Not all fruit trees will produce fruit on their own. Some require a close relative to cross-pollinate with. Fruit trees that don’t require cross-pollination are called “self-fertile”. However, even trees that are self-fertile may produce a healthier and greater crop yield due to cross-pollination. Fruit tree varieties that are compatible cross-pollinator are typically blooming at the same time in the season (early, mid, or late) and may share similar ancestry.
Fruit trees like: full sun, well draining soil, nutritious soil, regular watering (especially in the hot months of the year), pruning in the fall, and pollinator friendly gardens.
Our fruit trees are dwarf varieties and will reach approximately 15 feet tall and 10 feet wide at maturity. When planted in the sun with adequate irrigation access these trees will can experience an impressive growth rate (i.e. a foot plus of growth per season) after establishing a strong root system (typically taking 2-3 years).
Below is a hardiness key by location:
Apple
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: granny smith, honey crisp, ambrosia
Bloom: Mid
Description: Large greenish with pink blush, resembles golden delicious but larger and crisper. Sweet slightly hoeyed, juicy for eating, juicing, drying and baking.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: red delicious
Bloom: Early – Mid
Description: Desert and culinary uses, lots of variability, relatively hardy, short storage time, dual purpose, early ripening 700 chill hours, mostly green; Best for deserts and culinary.
Hardiness: 4-9
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: honey crisp, granny smith, crabapple
Bloom: Mid
Description: Finest of all dessert apples, classic in England. Unsurpassed for richness of flavor. Orange red coloring is striking, aromatic as well as flavorful. High Chill best in Maritime climates.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: honey crisp, orange cox pippin, gala
Bloom: Early – Mid
Description: Widely grown, and basically sweet apple. Transports well. Medium sized and very red. Flavor is mild, tough skin but almost neutral in flavor tones. Low Chill best in warmer winters and eaten fresh. Does not store well.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: braeburn
Bloom: Mid
Description: Sweet modern apply with pink blush over yellow. Sweet but one demensional, less crisp than Braeburn but softer than yellow delicious. Best if chilled, very cold hardy
Hardiness: 4-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: cox orange pippin, fuji, gala
Bloom: Mid-Late
Description: Important commercial apple in warmer climates, Top 5 stores well, produces well, handles well, good flavor, tops Red and yellow delicios for flavor 700 chill hours.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: cox orange pippin, fuji, honey crisp, granny smith
Bloom: Mid
Description: Widely grown, union of three of worlds most important varieties: Cox Orange, Delicious and Kidds Orange. Orange over yellow when young and more red as matures. Best fresh off tree but stores well.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: cox orange pippin, fuji, honey crisp, granny smith
Bloom: Mid
Description: Small to medium size, reddish over green yellow with some ribbing, thick tough skin, long keeper and holds flavor, late ripening. Like a more disease resistant Gala.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: granny smith, cox orange pippin, pink lady
Bloom: Mid
Description: Triploid variety tht will not pollinate other varieties. Needs two pollination partners of different varieties or a self fertile. High quality American apple with good balance and sweetsharp flavor. Originates from Golden Delicious, large, orange blush fruits, likes a warmer climate.
Hardiness: 4-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: granny smith, cox orange pippin, pink lady
Bloom: Early-Mid
Description: Classice American varietal regarded as one of the best flavored with good sweet/sharp balance. Productive. Weeping growth habit. Orange red fruit.
Hardiness: 3-9
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: Cox orange pippin, fuji, gala
Bloom: Early-Mid
Description: Modern apple came to market in 1990’s developed to do better in bitter cold. Skin is flecked with orange. Bruises easily so often marketed in packs rather than loose. Good disease resistance. Flesh light, soft with good storage capability.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: granny smith, honey crisp, cox orange pippin
Bloom: Mid
Description: Varietal name is Cripps Pink, trademarked as Pink Lady. Tart and Sweet, best eaten fresh but holds up to baking. Late ripener. Not a good choice for extreme cold climates. Origin from Golden Delicious in Australia., white blossoms.
Hardiness: 3-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: braeburn, cox orange pippin, pink lady
Bloom: Early
Description: Very early flowering Culinary apple originating from Russia but widespread in North America. Tree is winter hardy. Often called White Transparent or Glass Apple because skin is slightly translucent. Yellow skin. Dual purpose, does not keep.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: fuji, honey crisp, granny smith
Bloom: Mid
Description: Premier cider apple with bitter and sharp flavor. Hard cider uses.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: cox orange pippin, granny smith, honey crisp
Bloom: Mid-Late
Description: Attractive modern apple, good producer world wide, crisp and juicy, refreshing flavor. Low chill hours 500-600, late ripening.
Hardiness: 4-9
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: fuji, gala, cox orange pippin
Bloom: Mid
Description: Pie apple good for baking, early ripening, does not store well, sweet.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: cox orange pippin, melrose, fuji
Bloom: Mid
Description: Popular green sour apple, good for baking. Late ripening.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: granny smith, gala, jonathan
Bloom: Mid
Description: Disease resistant, originates from Cox Orange and Jonathan. Crisp with a fruity flavor sweet and sharp. Resembles Delicious and Jonathan. Best eaten fresh.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: Gala, Fuji, and Braeburn
Bloom: Early-Mid
Description: The Cameo apple is a medium-sized, evenly-shaped fruit. It is most recognizable because of its distinctive red stripes that mix with shades of yellow and pale green. The fruit itself is extremely fragrant, just like the tree’s flowers. It has crisp, pale yellow flesh that smells amazing when cut. It is also known for having a thinner skin, which makes it easy to cut and great for baking.
