Fruit Trees for North Dakota; need your input!

BringingTheRain Said:

Are there cheeseburger trees?

That would be nice but I have not seen them in the Gurneys catalog or on the USDA list. Gonna look hard for that one though.

plums. i know several people that have plum trees. they seem to do well year after year, that and apple trees are about all that i know of that do realy well up here.

 On our plan in that we had in Carson, we had Apple and Cherry trees. On our farm in Jamestown we have plum and chokecherry trees. I have seen aprocot trees here. We also have white and concord grapes on our place in Carson. Starwberries, raspberry and Rhuebarb do extremely well. Asperigas or how about a peanut tree? 

igot apples and a apricot  but due do the last freeze in springlast year i never got any      plums do well apple choke cherry rasberries  blueberrys  ruhbarb  asparagus

Didnt know asparagus was a tree

If it is it might be my favorite tree

 chokecherrys. make great jelly!

If you like Juneberries (blueberries) plan Saskatoon, they are a little bigger than a wild juneberry and are very heavy producers of fruit.  I believe that you can get them via USDA.

Here is a link to Saskatoon berry trees. http://www.prairieplant.com/saskatoon-berries.html

There are several kinds of peaches that will grow here.  I had some in my backyard in Fargo and I got a few years out of them until the lack of topsoil (clay) rotted the roots and they died.  I had the same issue with apricots, so if you have good drainage both will work.  Check out Stark Brothers nurseries online, they have all the varieties and great service.

My apricots have been tough to get started, but we have had good luck with honeycrisp and State Fair apple trees.  Also have numerous cherry trees, meteor, northstar, montmorency, sand and nanking.  Last two are bush cherries.

Juneberries are awfully slow growing, at least mine are.  They are the conservation stock from SCD.  Might help if I hadn't hit them with 2-4D at least once.

Raspberries have done very well.  Blackberries, not so well.  Gooseberries turn into a thorny weed of a bush, so I moved them out onto the back end of the yard.

We have some new pear trees that are still a few years away from producing but I have seen some nice pear trees out in the Oakes area.



Key thing for many of the trees is soil type, they don't like wet feet.  So when I plant a new fruit tree now I dig at least a 5 ft diamter hole by at least three feet deep.  Then I replace that soil with my own mixture of peat, sand, compost, and about 20% of the original dirt.  The trees I have done that to really outshine the others planted in my more clayey soils.

Planted grapes along the chain link fence along the shelterbelt but make sure they have some protection from harsh winter weather. The shelter belt works good.
Have a good 22 because the birds really like them. old ladies nylons work good for protection.
Peaches didn't do good last year

I love fruit and plant lots of types. Currants and gooseberries do well. Apple trees that I have are honeycrisp, honeygold, zestar, sweet 16, state fair, wolf river, prairie spy, yellow transparent, cortland, and whitney crabapple. Favorites so far are honeycrisp and sweet sixteen; but several others aren't producing yet. Blueberries do well with right PH and soil preparation. Raspberries do well. Honeyberries also do well.  Hardy grapes are good(zone 3-4). Have a mullberry tree and primocane blackberries will work in this area. Peaches need a little love in the winter when it gets below -10. Pears will grow fine after they are established. Some of the larger plums such as Superior or Waneta are delicious. Pie cherry trees will grow well. Cherries such as Bali or Carmine Jewel can be eaten off the tree when fully ripe, if you can keep the birds away. Other trees I have are saskatoon juneberry, seaberry, sandcherry, nanking cherry, chokecherry, and apricots.