Fruit tree recomendations for zone 6b

[Chaesman]

Well I am new here and asking questions all over the placce I am considering planting some trees in the spring and am very curious what fruit recomendations you would recomend for zone 6b South east missouri.
also is there a variety of blue berry that would do well here? I miss them from my years up north

[rainbowgardener]

Interesting. I'm considerably north of you and I'm also in zone 6b. You must have some elevation?

For something a little unusual, consider our native fruits - pawpaw and American persimmon. Both of them are wonderful fruits and easy to grow because adapted to the area/climate. The pawpaw is dioecious-- has separate male and female trees. I've never seen any place that sells them labelled, so you need to plant a few of them to be sure you will have both. They do take a few years to get mature enough to produce fruit. In nature they grow as small colonies. They are an understory tree, so tolerate a fair amount of shade. In fact as a young tree, they really need protection from full sun. Later they will fruit better with a little more sun.

For us here, apricots are pretty iffy. They are the earliest to bloom, so their blooms often get caught by a late frost and then no apricots that year. That happens more years than not, it's only the occasional year that we don't get that last frost. But with climate change we may get apricots more often; had a good crop this year. Peaches and apples are good for our climate.

Raspberries do great here, they are starting to take over my yard. The birds get some of the fruit and so spread the seeds around...

[applestar]

Whatever you decide, for cultivated varieties, I recommend you look for disease resistant varieties especially if you're planning to manage them naturally/organically.

In my area, fire blight is rampant and I've lost Asian pears and some apple trees. I have an apple variety called Enterprise that gamely fights off fire blight. Cedar-Apple Rust is prevalent here also and that's another disease I have to watch out for. Look up or ask about WHAT kind of diseases -- just because a fruit tree variety is described as "disease resistant" doesn't mean all of them.

Adams County Nursery in PA has very clear cut disease resistance charts of their fruit tree varieties. Your local State Agricultural Extension may also publish disease resistance charts and locally prevalent fruit tree diseases.

Also, some bareroot fruit trees and brambles can be planted in the fall. I recently received a catalog from Starks Brothers with a notification that fall planting orders will be shipped starting on Nov. 10 for my Zone 6b area.

Although some of them are still too young to produce, so far, I've planted apples, plums, Asian pears (dead ), elderberries, mulberry, European pears, peach, nectarine (plant in colder micro-climate in your garden to slow bud-break), sweet cherries, Am. persimmon (Japanese persimmons with larger fruits are usually only hardy to Zone 7), pawpaws, service berries, shadbush, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries....

At this point, I shouldn't need much more but I'm planning to plant a pie cherry tree and looking for a way to plant some grapes....

[Chaesman]

Well that is a lot of great sugjestions. thanks, I have never had a persimmon before may have to go try some.

Grapes now there is a thought we have a vinyard about 10 miles from us that makes thier own wine maybe I should have a chat with them and see how the manage them through the winter and so forth.

[Lil_Red_Hen]

I have wild persimmon (sp?) trees here. They usually produce heavily but the fruits are small. However, I've done nothing for the trees so they may do better if I fertilized.
We're hoping to plant apple and pear trees this fall so I'll be watching this tread with interest.

[Chaesman]

Just been reading through all the messages I posted since day one.

I am still considering tree varieties but after many hours of reading and studying. I believe it would be more appropriate to start a new thread in
Gardening with Native Plant Species Topic allthough possibly the fruit area as well But some how at this point in time native plant species seems more appropriate.

[!potatoes!]

if that's the case, why not consider native fruiting plants? american persimmon, like mentioned above, has several cultivars that produce decent crops, and some have larger fruits. pawpaws are another native fruit option.

also, with appropriate amendments, you shouldn't have any problems growing blueberries where you are (or consider one of their other native cousins, like aronia, or one of the northeastern native huckleberries [some of which aren't hardy enough for where you are, but some are]) also gooseberries/currants/jostaberries.

or hey, what about nut trees?