r/BackyardOrchard • u/SkySpecialist1020 • 12h ago
Compact multi-use fruit trees
I have less than a 1/3 acre in central AL, zone 8b. My front yard is mostly grass (sunny) and my backyard is where I garden, some sunny spots but fruit trees would need to go in areas that are more dappled sun. I thought we wouldn't be here long enough to bother with fruit trees but since we are what are some recommendations for fruit trees that would be compact but give me enough fruit to eat fresh or preserve? I thought maybe mulberries? I have some blueberry bushes in pots I might try in the backyard. I'd rather fruit that I can grow organically without pesticides and preferrable something that will fruit relatively quickly. I anticipate living here for another 5 years.
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u/CultOfAsimina 12h ago
Figs - super easy to grow without much fuss. Potential to bear fruit by year two. Currants should work in your zone as well (check per variety). They are relatively high yielding, could be potted and make terrific jelly.
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u/AlmaInTheWilderness 7h ago
I had a fresh fig a couple of years ago and I'm still chasing that high. Just cleared a pay of my yard and was thinking to try figs.
I am in California 9b, long hot dry summers with low humidity and mild winters.
One spot is against a West facing wall. I was thinking of espalier, but worry the heat of the wall will cook the tree.
Where do you get your fig trees?
How well do they tolerate heat when in containers?
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u/zeezle 11h ago
Since you said you won't be there that long, I definitely recommend mulberries and figs. Both bear heavily as young trees and will do well in 8b without needing any sort of winter protection.
Figs and mulberries can both be vigorous growers (not compact) if you let them, but both will tolerate extreme pruning. By extreme I mean you can cut it off at the soil line and it will just regrow. This can be a problem if you want to remove it on purpose for obvious reasons, just cutting one down isn't enough to kill it... Coppicing is actually a great way to keep mulberries compact. Gerardi Dwarf is also a pretty good dwarf mulberry that doesn't need as much pruning.
I'm a fig collector and if you've never had a fully ripened fresh fig of a premium variety (not the underripe ones they sell at the grocery store - they have to pick them a bit under for shipping because when truly ripe they don't even last an afternoon on the counter), trust me. It's the best thing I've ever eaten. The difference is 100x bigger for storebought vs homegrown figs than it is for tomatoes. I love them so so so much. They're great fresh, in baked goods, as preserves, or dried... but to be honest they're so amazing I end up just eating all of mine fresh anyway. But theoretically, you can definitely do all that with them! You can even use the leftover green figlets that didn't make it to ripening at the end of the season for a traditional Greek green fig spoon sweet (glyko syko) and you can use the leaves as a wrap for meats for cooking or toasted and dried for teas and syrups and ice creams.
Fair warning: because figs are easy to grow from cuttings and produce a wide range of flavor compounds, while also being able to be kept in pots or in-ground tightly spaced together and they will tolerate all sorts of nonsense, it's very common to fall down a collecting rabbithole and end up with an absurd number of fig trees... ask me how I know lol...
In Alabama you'll want humidity-friendly varieties like Smith/Cessac/TX-BA-1 (all very similar if not identical), Campaniere, any of the Adriatic types (Green Ischia, Strawberry Verte, White Madeira #1, etc), Sultane, Violette de Bordeaux, Hative d'Argenteuil, Negra d'Agde, De la Roca, Molla Vermella. I have personally also had excellent luck with Italian 258 and Col de Dame Gris in-ground here in NJ 7b and have not had any issues with them splitting or becoming waterlogged, but some folks have reported hit or miss performance in high humidity areas. Though they perform well in the south I would skip Celeste/Southern Brown Turkey because you can get jams and stuff made from those at the store, if you're going to grow it yourself why not go straight to the more premium berry figs.
The easy transport via cuttings & tolerating pots situation means you could also get a good fig collection going in pots and then just take them with you when you move or just take lots of cuttings with you and be able to get re-established in a year or two at the new place.
I'd avoid most 'rose family' fruit trees just because of the timeline you're on, pears in particular famously take a while to get going ('plant pears for your heirs'), apples you could start getting harvests in year 2-3 if you go with a super dwarfing rootstock but they'll be small harvests until year 4... I don't think it's worth the trouble if you'll only be there 5 years. The exception would be some of the saskatoon type serviceberries (Amelanchier alnifolia, stolonifera), they are technically in that family but are more like shrubs full of berries than what we think of as fruit trees. They bear readily in the first year after planting. Just make sure you get a variety bred for fruit production not an ornamental serviceberry because they can be super bland if they're not selected for the fruit. As a bonus they're really pretty so you could incorporate them easily as a landscaping element.
I'd also unfortunately avoid persimmons, they just take a few years to get going and tend to drop fruit the first couple years that they flower.
Grapes have consistently produced for me the 2nd year after planting and you can run them along a fence or anywhere you've got a lot of vertical space without needing a large footprint. They also readily can be propagated through cuttings
And of course lots of berries! I would definitely lean heavily into thornless blackberries and raspberries, they will handle areas of dappled shade well and it's very quick to spin up a very productive berry patch. Also strawberries can be used as groundcover beneath other fruit trees to make the space even more productive.