Fruit Trees?

[ericsami]

let me us knwo of what you find out.

I have pomegranate tree in my house and fig tree. the pomegrante beared fruit but they were to smal to be eaten by human kind

figs, mine was not too good. but my dad has three trees in his yard and he has seen pretty good results. although I must say figs are very popular with birds and you might not see alot of them in your hads

[CptnRn]

Be sure you really want to put in the work if you plant a peach tree. We planted two at our first house, within 2 years they were producing bushel baskets full of peaches. Unfortunately, it was a loosing battle to keep the grackles and blue jays out of the trees, not to mention the worms, which left us with few edible fruit. I wasn't comfortable spraying the trees and fruit with pesticides, and the fallen fruit on the ground made such a mess and attracted so many flies, I finally gave up and cut the trees down.

[TexasHorseLady]

We use bird netting on our peach and plum trees. They still get the ones that are at the very ends of the branches, but not the ones that are further in. So far (knock on wood!) we haven't had a worm problem.

The trick for the fallen ones is to pick them up the moment they fall and eat them right then!

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by pbnj07

My fig tree is over 15ft high and is loaded with delicious fruit every year. My friend nearby has a pomegranite tree that does extremely well too. Yet another neighbor has citrus trees (mostly lemons) that do well, be he spends all kinds of time/effort wrapping them in plastic/canvas in the winter.

On the other hand, everyone's peaches seem small, hard, and unflavorful.

Some species of peach tree absolutely have to have their fruit thinned when they start developing. Otherwise, the tree doesn't have enough umph to get really nice sized peaches on it. To many fruits competing for too few nutrients and you get dwarf peaches.

Something that does REALLY well here, but is not a fruit, is pecan trees. They Just get better and better every year. And pecans are crazy expensive in the stores.

[Austinitegirl]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Don't go to Lowe's, go to The Natural Gardener down in Oak Hill (absolutely worth the drive) and talk to them about it. They'll want to know things like what kind of soil you have (basically west of I35 is Austin Chalk - limestone soil - and east of I35 is Houston Black - black gumbo clay - but there's pockets of either on each side, and there's some sandy loam here and there, too). They'll be able to tell you and show you what varieties work best here, and they're an awesome resource for information on all things growing in this part of Central Texas.

Boy, do I second that! I made the mistake of going to Lowe's to purchase a tree several years ago - it died about 3 weeks after I planted it.

Whenever possible, avoid the chain gardening retailers for stuff you plant in the ground. Go to your local gardening shop - specifically, one close to you. I live in the RR/Pflugerville area, where the soil is much more clay/alkaline than it is in central/south Austin, so I go to an awesome little mom 'n pop gardening place near downtown Pville - they carry the exact plants that will do well in my yard, and everyone on staff has such helpful knowledge. Plus - you're supporting local businesses! Bonus!

I hear that lemon trees do OK - haven't tried it yet though...

[woodinvilleguy]

Originally Posted by Austinitegirl

Boy, do I second that! I made the mistake of going to Lowe's to purchase a tree several years ago - it died about 3 weeks after I planted it.

Whenever possible, avoid the chain gardening retailers for stuff you plant in the ground. Go to your local gardening shop - specifically, one close to you. I live in the RR/Pflugerville area, where the soil is much more clay/alkaline than it is in central/south Austin, so I go to an awesome little mom 'n pop gardening place near downtown Pville - they carry the exact plants that will do well in my yard, and everyone on staff has such helpful knowledge. Plus - you're supporting local businesses! Bonus!

I hear that lemon trees do OK - haven't tried it yet though...

They can be ok if you go in with the knowledge of what you want. That is why I included the varieties in my post earlier. They also differ based on the manager of the garden dept. The Lowes on 620 and 183 happens to have a manager that knows what he is doing but the Home Depot near me has zero clue about what the varieties and health of the plants.

Half of mine are from Lowes, half from a local nursery. Lowes does guarantee the plants if you keep the receipt. I haven't had issues with those trees but a couple of the ones from the local place that were twice the price died about 3 weeks after planting and basically told me I was SOL.