Hi. Moving into old farmstead to restore it. On site of 100+yo Gravensten orchard (2 beautiful ancient trees remain though not sure how much longer), I would like to establish a mixed fruit orchard of 10-12 trees. Have grafted the Gravensteins to preserve them. Will add some Baldwin apples. Other than apples, what types/cultivars of fruits do you have success with and recommend? Salem area and orchard site is on a slope....
Salem, Oregon? If so, very good. When it comes to apples and pears, you are in one of the planet's most perfect environments. Most of the choicest trees, grow well hereabouts. Other fruits are problematic.
Gravenstein is one of the best apples..... For fresh eating and sauce. Very early. Too soft for pies, and it isn't a keeper, but it is nice to have your own tree. As buying a well ripened Gravenstein at market, is quite improbable in this area. Too quick to lose mojo.
Spitzenberg, one of the finest apples, grows well here. Difficult to grow in other areas... Easy peasy, in this neck of the woods. Late to ripen..... Excellent keeper. Fresh eating, Pies, Hard Cider.
Ashmead's Kernel. A harder apple. Excellent. Highly flavored. Very best pies. Purported to make excellent cider. Good keeper.
Golden Delicious. One of the best, if picked ripe from your own tree. Good keeper. A little soft for pies, but great for fresh eating and stewed apples. Also a great pollinator. Important because other trees on the list, are not especially good pollinators.
OK. You have 4 of the world's finest apples. Plant a few figs. I gotta go now, library is closing!
Desert King and Brown Turkey Figs, they’re reliable. D.K. can get large; my B.T. was more compact. I had several of each.
I grew both Fuzzy and Hardy Kiwi. Fuzzy require a massive support structure, Hardy can get away with the opposite. A male fuzzy can pollinate both fuzzy & hardy kiwi.
Japanese Plums - take your pick, though pollination is a must. Other than semi-serious yearly pruning, they’re carefree and highly productive. They graft easy, too.
Peaches and cherry trees were a waste of time for me; located in the eastern foothills of the Coast Range, NW of McMinnville. Peaches couldn’t handle the rain, and cherries were too finicky with pollination and also had many moisture related weaknesses.
Pears were bullet-proof! Though developing a brown core-rot in (oxygenated) cold storage, they worked well fresh. Everyone should have a Bartlett. Comice & D'anjou's were consistent & sweet. Bosc became my favorite; a mid-season, good flavor, crisp and decent keeper. Do train and spread pear tree limbs well, they shoot for the moon!
I had Gravensteins, though needed to graft two additional varieties to pollinate them: Yellow Transparent & Summer Red, early blooming!
In my 33 years I likely got the most from my Golden Delicious (thin them well), Winesap (whatever the common ‘newer variety’ is), and Granny Smith (magnificent keeper) Apples. You may graft on other varieties -- but - I’d not use wood from a source I didn’t see and trust! My orchard became totally infected with Anthracnose & Ariel Crown Gaul from infected scions … most from the society’s exchange.
Himrod or Interlaken (sister) seedless grapes worked well, their green color kept the birds off them a bit longer … though raccoons sniffed them out. Many seeded grapes are highly productive, both need a support structure and serious yearly pruning.
Asian Persimmons! I went with non-astringent, Fuyu ‘type.’ You may have the heat to ripen the larger astringent varieties like Hachiya. The trees are compact, resistant to insect damage, but delicate or brittle. A raccoon in the night can mess them up. But they’re consistent and productive. Even seedless!
Off the top of my head, with 35 years experience inheriting my Great-grandfather's homestead, if now four years removed - those are what worked for me.
But beyond those recommendations: my first is Deer Fencing. Second, monitor and guard as best you can against ‘meadow voles.’ The first eats the tops and wrecks the trunks; the second eats roots and bark of young trees.
Yup! Desert King is a really great fig. Vigorous! Productive! Early to bear! Big crop in Mid-August. A big tree, and hard to kill. In Central California, it reliably produces TWO big crops. Here, usually just one. Though during an occasional favorable year, it produces a second crop here also.
Brown Turkey? "Vern's" Brown Turkey might be best. An earlier type; sure to ripen in our less than tropical climate.
The Latterulla, AKA Italian Honey Fig.... Does well here. Quite different from Desert King. Mine bears in an odd cycle. Sometimes it bears about the time Desert King does. Other years, it is everbearing. And, in some years, it produces a big crop, in late Sept-Early October, ripening on the tree, in wet cool weather. A most welcome time, for a juicy temperate zone fruit.
Of Pears, I have grown plenty. All Asian. We grow great European type pears here, commercially. Which is why I grow the other kind. I can buy the world's greatest European pears, at my local markets. Well ripened. Inexpensive too. Bosc, Comice, Bartlett, StarkCrimson.... All delicious!
But, since we are growing our own, We are in a unique position, allowing us to grow the exotic and unattainable. Asains... Sheinseiki and Yakumo, are similar. Sweet, aromatic, crisp, juicy, and melon-like. They keep well, and hang a long time on the tree. Yummm. More exotic is Chojoro. Very, very aromatic. A little like eating perfume....In a good way. Asians pears are sometimes available at market, but they are usually not "Right".
Grown at home, and picked at their peak. The right Asian, is the Right pear! Melons from a tree.
I prefer American persimmons. Garretson is my fave, but many others are good.
Yes on Asian plums. Many varieties, early late, and often.
Gravenstein is a great apple. Also consider Gold Rush, Topaz, Akane, Liberty.
Pie cherries do really well here. Sweet cherries are great for feeding birds.
Asian pears produce like gang busters.
Quince is super productive but you need to have a disease prevention plan.
Autumn olive. Pawpaws. Mulberries.
Yes on Euro pears. Many and often.
Himalayan honeysuckle.
Thornless blackberries.
Blueberries.
I dare you to land race leafy vegetables: leeks, curly mallow, scorzonera, wild, foraged vegies.
John S
PDX OR
Thanks everyone .... GREAT suggestions and I will have a wonderful time looking into them all!
Haha... keep the meadow voles in check, eh?! ????I suppose that is a different thread altogether. Suffice it to say the soil is ‘well aerated’. Voles, moles and field mice everywhere! My pups spend more time with their heads down holes they’ve dug out than upright in the fresh air I think. And the terrier does her part towards control... but can’t keep up with copious supply...
This is goung to be a fun project!
Great minds think alike..
I agree with John on American persimmons. They are less firm and perhaps not as good to eat fresh (and not for freeze drying). The flavor of American persimmons, and Garretsons in particular, is amazing. I tried them at the OGW before they moved to PDX. American persimmons are sweeter then the Asian persimmons. Smaller too. Great for Ice Cream or other desserts. I did like them fresh too, but they are soft. There are some newer hybrids like Prairie Sun, but I don't know what the fruit taste like.
I have a Stella fig which has cool leaves, but I found out I really do not like the taste of figs, and surprisingly, they are pure sugar (Not good for my pre-diabetes). I think Kiwis are pretty awesome too. I have the smaller ones but after trying some I am tempted to replants with the larger ones. The leaves on the larger ones are fuzzy and large. Almost tropical looking.
I’d grown an American Persimmon, along with four Asians. And though the Asians are brittle, one summer day I actually watched some unusual wind gusts break off one - then another main scaffold limbs from my 3 year in American Persimmon.
In a wind sheltered valley, I was sick. Removed the tree, and could not recommend them afterward. It was a known, grafted cultivar; and an expensive and painful lesson 
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
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