# Fruit and nut tree varieties



## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

I'm planning my spring planting of fruit and nut trees at the BOL. I'm in north Missouri (zone 5b), hilly, clay-rich soil. Any favorite varieties you'd recommend? I'm thinking high disease resistant, hardy. I'm not an expert orchard manager, so forgiving varieties would be good.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Pecan and black walnut are nice to have. You can make a poison ivy remedy from the leaves of the black walnut tree also. The pecan makes great wood for the smoker.

Edit: you can make ink and dye from the walnut hulls.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

We have a couple of fairly big native Pecan trees that do well. Made a bumper crop of nuts this year after not many last year. They seem to produce good one year and rest up for a year. For fruit trees we have plum..peach and apple. The apples are Golden Delicious. The plum and peach trees have to be sprayed if you want any fruit. The apple trees dont seem to require any spraying. We are on thick black clay. Zone 7 I think.


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## oddapple (Dec 9, 2013)

Love a fruit and apple orchard


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Apples: Liberty, September Wonder Fuji, Enterprise, Arkansas Black.

Pears; (Only plant fire blight-resistant cultivars) Harrow Delight, Seckel, Honeysweet, Starking Delicious, Olympic (Korean) Giant

Peaches; (Plant peach trees on high ground and in well-drained soils only) Flamin' Fury PF-1, Redhaven, Blazing Star, Contender, TangOs, Blushingstar

Nectarines; Emeraude, Fantasia, Stark Ovation

Apricots; Goldcot, Wilson Delicious, Harglow

Plums; (European plums bloom later and are more reliable where you live) Earliblue, Damson

Sour cherries; (only on soils that drain quickly after rainfall) Montmorency, North Star, Balaton

Sweet cherries; marginal in your area

Don't forget grapes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and other yummies. Follow the source link for greatly expanded info...

SOURCE: University of Missouri Extension: Fruit Cultivars for Home Plantings


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Majorly helpful, Prepadoodle! Thanks for taking the time. (The vines' turn will come later; I know I've got to plant the trees before the dormancy really ends.)


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## survival (Sep 26, 2011)

Start learning beekeeping at the same time.... for pollination.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

That's on the list too, Survival...but not right away. So much to do, and these plantings won't fruit for more than a year. We had good bees on the prairie flowers last summer, though.


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## survival (Sep 26, 2011)

Spice said:


> That's on the list too, Survival...but not right away. So much to do, and these plantings won't fruit for more than a year. We had good bees on the prairie flowers last summer, though.


True...

Arklatex hit the nail with the black walnut. I know my father in law sells them for $15 per quart here in Kentucky around Christmas time for people to bake with.

Something I didn't know until this year was that you had to have two different type of apple trees for the pollination of them. So two trees of the same type will not pollinate each other.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Pollination of apples can be tricky. Some varieties are self-fertile, but even these will do better with another variety nearby {within 100 feet or so)

Different varieties bloom at different times too. Most people divide apple types into early, mid season, and late categories. Make sure your choices have multiple varieties in bloom during the same time.

One or 2 crab-apple trees are often used to help pollination. This can really increase your yields.

RainTree Nursery has a ton of info online about all aspects of gardening, including good pollination and ripening guides, plant selection guides, and a lot more.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

I used Stark Brothers Nursery (pretty close to here, and very good) for choosing mutually supportive pollinators...plus a crab apple, which apparently believes in Free Love and pollinates everyone. Two is one, right? So if any one of them dies, all the others still have a pollination partner. Or so the plan goes. Black walnuts I'm not worried about; there are 18 acres of second growth oak/hickory forest and that includes some native walnut. I just like multiple points of view.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

I am surprised no one has mentioned the Mulberry or Paw Paw trees.


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