Selecting Fruit Varieties

Developing a home orchard can be a satisfying hobby for all member of the family.  If you decide that you have the space to grow fruit trees, and the time to give the growing trees attention they need, your next step will be to select the proper varieties for your area.  Trace varieties differ in the climate and conditions they need, so in this article, we’ll offer some tips on selecting the best one for you orchard.

Choosing the right varieties is essential for developing a home orchard.  If plants aren’t adapted to local conditions they’ll usually fail to produce fruit, regardless of how much care and attention you give them.  My information on selecting fruit trees for the home orchard was provided by Extension Fruit Crops Specialist Dr. Pete Andersen, of The University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Probably the most important factor determining where fruit trees will grow is the weather.  Most fruits brown in North Florida go through the winter in a dormant state.  This is called the rest period.  Exposure to winter temperatures for a certain length of time prepares the plant to start active growth again when the warm spring days return.

Fruit trees require a certain chilling factor.  If the temperature doesn’t drop low enough, the trees go into the period of dormancy, and fruit production will be greatly reduced.  The number of hours below forty-five degrees Fahrenheit throughout the winter months constitutes the chill factor.  Fruit varieties differ in the amount of chilling they need to complete rest and resume normal growth in the spring.

Peaches, nectarines, and plums recommended for Florida growers need chilling requirements from three hundred fifty hours to seven-hundred hours.

During mild winters, the varieties with the high chill factors wouldn’t receive enough cold weather.  This would delay leafing and flowering, and make the tree more susceptible to warm weather insects and diseases.

On the other hand, very cold winters satisfy the rest requirement early in the season.  And plants start growing again with the first warm spell.  This makes them subject to injury by later cold weather.  A real problem is the late frost, which may destroy the bloom or the young fruit.

Obviously, it’s impossible to tell what the weather is going to be like, so the best advice we can give you is to select several fruit varieties with differing chill requirements this way you’ll be assured of some fresh fruit regardless of the type of winter we have.

Another important factor to keep in mind when selecting varieties is the time of ripening.  Try to achieve a balance of early, middle, and late maturing varieties in your home orchard.  This will keep you in fresh fruit for a long period of time.

It would be impossible for us to list all the fruit varieties which do well in Florida.  So, we suggest that you talk to your County Extension Agent or Garden Center operator for specific information about trees for your area.

IFAS has a list of publication on Fruit Production on their EDIS Website: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.