If you could choose just three fruit/nut trees

[Delicateflower]

What would they be? I think we can grow pretty much anything in our climate.

I think a lemon tree is a necessity, maybe a nectarine because they travel so poorly, then maybe an apricot tree for jam? Or maybe a multi-graft stone fruit tree so there's not so much of a glut of one kind?

[limette]

If I could I'd grow sweet cherries, you can make jam, pie, eat them fresh, make liquor...

[ArcticRose]

I'm no expert, so you can take this for what it's worth...

keep in mind that some fruit trees require another of the same kind to pollinate. If there is only one you won't get any fruit. I know this is true of some cherry varieties.

We planted three apple, two cherry, and a plum a couple of months ago.

[lmonter]

Well, if you can have a lemon tree, you might not be able to grow certain varieties of other fruit trees... I know up here apples do really well because of the chill hours they need (and with snow from Oct/Nov through April, yeah) and such.

If I were starting from scratch, ideally I'd want a peach tree (Red Haven is popular, I've got a baby Reliance Peach out back), Honeycrisp or Pink Pearl apple, and a Van or Lambert cherry (supposedly the Vans are the best variety to dehydrate). But that's also assuming your neighbors have fruit trees as well that can cross-pollinate with mine. Otherwise, that limits your choices to just 2-3 of just apples or peaches or whatever. Or the 4-in-1's... supposedly they don't last as long as dwarf or standard rootstock fruit trees, but I couldn't pass up one when I was at Costco early this spring.

We have a little suburban home lot of .28 acres, and I've got 3 full-grown apple trees, a teenage Fuji apple tree, one full grown and one teenage plum tree, and 6 more I planted this year (Reliance peach, Red Gold nectarine, Lambert cherry, Granny Smith apple, Honeycrisp apple, and a 4-in-1 (Fuji, Honeycrisp, Honeygold, Gala). I'm just going to keep the newer ones sorta low so we can reach everything with just a stepstool or whatever, so no worries about them becoming ginormous.

[Delicateflower]

Limette, I adore cherries, but my MIL has about six trees and has awful awful pest problems with them, which scares me. Not just cutting marred pieces off, but the whole crop is lost type of pest. But I should check how they do here, shouldn't I?

Arcticrose, yes, I don't have the space to have two trees for one tree's worth of fruit, unless it was a tricky grafting job or a neighbor had one too. No avocados for us!


lomonter, after I posted that I double checked the citrus, and it seems I'd have to have a container plant and bring it inside during the winter. It hardly seems fair to suffer nasty summer heat and still not be able to grow a lemon tree! We already have a ton of enormous and beautiful mature trees in the back yard, so this is going to be in the front yard, right at the edge by the street out of the shade of the house. The space is pretty limited, even though the block is a decent size. Not to mention I want to put in a couple just for looks, like a crabapple (well, looks and jelly).

[JamieCatheryn]

If I could grow anything where I lived, then fig, apricot, and orange. Fig and apricot because you just can't get them fresh and ripe and unpreserved very easily otherwise, orange because taking a morning walk outside to pick one or two for breakfast and peel and eat them straight off the tree is just amazing (memories from my dad's little orchard in California). Avocado would be a close runner up.

[Greenmama2AJ]

If you can grow lemons then grow a fig tree. Every living animal loves fresh, ripe figs - from chickens to children, they are a fav!

I like oranges - children love picking and eating them straight off the tree.

And avocados - creamy, dreamy goodness

ETA - LOL JamieCatheryn, just read your post, great minds think alike

[henny penny]

I love our Montmorency sour cherry trees!! Jam, jelly, pies, turnovers, smoothies, popsicles, cherry sauce for roasted meats, and on, and on.

[Delicateflower]

mmmm, figs. But they take up the space of half a dozen normal trees!

[reducereuserecycle]

sour cherry
summer apples
fall apples

[brooks97]

Apples, blueberries and sweet cherry. Those are our favorites.

[cristeen]

I'd grow things that are difficult or expensive to buy. Around here that would be Meyer lemons (some years I can find them in quantity some I can't - but they're finicky to grow), Black Mission Figs ($5/pint and only available 2 weeks or so), and Sour Cherries (available 1 day/year). Pomegranate or avocados would be my runners up.

Although a nut tree is also really nice to have. Pecan or walnut trees tend to get pretty big, but almond trees stay a decent size. Think they need cross-pollinization though.

Not trees, but they do take up plenty of space - cane berries are another thing to consider (blackberries, raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries, etc.).

Oh, I will say I wouldn't recommend planting multiple stone fruit trees (apricot, peach, plum, nectarine, etc.) if you're limited to three. If you get a good weather year, you'll spend ALL SUMMER canning, and won't be able to GIVE away the excess. My grandparents had at least one of each (plus plumcots, 3 cherries, figs, apples, nuts, grapes, berries, melons, etc.) and I remember my grandma spending the hottest parts of summer stuck in the kitchen canning/jamming. While I enjoyed climbing the trees and eating the products of the garden all year round, spending 110F days stuck in the kitchen with a water bath canner SUCKED.

[canadiyank]

I plan to do an almond and a multi-grafted soft fruit. Apples and cherries are really common around here so I'm not going to bother with them.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

I'd definately do an avocado. Yum! Cherry for sure, black & native. Probably a pecan tree, my favorite.

[Spirit Dancer]

I would do peach, orange and either apple or avacodo.

I do not think there are blueberry trees. Around here the blueberries all grow on little shrubs. But I could be wrong.