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Best Fruit Trees for your Homestead Orchard
Grow more food with very little effort
Choosing which types of fruit trees to plant goes beyond just what types you like to eat. Sometimes you may want to sell some at the local farmers market, or trade some to your neighbors for some butter. Having a variety will come in quite handy for many reasons. What are the best fruit trees for your homestead orchard?
Variety is best. Don’t NOT grow apples just because you never eat them. Do grow all types of fruits like stone fruits, pomes and citrus. Stone fruits are the ones with a solid hard pit in the middle of fleshy fruit, such as a peach or nectarine. Pomes are you r apples and pears, those with firmer flesh and a core that contains the seeds. Obviously citrus fruits are your oranges, lemons and limes.
Watch for varieties will grow best where you are. I love avocados, but they will not grow in this cold climate. Citrus fruits grow better in warmer climates too. Apples and pear do well in cooler areas. Even if your climate is not quite right for the fruits you want, you can look for dwarf varieties and grow them indoors.
My local nursery only carries fruit trees that will grow in this area. They order special varieties that have been bred to be cold tolerant. I’m sure your local nursery will have the ability to supply you with good trees that will produce for years to come. Always start by supporting your local small businesses before going to big box stores. The people are more knowledgeable, and the product is more likely to be guaranteed.
Fruit Varieties that you should grow on your homestead.
Here is our list of the best fruit trees. These are what we actually have, and we do get a ton of fruit to sell, can and eat each year.
1. Apples
There are about 7,500 varieties of apples trees in the world. Most of us only know the varieties that are commercially grown and shipped to the local supermarkets. These are the:
- Gala Apples: Mild, sweet and juicy, these are the favorite apples for most Americans. They are actually a cross between the Kidd’s Orange Red and the Golden Delicious Apples. Best grown in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 through 8, they will produce fruit in as little as 2 years.
- Red Delicious Apples: This one is the previous favorite of consumers, but now the preference is for softer, sweeter fruits like the Gala. There are more than 50 different cultivars of this apple available to suit your needs.
- Granny Smith Apples: What is Thanksgiving without a nice apple pie? These are the apples I prefer to use to make my apple pies. They are tart and firm with a light green skin that gets lighter as it ripens. These trees will yield fruits after about 4 to 6 years to keep those apple pies available year after year.
- Fuji Apples: This guy is sweet and juicy, similar to the Gala Apple. First Developed in Japan and named after the famous Mt Fuji, this apple has been available in our local markets since 1980. These apples have a longer shelf life that most apples, up to a year if kept refrigerated.
Don’t stop at just one variety, go for at least two so you can make applesauce, apple pie, apple jelly or cider. Take extra to your local market and sell them to new friends. Enjoy fresh apples all season long for the great health benefits these tasty treats give you. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, right?
2. Nectarines
Nectarines are similar to peaches with that hard pit in the center, but they lack the peach fuzz. Firmer flesh and not quite as sweet and juicy as a peach, these re great for canning and eating. There are over 4,000 varieties of Nectarines in the world so you should be able to find one for your climate.
You get to choose what color fruits you would like as they come in anywhere from white to yellow to soft pink. There are also freestone and cling stone varieties. I prefer the freestone type as they are easier to separate the fruit for processing.
3. Plums
Plums fall way short in the variety department compared to other fruits, as there are only about 20 different types. These guys need full sun in a well-drained soil and lots of space to spread out. Plums do best in USDA Hardiness zones 4 through 9, so you can literally grow them anywhere in the US.
4. Peaches
This popular stone fruit has over 2000 varieties to choose from whit some being selected to be either cold or heat tolerant, so you are sure to find one to fit your zone. Peaches will be abundant in three to four years. You can choose cling stone or freestone, and flesh color comes in white to well…peach.
5. Apricot
Closely related to the plum, this one cashes in with about 20 varieties as well. These small, tasty fruits are great to eat right off the tree and can up well as halves or as jelly. Apricots grow best in Zones 5 to 9. They need the cold winters to get a period of dormancy to produce well the next season. Fruits will appear in about 3 to 4 years after you get that seed to sprout.
6. Cherry
Cherries are another one of those stone fruits with the hard pit in the center. There are over 1,000 varieties of cherries, but as with apples we mainly only know the ones from the grocery store. The most common varieties are the Rainer, Bing and Queen Anne. These trees supposedly bear fruit in their fourth year, but mine took longer than that. Mature trees can produce 30-50 quarts of fruit in a single year.
7. Fig
Figs are one of those strangely fleshy squishy fruits that most associate with those newton snacks. With 700 varieties native to the Mediterranean and Asia figs are considered multiple fruit where the flowers actually grow inside a special cup. It’s this cup that we think of as the fruit but is really many fruits in one!
It will take about 3 to 5 years to get figs to produce for your homestead, but these treats are fat free and cholesterol free and loaded with Vitamin A. Grown best in Zones 8-10, these definitely like the warmer climates. Some cold hardy varieties have been selectively bred.
8. Lemon
Citrus trees are evergreen trees with lemons being native to Asia. These tart fruits are used worldwide in cooking and baking. They are very versatile used as natural cleaners, food ingredients and in drinks. The Citric acid has a pH of about 2.2, yielding that sour flavor.
Lemons do best in warm climates and grow best in Zones 9 to 11. I have a dwarf variety that stays in my greenhouse to keep it warm. There are 30 different varieties to choose from to suit your growing conditions. Citrus fruits also graft well, can you imagine a tree that gives lemons, oranges and lemons? Yup, you can do it by grafting different branches onto one good trunk.
9. Orange
Another warm weather lover, there is a reason why most oranges come from California and Florida. Oranges originated in China and India and is usually sweeter than other citrus fruits. There are over 400 different varieties of oranges, and sweet varieties account for 70% of commercially produced oranges. The optimum growing Zones are 9 to 11, but dwarf varieties can be grown indoors or on patios during the summer months in colder zones.
10. Mulberry
Mulberry trees get really big, and they can be really messy. I recall the dense shade and the massive spread that was so fun to climb as a kid during summer vacation. In spring, we tried to find the biggest fruit as we were earning some change picking them to be turned into jam.
Fruits come in white, red and black. I prefer the black variety for the memories of childhood of course. When grown from seed, these trees can take up to ten years to bear fruit. Mulberries resemble a large extra-long black berry, that are plump, juicy and succulent.
Mulberry leaves are the sole source of food for the silkworm, making this tree more valuable than just the fruits. Many other beautiful moths also feed on this plant. Having a mulberry tree on your homestead will not only feed you but will attract some incredible insects too!
Choosing Your Fruit Trees For your Homestead
When selecting what types of trees you would like, you also need to know how much space you need. many of the before mentioned trees need about 20-30 feet of space when fully mature. If you don’t have that kind of space, you should consider dwarf or semi-dwarf varieties. These smaller breeds typically produce fruit faster than the full-size varieties.
Buying trees in pots from your local nursery will also reduce the time it takes to get fruits. When I purchased my trees, I looked for the ones that had fruit already on them. This way I knew that even after the trees lost their fruit from transplant stress, I would be sure to get fruit the very next year and continue to get fruit for the next 40 years or more.
Some trees will never produce fruit unless there are more than one tree. This will mean more fruits for canning, selling, and eating. Plus, it will mean more butterflies drifting through your yard and much more shade for those long summer days.
With so many options, you should consider starting your own home orchard this spring. Take a look at your space and head on over to that nursery. I’m sure you will find some fruit varieties you will love that will be the best fruit trees for you homestead orchard.
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