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Selecting, Growing and Pruning Fruits, Nuts, & Berries
Apples, cherries, peaches, pears, plums, berries, figs, grapes, nuts and other edible landscaping for productive harvest in Western Washington.
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Read and or Download Gardening Tips
We’ve included several tip sheets on various topics that are often asked about. Some we have written ourselves and others are courtesy of the extension service. You may print any of these for your own use and/or share with friends. Please be sure to include the source and credit for the author and respect any applicable copyrights.
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Edible Landscaping How To’s
Fruit Trees For Western Washington (EB0937)
Tips on selecting and caring for your fruit trees, from WSU Extension Service. Information based on field trials at the Mt. Vernon research site. Apples, pears, peaches, plums and prunes, cherries, nectarines, apricots and other fruits are covered.
- “Basic guide for home orchards in western Washington, provides a list of tree and vine fruit varieties as well as commonly used rootstocks for successful planting. Cultural factors such as site selection, soils, pollination, pest identification and harvest are included, with reference to publications that cover topics in more detail. Also provides bloom charts for apples, pears, plums, and cherries, and a month by month calendar of what to look for in the orchard.” (From WSU extension Publications)
Growing Small Fruits for The Home Garden
Choosing, growing and enjoying fruits from your garden.
Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries and more.
Growing Kiwi Fruits
Yes, they will grow and fruit in Western Washington. Selecting your varieties, trellising, training, watering harvesting and caring for your kiwis. From WSU extension service.
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This publication is available to download in pdf form from WSU- extension. Click the link for details:
pubs.wsu.edu/Fruit Handbook for Western WA EB0937
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EB 1640 Small Fruits |
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Kiwis in the Pacific NW PNW 507 |
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Growing Tree Fruits and Nuts in the Home Orchard – OSU ext. EC 819
Listing of various cultivars and their suitability in different regions of Oregon along with general instructions on planning, caring for, harvesting and storing fruit and nuts. Note: their region I is closest to our climate but we are cooler and have a shorter growing season than OR region I.
WWFRF – recommended tree fruit varieties
The Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation (WWFRF) was created in 1991 to help fund Tree Fruit Varietal Research conducted at the Washington State University Research and Extension Center (NWREC) located in Mount Vernon, WA. This research program consists of the selection and cultivation of standard tree fruit generally found in temperate zone orchards: apples, pears, Asian pears, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots. Research also covers some fruiting shrubs as currants, gooseberries, aronia, sea buckthorn or seaberry, kiwis, figs, quinces, persimmons, pawpaws, and berries that have potential as alternative fruit crops. read more at :
http://www.wwfrf.org/
Western Cascade Fruit Society
Excellent source of information for growing fruit and listings of local groups that meet on a regular basis to exchange information about growing fruit in Western WA. Link to learn more:
http://wcfs.org/
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EC 819 – Tree Fruit and Nut growing – Oregon |
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WWFRF – 2010 tree fruit recommendations |
| Organic Pest and Disease Management in Home Fruit Trees and Berry Bushes EM066E
This publication provides gardeners in the Pacific Northwest with an organic approach to keep their home grown tree fruit and berries pest free. This approach begins with proper plant selection and placement within the home landscape. It will rely on frequent monitoring of plant health and proper identification of any emerging pest problems. Finally, integrated pest management based on a combination of cultural, physical, biological and organically-approved chemical strategies will be used to manage fruit pests. 29 Pages Publication Date: 2013-12-01
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Click on this link to download in PDF EM066E -Org. Mgmt. Fruit & Berries
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Pollination Basics
• Apples, some sweet cherries, filberts, pears, many plums and blueberries require pollination by a different variety (cross pollination) to set fruit.
• Jonagold, King, Gravenstein and Mutsu apples are poor pollinators so plan to have at least two apple varieties other than those. Or plant a crabapple for pollination.
• On combination fruit trees, the multiple varieties generally ensure pollination.
• Pie cherries are self-fruitful, no pollinator needed.
• Some sweet cherries are partially self-fruitful, but they produce better crops if cross pollinated.
• For Blueberries, plant one from each ripening period (early, mid and late) to extend the season of berry harvest. Blueberries also have great fall color.
• Some plums are partially self-fruitful (Brooks, Hollywood and Stanley, for example) but they produce better crops if cross pollinated.
• Japanese plums and European plums do not pollinate each other; you will need two different varieties of each kind.
• Asian pears bloom earlier than European pears, although there is some cross-pollination between late blooming Asian pears and early European pears. It is best to have at least two varieties of Asian pears or two European pears for pollination.
• Pie cherries, figs, peaches, grapes, black berries, raspberries, and strawberries are all self-fruitful, plant enough to enjoy fresh and frozen of any variety.
The pollination charts to the right show many varieties of Apples, cherries, pears and plums and what other varieties are pollinators. These charts are courtesy of our friends at Biringer Nursery in Mt. Vernon – a wholesale grower of fruits, nuts, shade and flowering trees. We thank them for making this information available.
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Apple Pollination charts |
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Plums & Pears Pollination charts
Cherries Pollination chart |
| Backyard Filbert Production – OSU
Basic concepts for growing filberts – hazelnuts – soil, fertilizing, pruning, harvesting and drying. Publication is from 1981 and there are lots of newer cultivars to consider.
Hazelnut Production from Australia
Much more detail about how to grow ’em and keep ’em happy. And the best chart we could find on pollination. Although some varieties aren’t listed on the chart, its fairly complete. G’day Mate and enjoy home grown nuts.
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Filbert, hazelnut production in your back yard – EB0967 |
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Hazelnut Production and pollination |
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Strawberry Cultivars for Oregon – EC 1618 – OSU ext.
Confused? What are Junebearing, everbearing and Day neutral and what does that mean to you? Experts’ evaluations of strawberry varieties and their usefulness for home and commercial production.
Alternative Fruit Crops for Western WA – EB 2002
Evaluations of some newer varieties and recommendations on fruit varieties for Western WA including Pears, asian pears. hardy kiwis, late sweet cherries, wine grapes, hard cider, peaches, plums, dessert apples, currants, sea buckthorn (seaberry), and aronia. Published 2006.
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Strawberry Cultivars EC 1618 |
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Alternative Fruit for Western WA |
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Growing Grapes for Wine and Table – WSU ext
Table and wine grape cultivar descriptions, basics of grape growing,
Growing Wine Grapes in Maritime Western WA – WSU ext
Preparing the site, cultivar evaluations, good description and pictures of training and trellising, pests and diseases, harvesting and useful calendar for planning your grape orchard.
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Growing grapes for wine and table EB 0775 |
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Wine Grapes for Western WA EB 2001 |
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Other Extension Resources
Listed above are the ones we use most. WSU has a wealth of information on gardening in Western WA. Particularly useful are the following links that we use when we need to search a little deeper.
WSU Gardening in Western WA
Handy topic search bar on the left and a little search box just above the picture.
Hint don’t use the search box at the very top it searches all of WSU.
Hortsense
A compilation of fact sheets for managing common landscape and garden plant problems.
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