Subtropical Fruit Tree, Low Chill Deciduous Fruit Tree
List &
Selection Chart
Includes over a hundred recommended cultivars of subtropical and low chill deciduous fruit trees, with information on how to choose the most beneficial trees for multifunction, multi-benefit landscapes; drought, frost and shade tolerance, which varieties give the best fruit, bearing seasons, etc. Geared towards the home orchardist between 25 and 40 degrees from the equator. NOTE, this is a BETA VERSION , about 60% complete and 85% accurate. This is still the most complete and accurate information we've found on fruit trees in one list. 
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| One day's harvest from a 1/4 acre edible landscape in Southern California which was planned using this chart. It provides 4-8 kinds of fruit every day of the year. |
Includes
- Recommended procedure for selecting fruit trees for multi-function, multi-benefit landscapes that provide fruit, shade, privacy, conditioned outdoor living space, microclimate modification
- Over fifty recommended cultivars of low chill deciduous fruit trees
- Over fifty recommended cultivars of subtropical fruit trees
- Recommended fruit tree spacing and mature height
- Drought-tolerant fruit trees
- Frost-tolerant fruit trees
- Shade-tolerant fruit trees
- Which varieties give the best fruit
- Pollination requirements for fruit trees
- Ease of cultivation
- Chill hours required for low chill varieties
- Bearing season for different varieties of the same fruit, so you can extend the harvest season
- Comments on canning, baking, grafting, rootstocks, etc.
- Fruit trees which make a good hedge
If you are interested in gardening, orchards, agroforestry, permaculture design, or edible landscaping, you'll find this list and the accompanying instructions highly useful. It is geared towards the home orchardist with a diversity of fruit trees. The subtropical and low chill deciduous trees on this list will thrive between 25 and 40 degrees from the equator (closer to the equator if you are at high elevation).
Some of the areas where most of the listed trees could thrive include: Southern and Central California, Florida, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, North Africa, Israel and the Middle East, Southern Japan, Nepal...
In other areas, a declining percentage of the trees will grow, but the list will still be useful to some extent; it can also serve as a template for entering information on other trees that thrive in your area.
Author: Art Ludwig, published by Oasis Design, February 2002. 14 x8.5, 4 page chart. $4.95 for excel spreadsheet and PDF file (300k total. Use instructions below). NOTE, this is a discounted working draft, about 60% complete and 85% accurate. This is still probably the most complete and accurate information you can find on these trees in one list and will be a great aid to your planning.
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Excerpts
View a sample portion of the fruit tree list (24k)
Instructions
First, get clear on your goals. For example, our goals for our landscape are:
- Privacy screen from closely surrounding neighbors
- A steady stream of fruit that we actually eat, that is, fruit we actually like, in quantities that are neither too much nor too little (my measure for success of an edible landscape is food in our bellies, not food for blue jays or the compost pile)
- Minimal fire hazard—for plants right near the house. You can check by burning the green leaves and twigs (if you live in a high fire danger area)
- Good microclimates for outdoor living spaces, house and solar—shady cool outdoor living space, sunny warm wind sheltered outdoor living space); shade windows that need shading, allow sun to hit windows that need sun, avoid shading solar electric or thermal panels, the latter especially in winter
- Pleasing aesthetic—for you
- Acceptable maintenance—for us this means plants that are able to withstand months-long periods without attention when our attention is elsewhere
- Acceptable water use—for us we have a budget of 300 gallons a day of water in the summer for the house and all fruit trees, total. My philosophy is that I will only irrigate plants that I like to eat, or that provide such seductive beauty or smell that they shut my rational mind down.
- Goals we don't have but other people might— demonstrate everything that can grow here, grow food which is valuable for sale or trade.
Here is an example of how to realize these goals in a landscape:
- Start with a list of every possible fruit that could live in your area— probably a subset of this list
- Take this list and cross off any fruit which doesn't meet your goals—for example, fruits you won't eat (some fruits are great in theory but end up on the ground in reality); I measure edible landscape success in terms of "fruit which ends up in the belly").
- Cross off anything that won't thrive at your site—because it is too cold, not cold enough, too shady, etc.
- Cross off anything that you can't actually obtain in your area—Many a perfect edible landscape
plan is thrown into disarray by the unavailability of key trees
when it comes time to plant. Deciduous trees can be acquired mail order in the
US, which greatly extends the range of possibilities. Often, finding the ideal
subtropical entails some serious hunting.
At this point you have a list of fruits you love to eat, that thrive in your area, and that you can obtain; the intersection of the sets above. Now the interesting part—
- Take a site plan for your landscape and mark every possible place a fruit tree could go, along with the specifications it should have for that spot—For example, there might be a front hedge which should be six feet high and evergreen for privacy, but not taller because there is a view above it, except the last twenty feet should be 15 feet high to block the view from the neighbor's bedroom window. Next to the house on the south side is a place for 30 foot plus tall deciduous trees. Behind it, space for a large evergreen, and so on. Note: 1/8"/ foot or 1:100 is a good scale for this plan.
- Match up the fruit trees on your want list with the slots on your site plan—Take your list from step 4, fruits you love to eat, that thrive in your area, and that you can obtain, and draw them to scale on post-it notes. If you figure you can eat the fruit from four hass avocado trees, make four hass avocado post-it's. If the tree gets huge, like a hass avocado, you can draw in the 5 year and 20 year sizes. If there are trees which obviously won't fit anywhere, you can cross them off the "want" list. This last step is where the real design work happens; the location of each tree is a function of so many factors; all the ones mentioned above, plus proximity to the house (delicious fruit like peaches are more likely to be harvested by humans before animals if in zone 1, right next to the house), greywater compatibility and irrigation level (I like to make the irrigated fruit oasis right near the house for indoor/outdoor living convenience and to up the % of fruit harvested by humans), leaf drop/ messiness, etc. etc. Easier to sort as much of this out as possible on paper, rather than ripping things out and replanting them elsewhere. (But if it comes to that, I suggest you do it.) The value of optimally selected fruit trees optimally situated is much more than random fruit trees in non-ideal spots. If you are unafraid to remove, plant, and transplant as necessary you can attain and maintain a much higher optimum.
