishment? Do you grow any nut trees there?

Meg Mitchell wrote:Some of my favourite fruits are stone fruits and I'm very worried about how climate change is affecting their ability to flourish and ripen. If you have a cherry or plum tree (or even an apple tree) and all your blossoms come in during an early warm period, and then a colder period comes, oftentimes the blossoms will freeze and drop off and that's basically the end of your growing season for those fruits. \

Jay Angler wrote:@ Steve Thorn: you've only put Oceanic/Mediterranean as low as 8, but Vancouver Island tends to have pockets of 6 and 7, and I suspect Washington and Oregon would also. I just read this interesting explanation: "The Koppen classification system, developed by Russian German climatologist Wladimir Koppen in the late 19th century,  is one of the most widely used climate classification systems in the world.  Under the Koppen system, the world’s climates are classified into five main groups: A – Tropical, B – Dry, C – Temperate, D – Continental, and E – Polar.  Victoria falls in the the Temperate group, which is further classified based on the annual precipitation pattern, indicated by the second letter in the classification: s for dry summer, w for dry winter, and f for precipitation throughout the year.   So Cf would include Oceanic climates, like London, England, while Cs climates are termed Mediterranean.  To meet the criteria for a Cs climate, summer months must have less than one third the precipitation as the wettest winter month, and summer months must have less than 30 mm of precipitation.  Victoria easily meets these criteria, with July rainfall of just 13 mm – less than one tenth of our wettest month in December.  Mediterranean climates are further classified as Csa or Csb, depending on whether summers are hot (mean monthly temperature above 22 C) or warm (mean monthly temperature below 22 C).  Based on all these criteria, Victoria’s climate is classed as Csb, or warm summer Mediterranean.  Other locations with a Csb climate include San Francisco, Cape Town, and Porto, Portugal. "  from: http://victoriaweatherandclimate.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-mediterranean-climate.html

Wow - there's more to this climate thing when you start to dig, and weather weirding is only making it more interesting!

This suggests we could fit under Temperate, but since you had an area for Mediterranean, I wondered if that would be more appropriate?

Lauren Ritz wrote:I consistently get almonds and plums on trees that blossom over an extended period of time. Maybe that's what we should be breeding for. Even if there's a late frost, unless it spans weeks we usually get some kind of harvest.

Of course, that won't work for commercial growers because they require a consolidated harvest period so everything can be pulled off the trees at once.

Steve Thorn wrote:

Lauren Ritz wrote:I consistently get almonds and plums on trees that blossom over an extended period of time. Maybe that's what we should be breeding for. Even if there's a late frost, unless it spans weeks we usually get some kind of harvest.

I know that would be super helpful in my area. I'm definitely going to select for that when I start breeding fruit trees soon!

Lauren Ritz wrote:

Steve Thorn wrote:I know that would be super helpful in my area. I'm definitely going to select for that when I start breeding fruit trees soon!

Consider using bud grafting from your young trees onto established trees for primary evaluation of fruit and budding habits. Maybe turn a 10 year project into one or two years.

James Landreth wrote:Lauren, these are just a total shot in the dark, but is it possible to grow mulberries there? ... I'm hoping to get pistachios too someday, but right now the ones at One Green World are crazy expensive. Have you thought about hazelnuts, jujube, or apricot?

Lauren Ritz wrote:You've done a lot of work in a very short time.

Am I the only one waiting for the "dry" links to go up?

Thanks!