Picking the Perfect Fruit Trees for North Florida

Choosing fruit trees to grow with your child in your educational garden really isn't that difficult. When choosing them, you'll both learn about concepts like "chill hours" and "hardiness" in order to pick a tree that will produce the best and tastiest fruit in your area.

If you are a SUFS-EO, SUFS-PEP, or SUFS-UA recipient, check out this article about How to Submit Gardening Supplies! 

With the coldest winters of Florida, North Florida residents need to be critical in their fruit tree selection, but you can have fun with it too.

Take a look at this tour of a North Florida gardener's plantings. We'll be taking a look at some cultivars of common fruit trees that you could realistically grow in your home garden. Afterwards, you should be equipped to start planting the successful cultivars in your area.

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The North Florida Growing Region

Florida generally is pretty hot and humid - the further south you go, the more humid and hot it gets. However, winters are the key difference in what fruit trees you can and cannot grow in Florida's different regions

Including growing zones 8b to 9b, North Florida experiences winters with minimum temperatures of 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Importantly, we run into the concept of chill hours. These are the amount of hours that a plant requires around or above freezing in order to actually set fruit. Not enough hours and the fruit won't develop, and too much cold for too long can harm the plant. North Florida receives 500-700 chill hours each year.

Along with chill hours, the first and last frosts of the season could wipe out your newly planted trees if you are caught off guard. The first and last frosts are seen in Nov. and Mar. for North Florida, keeping ~5 months of the year one to watch out when planting new trees.

You see how North Florida drastically differs in chill hours compared to the rest of the state? This is why it is important to keep this in mind when picking fruit trees.

Take a look at this UF/IFAS Leon County Extension Office Orchard Tour - Quite a few different trees you can grow here, right?

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Let's look at some common fruit trees and the cultivars you can grow in North Florida

• Citrus

• Mulberry

• Persimmon

• Peaches

• Blueberry

  
  
  

  

  

  
  
  

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Citrus Types/Cultivars

Citrus plants for northern Florida have to be cold hardy because they don't require a high amount of chill hours and are sensitive to the cold.

• Satsuma

• Kumquat

• Calamondin

• Sugar Belle

  
  

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Mulberry Cultivars

Mulberries are a wonderful tree that are grown both ornamentally and for the fruit. With three main species Morus rubra, Morus nigra, Morus alba, along with a couple others, these plants can grow pretty easily in Northern Florida.

• 'Dwarf Everbearing'

• 'Illinois Everbearing'

• 'Pakistan' Mulberry

• Boysenberry Black Mulberry

• 'Callie's Delight' Contorted Mulberry

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Persimmon Cultivars

Persimmons are a common fruit tree up in North Florida with multiple cultivars to pick from.

• 'Fuyu'

• 'Izu'

• 'Hachiya'

• 'Tanenashi'

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Peach Cultivars

Peach cultivars are pretty diverse in where they can be grown in Florida, and there are a wide range of cultivars for each zone based on chill hours.

• 'Flordabest' 250 chill hours

• 'UFO' 250 chill hours

• 'Gulfking' 350 chill hours

• 'Gulfsnow' 400 chill hours

• 'Gulfcrimson' 400 chill hours

• 'UFGlo' 400 chill hours

• 'GulfAtlas' 400 chill hours

• Gulfcrest' 525 chill hours

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Blueberry Cultivars

Blueberries are a great addition to any Florida garden - for North Florida, cultivars don't need to be "low chill" (requiring a low chill hour amount).

• 'Emerald'

• 'Jewel'

• 'Star'

• 'Springhigh'

• 'Sweetcrisp'

Plum cultivars:

Plum flowers are beautiful!

Choose low chill cultivars recommended by the University of Florida:

• 'Gulfblaze'

• ‘Gulfrose’

• 'Red’

• 'Gulfruby'

• 'Gulf Gold'

Remember to check the chill hours of each variety and compare to the number of chill hours you get in your garden.

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If you want to learn more about fruit trees for your area, take a look at these articles!

• https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/cold-hardy-citrus/#:~:text=While%20North%20Florida%20gardeners%20can,enough%20to%20withstand%20chilly%20winters.

• https://www.growables.org/information/TropicalFruit/MulberryJustFruit.htm#:~:text=Mulberry%20Varieties%20for%20Florida&text=The%20Dwarf%20Everbearing%20mulberry%20is,with%20a%20rich%20sweet%20flavor.

• https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/MG374

• https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/MG242

• https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/sarasota-docs/ag/OrganicVegetableGardening_FruitTrees.pdf

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Thank you for reading!

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns by clicking here!

Have a wonderful day!

-Leah Brooks