Note on removing big trees: removing a big tree is a heavy decision that's often desirable. How to not blow it?
First, a cooling off period. I wait one month per inch of trunk diameter to remove big trees. If I change my mind at any point during that time, the clock resets. For example, we had a cottonwood on the side of our house that was questionable. It was 18" diameter, so--it had a year and half stay of execution. I wanted to cut it down every day except for a few days in summer. Each time one of those days came around the clock reset, and the tree ended up being spared for about 10 years. Finally, after a shade structure went up nearby and other trees had grown up, we took it down and never regretted it.
Second, when you do take the tree out, consider doing it in stages, and see what changes with each stage. If you suddenly realize it's a terrible idea; sun blasting the kitchen, whole wall of apartment buildings looking right into your bathroom--you can stop and the tree will grow back a lot quicker than if you had cut it to the ground.
Trees included in this list
Almond, "All-in-one"; Apple, General; Apple, Anna; Apple, Beverly Hills ; Apple, Crab; Apple, Dorsett Golden; Apple, Einsheimer; Apple, Fuji; Apple, Granny Smith; Apple, Mutsu; Apple, Pettingil; Apple, Pink lady; Apple, Valamore; Apple, White Pearmain; Apple, Winter Banana; Apricot, General; Apricot, Early Golden; Apricot, Flora Gold; Apricot, Gold Kist; Apricot, Katy; Apricot, royal (Blenheim); Asian Pear, General; Asian Pear, 2oth century; Asian Pear, Shinko; Asian Pear, Shinseiki; Avocado, General; Avocado, Bacon ; Avocado, Fuerte ; Avocado, Gwen; Avocado, Hass ; Avocado, Littlecado; Avocado, Nabal; Avocado, Reed; Avocado, Pinkerton; Avocado, Whitsell; Banana, General ; Banana, Brazilian (hawaiin apple); Banana, Ice Cream ; Banana, Manzano; Berry-Bababerry raspberry; Berry-Blackberry "Ollaieberry"; Berry-Blue, General; Berry-Blue, Alice; Berry-Blue, B Blue; Berry-Blue, sharp; Berry-Bosenberry; Berry-Boysenberry, Thornless ; Cactus, Peruvian Apple/Pitya; Cactus, prickly pear; Cashew; Cherimoya; "Cherry"; Cherry, Capulin 5; Cherry, Surinam, "Lolita"; Cherry, Surinam, "vermillion"; Chestnut, Eurobella 5; Chestnut, European 5; Fig, General; Fig, Black Mission ; Fig, Celestial; Fig, Conadria; Fig, Improved Brown Turkey; Fig, Janice-Seedless Kadota; Fig, Kadota; Fig, Osborne Prolific; Fig, White Genoa; Grape, General; Grape, concord, "niagra"; Grape, flame seedless; Grape, golden muscat; Grape, Pierce; Grape, Ruby seedless; Grapefruit, "oro blanco"; Guava, General; Guava, Lemon; Guava, Pineapple, "Nazmetz"; Guava, Pineapple, Cooledge; Guava, Pineapple, Edenvale Supreme; Guava, Pineapple, seedlings; Guava, Strawberry; Guava, Tropical, "Red Indian"; Guava, Tropical, "Ruby Supreme"; Guava, Tropical, "White Turnbull"; Guava, Tropical, Mexican; Jujube, "Jen"; Jujube, "Len"; Jujube, "li"; Kei Apple, "Arcadian"; Kiwi, General; Kiwi, Mar Vista; Kiwi, Tewi; Kiwi, Vincint; Kumquat, "Meiwa"; Kumquat, "Nagami?"; Lemon; Lemon, Meyer; Lime, Mexican; Loquat, General; Loquat,Advance; Loquat, Barrymore; Loquat, Big Jim; Loquat, Champagne; Loquat, Golden Nugget; Loquat, Victor; Loquat, Zoo Seedling; Macadamia, General; Academia, "Beaumont?"; Academia, "Cate"; Mulberry, Black; Natal Plum; Nectarine, General; Nectarine, Desert Dawn; Nectarine, Desert Delight; Nectarine, goldmine; Nectarine, panamint; Nectarine, Silver Lode; Oak, coast live; Orange-Blood, "Sanguinella dwarf"; Orange-Blood, Moro; Orange-Navel ; Orange-Valencia; Passion Fruit, purple; Peach Red Ceylon; Peach, General; Peach, "Florida Prince"; Peach, Babcock; Peach, Bonanza; Peach, Bonita; Peach, Mid Pride; Peach, seedling; Peach, Redwing; Peach, robin; Peach, Sims; Peach, springtime; Peach, Tejon; Peach, Ventura (Santa Barbara); Pear, Monterey 5; Pear, Zoo; Pecan; Persimmon; Plum, General; Plum, Elephant Heart; Plum, Santa Rosa 5; Plum, Satsuma; Pomegranate; Sapote; Strawberry Tree; Tangelo, "Miiveola"; Tangerine, "Encore"; Tangerine, Dancy; Walnut-Black.