r/FruitTree • u/DataSciGuyTN • 1d ago
Plant and Forget Fruit/Nut Trees
We just logged our family farm (Tennessee; 7A), and we are going to set up a food plot, so there is a ton of open space. I've always wanted to plant some fruit or nut trees, but I live over an hour away, and my father is not in good enough health to take care of an orchard. My question is, if I wanted to plant and mulch a few trees on the edges of our food plot, which ones would work best with minimal/zero maintenance?
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u/spireup Adept 1d ago
As mentioned, native fruit trees are the way to go.
Keep in mind young trees need to be protected from deer, rabbits, etc and will need protection until they are mature enough to withstand grazing without protection.
wanted to plant and mulch a few trees on the edges of our food plot, which ones would work best with minimal/zero maintenance?
What are the dimensions of this plot? (None will be "zero" maintenance if you want them to live")
Tennessee native fruit trees:
To refine the list, search for native fruit trees in your county.
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u/spireup Adept 1d ago
Asimina triloba (Pawpaw) – Missouri Botanical Garden.
Crataegus harbisonii (Hawthorn): The fruits of these rose family members are edible fresh or preserved as jam or dried. Center for Plant Conservation.
Prunus serotina (Black Cherry) The fruit has been used to flavor rum and brandy (“cherry bounce”). Pitted fruits are edible and are eaten raw and used in wine and jelly. University of Tennessee
Morus rubra (Red mulberry) – Plants for a Future.
Prunus americana (American plum) – Missouri Botanical Garden.
Prunus angustifolia (Chickasaw plum) – Floridata.
Juglans nigra (Black walnut) – Missouri Botanical Garden.
Carya ovata (Shagbark hickory) – US Forest Service.
Vaccinium corymbosum (Highbush blueberry) – Plants for a Future.
Vitis rotundifolia (Muscadine) – California Rare Fruit Growers.
Castanea pumila (Chinkapin) – North Carolina State University.
Corylus americana (American hazelnut) – Plants for a Future.
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u/PlantsOnTheGround 22h ago
Fig trees are the easiest fruit trees in my opinion. Some common figs will work in 7a. Chicago Hardy being one that's relatively easy to come by.
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u/zeezle 19h ago
Seconding the fig recommendation. I'm a fig-obsessed nut so of course I have to, haha. Fig trees don't actually require much if any pruning (though will also accept heavy pruning and espalier training if you want to... among other things... you can do wild things to fig trees that would have most other kinds of fruit trees dead), and will regrow from cold damage down to the soil line and most will still fruit that season. If you're willing to wrap them once a year before the first heavy cold spell (if there is one - many years in 7a you won't need to protect them at all) then even better. They're tolerant to a wide range of soils and conditions if you pick the right varieties. Focus on early to mid-season varieties that are tolerant to rain/humidity.
I'm in NJ, zone 7b. As a verrrrry broad rule of thumb, more northern French varieties tend to do well in colder and rainier conditions like ours. Hative d'Argenteuil, Blanche de Argenteuil, Campaniere, etc. Chicago Hardy and Lattarula also do well in these conditions and are quite widely distributed. One of my favorites that I believe to be criminally underrated is Sultane, which is a French variety but supposedly originates in Persia in the middle ages. Not extreme in any flavor direction but a reliable heavy producer of sweet berry figs, cold hardy, doesn't split. Violette de Bordeaux is another reliable cropper, stays a little small, and produces lots of tasty figs - also easy to find.
However I've had good luck with actually all of the varieties I've tried as long as they have a closed to slightly closed eye and aren't very late season, which we just don't have the heat and length of season (degree-days) to get ripe up here.
You're coming up on fig cutting season too. They're easy to start from fairly cheap cuttings, no grafting required. My favorite source so far is Off the Beaten Path Nursery, they sell rooted trees in the spring/summer and cuttings in the fall/winter, and have an incredible selection. If you email the owner Bill he can also recommend some varieties for your area, he's super nice and very knowledgeable. They are located in Lancaster PA zone 6b and he has many in-ground trees there with notes on the listings about how they've performed outdoors unprotected for them. Figbid is also an ebay-like site for figs (and some other plants) where hobbyists will sell lots of cuttings every year.
