Fruit Trees and Berries that Grow Best in Your Area Naturally- Oceanic/Mediterranean Climate Zone 8

Tons of trees and shrubs do well in this environment (specifically my experience is in the Pacific Northwest). But, as I've mentioned on other threads, the big issue is figuring out what will be able to survive our dry season, which is getting longer and more intense with climate change. I think it would be really great for a number of reasons to be able to have our food forests in this region thrive without irrigation (beyond initial establishment of the tree or shrub). I'm not sure what will thrive in that environment.

Things that do fantastically well here in my experience include:

Mulberry (supposedly very drought tolerant, leaves and fruit are edible)
Asian Persimmon (I just heard that people's asian persimmons are dropping in summer around here unless they get supplemental water)
Medlars  
Quince
Chestnut (I've been told that the blight doesn't proliferate here not because it isn't present, but because the summers are too dry and the blight requires a humid environment)
Butternuts (Butternut Canker also seems to need wet humid summers)
Black walnut, heartnut, English/Persian walnut
Hazelnut (only blight resistant varieties)
Apples
Pears, both Asian and European (to some degree; they've had big issues with rust and such lately)
Peaches (curl resistant cultivars only such as Frost and Avalon)
Plums of almost all kinds (both Japanese and European)
Edible Hawthorn
Cherries (if you can keep the birds off of them)
Pawpaw (somewhat tricky to establish; needs shadecloth if young and out in the open)
American Persimmon (they do well here but the only friend who has tried them didn't like the flavor)
Goumi berries (one of my favorites)
Autumn Olive
Linden (littleleaf; silverleaf is supposedly toxic to bumblebees)
Locust trees
Currants, gooseberries, jostaberries
Grapes
Kiwis (apparently fuzzy kiwi stores very well)
Figs (certain cultivars only; strangely enough desert king is most reliable)
Serviceberry
Aronia berry

Things that are experimental here:

Apricots (Puget Gold, Montrose, Hoyt Montrose)
Nectarines (need to be curl resistant; I've heard some people getting enough heat to finally ripen these)
Yuzu (hardy citrus)
Loquat
Olive (arbequina in particular is popular here now)
Pomegranate
Silverberry (hardy to this area but still uncertain if it's tasty/if it will successfully set fruit and ripen here, either way it should be great for fall bee forage if we have a mild fall!)
Siberian pea shrub (doesn't seem to like our climate; grows slowly and reluctantly)
Akebia (a very strange fruit, and that's really saying something coming from me)
Jujube (I've heard mixed things about getting them to ripen)
Almond trees (certain cultivars hardy to here but remains to be seen if they are disease resistant. Certain varieties that do well here are bitter and need processing to remove the cyanide)
Pecans (need more heat traditionally but may ripen with climate change)
Yellowhorn
Nut pines (should do well but haven’t heard much about them here)

Things I don't like growing but can be grown here:

Lingonberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Strawberries
I find that all of these (the above four) require lots of watering even beyond establishment, and strawberries and lingonberries particularly don't like weed competition and seem to get baked in the sun

wild and,unstoppable:
Black berry, (himalayan)
Salal
Huckleberry (evergreen)
salmon berry

introduced thriving
plum (methyl, sicilian)


Thrive but disease/pest pressure building
raspberries
strawberries
apples


Struggle
peaches ( leaf curl and heat units
cherries (disease)

I agree with the list in the first post but would like to add these notes:

Nectarines (need to be curl resistant; I've heard some people getting enough heat to finally ripen these)  

I have had good success with seedling peaches and nectarines by using a high tunnel for rain and mist protection which seems to be the main factor in prorogation of the peach leaf curl. also having mason bees nesting in the high tunnel they are available for early pollination and I get an earlier crop than others in my area which gives me a sales advantage.
Puget sound islands, peninsulas, bays, and gulches provide many micro climates.  For example artichokes and figs will thrive here when located where freezing air will flow down to the bay and push warm air up the adjoining slope where they are located.
I am located on a peninsula on what used to be a shoreline before the water level dropped so I do not get the direct warming of the water but the cold still flows down to the clay bottom field with radiant cooling on clear nights.
Many winters would be rated at 8b most 8a or 7b but historically from my youth in the 1940's 7a at my property.  The current pattern is one week of freezing nights in December and another in January so the heating of a greenhouse is not challenging and a high tunnel will get many sensitive plants through the winter.

