Proven Selections for the Southwestern Fruit Gardener

It’s getting late for planting bare root fruit trees mostly because availability of desirable varieties for warm winter areas may be limited. Still, if you haven’t planted the bare root fruit trees you had hoped to—you may still have a chance. Check your local nursery.

To find out what varieties of apples, plums, apricots, nectarines, peaches and cherries will do well in the Southwest, check the link below for Dave Wilson Nursery, supplier of many of the bare root fruit tree stock in SoCal.

Tom’s top 21 picks were selected for their ability to produce quality fruit in Southern California’s coastal and inland valleys, as well as in Arizona and California lower deserts where wintertime chill hours are less than 500 per year.  Consideration was also given to varieties that will successively ripen throughout the summer.  A planting of the following selections would be expected to produce flavorful, quality stone and pome fruits from mid-May through October.

Tom's Picks - Winners for the Low-Chill Southwest

We planted two bare root Spicy Zee NectaPlum trees in January. I sampled one grown by a neighbor last summer and it was luscious and the tree was beautiful I was smitten. The description of the fruit gives the details:

The first NectaPlum® from Zaiger Genetics: a white-fleshed, nectarine-peach-plum hybrid. Skin is dark maroon at fruit set, and turns pale pink when ripe. Fully ripe fruit is unparalleled in flavor, and both nectarine and plum traits are easily detectable. Very productive tree is also quite ornamental. Tremendous purplish pink bloom in the spring, followed by a flourish of red leaves which mature into lush green in late summer. Very low chilling requirement, but high chill adaptable.

Read more about the Spicy Zee NectaPlum and see pictures at SoCal Urban Farmer.

Spicy Zee NectaPlum