Which Fruit Trees Grow Best in the Bay Area
Growing a wide variety of delicious fruit in your Bay Area garden is a lovely way to liven up your yard. Edible fruit trees bring many great benefits including variety and taste of organic food, improved soil quality, pollinators like bees and butterflies, seasonal aesthetic value, and the removal of carbon dioxide from the air while releasing oxygen.
Fruit trees need care and maintenance to prevent disease, maintain structural form, and produce delicious fruit, but the amount of care can vary.
How to Choose Your Fruit Trees in Bay Area
Assess Your Soil
If your soil is sandy, consider planting peach, pomegranate, apricot, plum, almond, grape, and nectarine trees.
You can plant all trees in loam soil, but especially walnut and cherry.
If you have clay soil, then apple, plum, pear, apricot, almond, and peach (grafted on plum rootstock) trees work best.
Think About Pollination
Some trees are self-pollinating, others require cross-pollinators to be planted nearby in order to produce fruit.
Self-pollinating is a good option for smaller spaces. These include figs, peaches, nectarines, pomegranates, and most varieties of apricots, almonds, apples, pears, plums, plots, and cherries.
As an alternative, you can plant fruit trees that have multiple grafts on them. For example, you can plant an apple tree that has up to four different varieties grafted onto the same tree.
If you have the space, you can plant a species that requires a cross-pollinator to produce fruit. We can help you get started. (Schedule the consultation)
Room to Grow?
Care must be done regularly to manage tree health, control size and form, and maximize fruit production capacity. You must make sure you’ll still have space for your trees when they reach maturity.
A mature fruit tree could grow tall and wide, and if it has to compete with other plants for air and light, it can reduce tree health and impact fruit yield. As a solution, most fruit trees are available as true dwarf and semi-dwarf options.
Tree Heights
Semi-dwarf fruit trees can stand up to 15′ tall. True dwarf fruit trees can reach about 6-10′ tall.
Full-sized fruit trees grow in a range of heights. For example, a nectarine tree may reach up to 15’ tall, a cherry tree up to 20’ tall, and an apple tree up to 30’ tall.
Consider Light and Water
Fruit trees require at least 6-8 hours of full sun per day to grow, thrive, and produce yummy fruit. To keep your trees healthy, they should be planted where there is well-draining soil and appropriate irrigation.
These are just the basics when it comes to choosing the right fruit trees for your yard. Contact us - we’d love to help you take the next step!
