   Fruit Varieties: Old Standards and New Picks - January 19, 2000 Jeff Schalau, County Director, Agent, Agriculture & Natural Resources Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yavapai County Choosing fruit and nut varieties is fun, but can be tricky too. Looking at the catalogs gives us visions of plentiful harvests. New varieties catch our interest, but to be on the safe side, we often choose the old standard varieties that our grandparents grew. Why not, they certainly perform. The following column discusses some newer varieties and old stand-bys that are well worth trying in the backyard orchard. Starting with apples, Gala, Fuji, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith are all partially self-fruitful and good choices. A newer variety, Pink Lady (Patent No. 7880), has already performed well in the Verde Valley. It was developed in Western Australia so its well suited to hot weather. It is very crisp, sweet-tart, and a good keeper. The skin is reddish-pink over green when ripe and the white flesh resists browning. It is self-fruitful and requires about 400 to 500 chill hours. Try Pink Lady if you are in a warmer microclimate in the Verde Valley. Just as a reminder, chill hours (better known as chilling requirement) are the number of hours of temperature below 45 degrees F (7 degrees C) necessary to fully break dormancy of deciduous fruit trees. Apricots are early bloomers and crop losses are common due to late freezes. Try either Blenheim (Royal) or Castlebrite in the warmer microclimates. Blenheim is described as sweet, freestone, aromatic, and flavorful. Castlebrite is early, yet reliable and semi-sweet when fully ripe. Both require 500 hours of chilling. If you are on a cooler site, try the Moorpark, Goldcot, or Wenatchee. All these apricot varieties are self-fruitful. If you fancy sweet cherries enough to compete with local birds for the fruit, then try these two varieties: Lapins and Stella. Lapins is new from Canada. It is large, dark red, firm, good flavored, and sometimes sold as ASelf-fertile Bing.@ Stella is large, nearly black, and richly flavored (similar to its parent, Lambert). Again, both are self-fruitful. If you like figs, plant Black Mission.....period. This is the all-time favorite of growers. An odd fruit that you may want to experiment with is the Jujube tree. This is often planted as a landscape tree, but has a fruit crop that are said to taste like dates. There are two varieties that are often planted together to increase the crop yield. These are called Lang and Li (they are from China). In selecting peach varieties, it gets more difficult. Each nursery holds patents on their new varieties and it would be unfair to name some and not others. Here I will defer to some of the older varieties and those that are self-fruitful. These peaches (chestnuts?) are: Elberta, J.H. Hale, Redhaven, Rio Oso Gem, and Indian Free. A relatively new peach variety to backyard growers is the O'Henry. It is large, firm, has a full red skin, and superb flavor. This is a vigorous grower and bears a heavy crop. This means that aggressive pruning is needed to maintain the proper size and fruit thinning is important minimize limb breakage. Most pears need cross-pollination to ensure a full crop. The standards varieties are Bartlett, Comice, and Seckel. The Seckel is both self-fruitful and is rated as one of the most tasty European pears. Asian pears are becoming more popular. Several varieties are available: 20th Century, Chojuro, and Shinseiki to name a few. European pears can be pollinated Asian pears and vice versa. Some Japanese plums require cross-pollination including: Santa Rosa, Late Santa Rosa, Elephant Heart, Fortune, Redheart, and others. If a backyard grower has space for only one plum tree, they should either plant a self-fruitful variety of Japanese plum with chill hours 300 or higher or a European plum (prune). The European varieties are almost all self-fruitful. Some of these are: Green Gage, Italian, and Stanley. And now for the grand finale: Pluots and Apriums. These are interspecific crosses between apricots and plums. I tasted one at a trade show and was totally overcome by the tastiness. The best ones are still patented, so I won=t provide a long list. The one that sticks in my mind is the Flavor King Pluot from Dave Wilson Nursery in Hickman, California. Pluots do require cross pollination by another pluot or a Santa Rosa plum and Apriums require cross pollination by an apricot. They are really good. Naming of nurseries or patented fruit varieties does not imply endorsement by the University of Arizona or criticism of similar nurseries or varieties not mentioned. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension has publications and information on fruit trees and their care. If you have other gardening questions, call the Master Gardener line in the Cottonwood office at 646-9113 or E-mail us at mgardener@kachina.net and be sure to include your address and phone number. |