Talk to me about fruit trees ...

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scramp

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I have a fig tree on the coast here above Myrtle Beach. They don't take winter weather well. In New Jersey they have to insulate and wrap them every year. I keep mine low so it I can throw a tarp on it if we get a late frost. I think mine is a Jeffersonian fig tree. The fruit is green. A neighbor has a dark fruited fig tree and he has to fight off the birds. They leave mine alone as they don't thin the green fruit is ripe.

Fig trees are self propagating so flowers for bees may not be a thing. Some people have issues with wasps. They naturally lay their eggs in the fruit. Never happened to me. Japanese beetles/ June bugs love to eat their leaves. I use bug traps. Mine is loaded with fruit and should ripen all of August till the first frost.

I got an Isu Persimmon tree two years ago. It's a self propagating and sweet not tart tree. I got if from an online nursery in Georgia. When they ship it over state lines, you get the bare tree and root structure. They cant ship it as a ball due to no dirt being allowed. That pushed back the tree growth.

Figs wrapped in Prosciutto and partially quartered with a piece of goat cheese in the cut portion then grilled. The Salty caramelized Prosciutto with the sweet fix and melting tart cheese is a great appetizer.
 

HillsideDesolate

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I have a fig tree on the coast here above Myrtle Beach. They don't take winter weather well. In New Jersey they have to insulate and wrap them every year. I keep mine low so it I can throw a tarp on it if we get a late frost. I think mine is a Jeffersonian fig tree. The fruit is green. A neighbor has a dark fruited fig tree and he has to fight off the birds. They leave mine alone as they don't thin the green fruit is ripe.

Fig trees are self propagating so flowers for bees may not be a thing. Some people have issues with wasps. They naturally lay their eggs in the fruit. Never happened to me. Japanese beetles/ June bugs love to eat their leaves. I use bug traps. Mine is loaded with fruit and should ripen all of August till the first frost.

I got an Isu Persimmon tree two years ago. It's a self propagating and sweet not tart tree. I got if from an online nursery in Georgia. When they ship it over state lines, you get the bare tree and root structure. They cant ship it as a ball due to no dirt being allowed. That pushed back the tree growth.

Figs wrapped in Prosciutto and partially quartered with a piece of goat cheese in the cut portion then grilled. The Salty caramelized Prosciutto with the sweet fix and melting tart cheese is a great appetizer.
With out getting too into Fig genetics and reproduction. Figs flower inside the fruit and are pollinated by the fig wasp, which has been introduced to california and warm climate regions, they won't live in cold climates. Some varieties of figs will drop fruit without pollination while others hold their fruit on the tree. All fruit will be better tasting with pollination, but some varieties make decent tasting fruit without pollination. Chicago Hardy, Olimpic, and violetta de Bordeaux off the top of my head. Figs are one of the oldest fruits in cultivation they were enjoyed by Alexander the great, Augustus Caesar and Jesus Christ.
 

rickm

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My grandmother had a fig bush as i called it and it was around 5 ft tall and 8 ft in dia and was always loaded with figs i would eat my fill when i visited and she always made fig jam from it which i also enjoyed dont ask me what kind it was cause dont have a clue.
 

Valhallajack

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Forgive me if already addressed……..

Has anyone had luck with lemons in OK? I keep thinking I want to plant a couple trees to have lemons. Anybody done that?
Not planted but in clay pots, I worked for a lady that took the outside when warm weather and back inside in the fall. She didn't get many but did get some.
 

SMS

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I’ve got a bit of unused space that I always think I might use for fruit trees…then I read a thread like this and it seems it’s not worth the effort here in Oklahoma LOL.
 

SoonerP226

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It's damn near impossible to get fruit in Oklahoma without massive amounts of chemicals.
My grandpa had an orchard of apples and peaches (and something else that I'm forgetting), and I doubt that he used anything more chemical-y than the poop from his milk cows and mules. My other grandparents had some great big pear trees, and I know they never used chemicals on them. (Not that Grandpa wouldn't, but if you didn't need a tractor to cultivate it, that wasn't his interest.)
 

SoonerP226

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I've personally seen apples, pears, peaches, and cherries do well in Oklahoma. As noted above, my mom's folks had 10-15 fruit trees (apples and peaches, and, I think, pears) in their little orchard, and they produced terrific fruit. The pear tree at my folks' place produced wonderful pears, as long as we could keep my nieces and nephews from picking them all while they were still green...

I had a great big cherry tree behind my house, and my eldest niece loved to eat the cherries right off of it, but drought, bugs, and an ice storm finally did it in a few years back.

Pecans and walnuts are native to the state, so they'll usually grow like gangbusters. My understanding is that pecans are cross-pollinators, so they need different species of pecans nearby to put on fruit (or, I guess, technically, drupes). Fortunately, that's usually not a problem here. As noted above, pecans and walnuts can become huge, and they might decide to take up for their oak brethren after the mean things you said about the neighbors tree.

My grandpa's apples and peaches never got really big (maybe 15' to the very top?). The pear at my folks' house is at least a good 20' tall (it's taller than the house), but the peach is probably closer to 15' (with a similar spread). The cherry I had was over 20' tall, but my place is heavily forested, so it was already good soil for trees.
 

2busy

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My grandpa had an orchard of apples and peaches (and something else that I'm forgetting), and I doubt that he used anything more chemical-y than the poop from his milk cows and mules. My other grandparents had some great big pear trees, and I know they never used chemicals on them. (Not that Grandpa wouldn't, but if you didn't need a tractor to cultivate it, that wasn't his interest.)
You won't get any fruit here except for pears.
Brown rot, fire blight, apple cedar rust, leaf curl, etc. Then there's coons, deer, ants, wasp, yellow jackets, grasshopper, crows, and everything in between.
 

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