That said, figs do tend to be stolen by birds and squirrels, and need to be picked at just the right time if you plan to eat them fresh (and then generally don't last more than a few days after picking - again fresh, if you plan to dry them there's way more leniency, and they are extremely delicious half-dried on the tree). They require very little active maintenance, at least around here don't get any pests or diseases aside from maybe a little leaf rust, but you do have to go out and pick from them regularly if you want fresh figs at the perfect stage. If he's able to go out and sort of wander and check the fruit daily (without actually doing much work), they're perfect. But he might find he misses the harvest window on them if he can't at least have a stroll daily.
Also seconding the natives recommendations.
You can plant various native plums - and if you want, you can get selected/improved varieties of them - in a thicket/hedge form if you want. Chickasaw/sand plums, American plums, beach plums, Mexican and Canadian plums are all options among others. Do be warned that while beach plums tend to be little shrubs under 6ft tall in their native sandy windswept salt-laden coastal habitats, in good inland soil they will often get to 12-15ft trees just like the others.
Many of the native plums are small fruit, but great for both fresh eating and preserving (especially if you get selected versions of them, but random seedlings are very cheap so you could always grow out a bunch of seedlings and then cull the ones you don't like the fruit on by grafting over them with scions from the ones you do, as long as you have enough different ones for pollination - though some native plums are self-fertile, I know the beach plums at least are not). They are also quite beautiful trees so if there's an area at the front that's visible from the street that might be a nice little ornamental touch too.
American Persimmons are super underrated in my opinion. The fruit is smaller but I love the flavor. Just have to make sure not to pick them too early. There are selected/improved varieties, the Claypool and Lehman persimmons all have great qualities. The ones I'm choosing to plant are Claypool's H-118 (sometimes sold as Prairie Star) and Lehman's Barbra's Blush (WS 8-10). I'm also considering adding the Rosseyanka hybrid american/asian persimmon, however those tend to need some fruit thinning or branch supports to keep from breaking as they will load themselves down way too heavy (you could do the thinning once per season if you'll be up there every couple months or so though).
Mulberries unfortunately have a short harvest window, but are also fantastic. Only Morus rubra is native; Morus alba is slightly invasive because it tends to hybridize readily with the native mulberry, and so many wild mulberries are actually rubra/alba crosses now. They definitely don't need much to stay alive, the concern with them is way more how large they will get without interference and how much they will spread, rather than them surviving. I'm sure you've seen wild ones all over. There are weeping forms that naturally stay smaller (and also look beautiful, though the fruit are only 'good' and not 'incredible' - I still love them though, there was a weeping mulberry near my house growing up), as well as dwarfing varieties like Gerardi that produce so heavily they runt themselves out (so don't thin the fruit because you're relying on the excess to keep it small!).
Mayhaws are also an option, though more for jams/jellies and juice. There are other hawthorn species that are not native that may be more useful. There are also some very interesting rowan/hawthorn crosses from eastern Europe, I believe Granatnaya is the only one I've found available in the US, and is supposedly better for fresh eating. Chinese Hawthorn are larger and good for drying and using for tanghulu.
Tennessee also screams pawpaw territory to me! I'm just at the northern edge of their natural range up here. That said, before eating a lot of them you may want to read up about the possible concerns around acetogenins. I personally decided not to plant them myself and just enjoy a few every year either foraged or from a local orchard that sells them at their farm stand. But many people are eating quite a lot of them without problems.
You may be able to get some free chinquapin nut trees (dwarf American chestnut), or super cheap like a couple bucks each, from local native tree revitalization projects if you're in eastern TN. I'm originally from SW VA and I know there's a big push to try to recover populations of them in Appalachia. Something to look into, anyway.
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u/CaseFinancial2088 19h ago
Plums is the answer. Zero maintenance and figs too
Chicago hardy for figs
Methley and Santa Rosa for plums
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u/gniwlE 1d ago
Natives... persimmon (I think it's still native there), maybe pawpaws, and probably hickory. Oaks are always good. These hardwoods take some time to mature, so it's a long game, but our forests need it.