Hardiness: 4-9
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: Red Delicious, Cameo, Gala
Bloom: Early-Mid
Description: The fruit of this tree grows green except in areas where the shade breaks. Where these apples are exposed to sunlight, they develop red blushes and streaks. This apple is crunchy and has a bit more bite to it than the apples people are used to finding at their local shops.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: Jonathan, McIntosh, Granny Smith
Bloom: Early-Mid
Description: Arkansas Black Apples are commonly used for eating raw after they’ve had a few months to ripen and sweeten in cold storage. The Arkansas Black Apple is a dessert apple and is frequently used in recipes for cobblers, pies, and table dishes.
Pear
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: red bartlett, green bartlett
Description: Firm, buttery flesh and golden-russet skin. Widely grown, eaten fresh and used for baking.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: Yes, partially (should be crossed to produce a heavier and regular crop).
Best Cross Pollinator: d’anjou, bosc, moonglow
Description: Best eaten fresh, very reliable producer, bright red color, sweet crisp flesh, great for canning and keeps for 1-3 months.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: Yes, partially (should be crossed to produce a heavier and regular crop).
Best Cross Pollinator: bartlett varieties
Description: Traditional European pear from Belgium with classice sweet, buttery melting flesh. Very cold hardy.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: Yes, partially (should be crossed to produce a heavier and regular crop).
Best Cross Pollinator: flemish beauty, d’anjou, bosc
Description: Classic English pear, easy to grow, good flavor, also known as Williams pear. Best eaten Fresh. Should not be cross pollinated with another of the Williams pear varieties.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: bartlett, bosc
Description: Cold Hardy, vigorous and has best keeping quality of all pears up to 7 months! With great flavor. Bright green, and firm at harvest with tinge of yellow as it ripens. Subtly sweet.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: bartlett varieties
Description: High quality early season pear, for dessert and culinary uses and resistent to fire blight. The green-yellow skin has deep pink blush with white flesh, large. Strong ppollinator for other pears.
Hardiness: 5-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: bosc, moonglow
Description: Firm and crisp, Concorde pears are juicy and delicious off the tree, but the flavor becomes even more distinctive with ripeness. These luscious pears are suitable for nearly every purpose – ideal for eating fresh out of hand or mixing into fresh fruit salads, or they can easily be canned or baked.
Cherry
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: van, bing, sweetheart
Bloom: Mid
Description: Early ripening, yellow with pink blush, best eaten fresh, firm and juicy.
Hardiness: 4-9
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: bing, stella, royal ann, sweetheart
Bloom: Mid
Description: Heart shapped, juicy, good flavor, small stone
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: No
Best Cross Pollinator: sweetheart, van, rainier
Bloom: Mid
Description: Roundish, firm, good flavor, juicy, dark red.
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: sweetheart, van, sargent (flowering cherry)
Bloom: Late
Description: Heart shapped, juicy, good flavor, small stone, dark red, eating fresh
Hardiness: 5-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: bing, van, sweetheart
Bloom: Mid
Description: Best for canning and cooking, Used for maraschino cherries. Sweet can be eaten fresh. Bruise easily.
Hardiness: 5-7
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: van, stella, rainier
Bloom: Early-Mid
Description: Developed in BC, Canada. Sweet cherry that tastes best fresh off the tree. Ripens late in the season with a long picking season.
Hardiness: 5-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: Sweetheart
Bloom: Early
Description: Self-pollinating and tolerates late frost! One of the few self-pollinating sweet cherry trees. Puts on a brilliant spring show with billows of pink flowers. Deep, dark fruit has a Bing-like shape has a purple-red flesh that is sweet, firm and almost meaty. Exquisite fresh eating, right off the tree. Originated in Canada. Good overall disease-resistance and crack-resistance. Ripens in July.
Plum
Hardiness: 5-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: Italian plum
Bloom: Late
Description: Developed in Oregon. Popular variety with home orchards. Large sweet fruit with bluish purple skin and folded amber flesh. Delicious eaten fresh and great dried. Needs 800 chill hours.
Hardiness: 5-7
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: brooks, italian,
Bloom: Late
Description: Developed in New York, it is a major commercial plum. It is productive, reliable, heavy cropping of blue colored plums for culinary use.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: Italian, stanley
Bloom: Very Late
Description: Best Flavored of any plum variety with a late picking season, juicy, tender sugary with delicious flavor. Dull green color, Prized eating plum.
Hardiness: 4-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Best Cross Pollinator: brooks, stanley
Bloom: Late
Description: A worldwide famous plum variety. Known for sweet, medium-sized, and reliable fruit production. Pit is easy to remove.
Hardiness: 5-9
Self Fertile: Partially Self Fertile (For higher yields cross pollinate with other Japanese plum varieties)
Best Cross Pollinator: Santa Rosa, Methley, Superior
Bloom: Early
Description: The best of yellow plums. This variety beats all others in appearance and taste. Luminous yellow skin covers sweet, juicy flesh. A heavy bearer, Shiro grows clusters of plums all throughout the tree. Heat-tolerant. Clingstone. Introduced to America in 1899. Ripens in late July.
Peach
Hardiness: 5-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Bloom: Late
Description: Medium size, freestone, firm flesh, juicy golden with slight red blush. Somewhat course texture.
Nectarine
Hardiness: 5-9
Self Fertile: Yes
Cross Pollinator: For heavier production grow with another variety of nectarine.
Bloom: Late
Description: Early Harvest July1-15, Firm, yellow flesh with solid red skin. Stone is easy to remove. 800 chill hours. Late bloom time.
Hardiness: 4-8
Self Fertile: Yes
Cross Pollinator: For heavier production grow with another variety of nectarine.
Bloom: Late
Description: Excellent flavor, bright yellow fruit, smooth red skin. August ripening. NH introduction 950 chill hours. Very cold hardy.