James Landreth wrote:Things that do fantastically well here in my experience include:

Mulberry (supposedly very drought tolerant, leaves and fruit are edible)
Asian Persimmon (I just heard that people's asian persimmons are dropping in summer around here unless they get supplemental water)
Medlars  
Quince
Chestnut (I've been told that the blight doesn't proliferate here not because it isn't present, but because the summers are too dry and the blight requires a humid environment)
Butternuts (Butternut Canker also seems to need wet humid summers)
Black walnut, heartnut, English/Persian walnut
Hazelnut (only blight resistant varieties)
Apples
Pears, both Asian and European (to some degree; they've had big issues with rust and such lately)
Peaches (curl resistant cultivars only such as Frost and Avalon)
Plums of almost all kinds (both Japanese and European)
Edible Hawthorn
Cherries (if you can keep the birds off of them)
Pawpaw (somewhat tricky to establish; needs shadecloth if young and out in the open)
American Persimmon (they do well here but the only friend who has tried them didn't like the flavor)
Goumi berries (one of my favorites)
Autumn Olive
Linden (littleleaf; silverleaf is supposedly toxic to bumblebees)
Locust trees
Currants, gooseberries, jostaberries
Grapes
Kiwis (apparently fuzzy kiwi stores very well)
Figs (certain cultivars only; strangely enough desert king is most reliable)
Serviceberry
Aronia berry

Things that are experimental here:

Apricots (Puget Gold, Montrose, Hoyt Montrose)
Nectarines (need to be curl resistant; I've heard some people getting enough heat to finally ripen these)
Yuzu (hardy citrus)
Loquat
Olive (arbequina in particular is popular here now)
Pomegranate
Silverberry (hardy to this area but still uncertain if it's tasty/if it will successfully set fruit and ripen here, either way it should be great for fall bee forage if we have a mild fall!)
Siberian pea shrub (doesn't seem to like our climate; grows slowly and reluctantly)
Akebia (a very strange fruit, and that's really saying something coming from me)
Jujube (I've heard mixed things about getting them to ripen)
Almond trees (certain cultivars hardy to here but remains to be seen if they are disease resistant. Certain varieties that do well here are bitter and need processing to remove the cyanide)
Pecans (need more heat traditionally but may ripen with climate change)
Yellowhorn
Nut pines (should do well but haven’t heard much about them here)

Things I don't like growing but can be grown here:

Lingonberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Strawberries
I find that all of these (the above four) require lots of watering even beyond establishment, and strawberries and lingonberries particularly don't like weed competition and seem to get baked in the sun

Great list James, that's a lot of plants!

Joseph Michael Anderson wrote:wild and,unstoppable

I like the headings, especially that one!

Hans Quistorff wrote:I agree with the list in the first post but would like to add these notes:

Nectarines (need to be curl resistant; I've heard some people getting enough heat to finally ripen these)  

I have had good success with seedling peaches and nectarines by using a high tunnel for rain and mist protection which seems to be the main factor in prorogation of the peach leaf curl. also having mason bees nesting in the high tunnel they are available for early pollination and I get an earlier crop than others in my area which gives me a sales advantage.
Puget sound islands, peninsulas, bays, and gulches provide many micro climates.  For example artichokes and figs will thrive here when located where freezing air will flow down to the bay and push warm air up the adjoining slope where they are located.
I am located on a peninsula on what used to be a shoreline before the water level dropped so I do not get the direct warming of the water but the cold still flows down to the clay bottom field with radiant cooling on clear nights.
Many winters would be rated at 8b most 8a or 7b but historically from my youth in the 1940's 7a at my property.  The current pattern is one week of freezing nights in December and another in January so the heating of a greenhouse is not challenging and a high tunnel will get many sensitive plants through the winter.

Good information Hans!

I had quite a different experience here on PNW, probably because of my location (in an actual Douglas Fir forest).

Mulberries, figs, apples, persimmons,pears (both Asian and European) - die in the first or second year.

Cherries - survive and produce fruit but they do not thrive, just growing veey slowly.

Chestnuts, walnuts, black locusts, eleagnus family (goumi, autumn olive) - grow like crazy! Maybe 1m a year or more.



Local trees that grow even faster- alders, cottonwoods, black cherries, bigleaf maple, local dogwood, elderberries, currants.

This is our first year at our new house so nothing is in the ground yet but we know that these grow well...

Quince
Apple
Pear
Plum
Fig (hardy)

I am also planting goumi, blueberry and raspberries.

We are planting a few Paw Paws. Really excited about them. Anyone else have luck with them. I am in the Olympia Are.

I live about forty-five minutes away from Olympia. Paw paws are tough to establish but do well once they are. My advice is to plant lots of seedlings (they're cheaper from places like burnt ridge, plus pawpaw grows well from seed) and don't give up! They're absolutely delicious and a novelty. Use shadecloth over them if the site is very sunny.

James Landreth wrote:I live about forty-five minutes away from Olympia. Paw paws are tough to establish but do well once they are. My advice is to plant lots of seedlings (they're cheaper from places like burnt ridge, plus pawpaw grows well from seed) and don't give up! They're absolutely delicious and a novelty. Use shadecloth over them if the site is very sunny.

Thanks James. Are paw paws not typically grafted like apples are?

They often are, but are much more expensive that way. You could plant both and see. But seedlings of improved varieties should have good fruit from what I've read. They will take longer to bear. But as I mentioned, because they're hard to establish, you should plant a bunch if you can, which makes cheapening the project more important