Temperate Fruit & Orchards > Temperate Fruit Discussion

I need some good suggestions for things to grow in zone 7

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Galatians522:

--- Quote from: tru on November 21, 2022, 07:17:00 PM ---
--- Quote from: Galatians522 on November 17, 2022, 09:55:42 PM ---What about Chinese Jujube? She would likely have been familiar with the Thai kind. Most people consider the Chinese type better.

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It's funny that you say this, she was talking about how she got a bunch of jujube seeds and that's what prompted me to make this thread!

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Great! The Thai/Indian one won't be hardy in zone 7, but the Chinese kind should be. One down side is that the Chinese kind puts out root suckers from what I hear. It might be worth getting a grafted tree, though. I believe that Lousiana State University had a breeding program for Chinese Jujube at one point and might have some information on varieties.

Galatians522:
Plums are big in Taiwan, too. Aren't they? I think there are several nice releases from USDA in Byron and also from Auburn University that would do well in your location. I have been very interested in the AU Cherry plum, but it requires more chill than we get here. Along the same lines as plum, Ume would probably be hardy in your zone. For spices, maybe she could grow ginger, galangal, and tumeric. They would just need to be dug after the first frost and stored in the garage for planting again in spring.

bussone:

--- Quote from: vnomonee on November 21, 2022, 08:50:30 PM ---not to hijack this thread but which ground cherries are good in zone 7a, are they perennial? i've grown a large annual one that when ripe were OK one year, pineapple flavor, but then got infested with potato beatle or some similar bug the next year. do the zone 7 ground cherries come back from the root system in the spring?

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They are Solanaceae, so I just assumed they were a freely-reseeding annual. It's unclear to me which species I had (it came w/ the house), and it may have been Alkekengi officinarum (formerly Physalis alkekengi) or Calliphysalis carpenteri (formerly Physalis carpenteri) -- those are apparently perennial.

You can always treat them like a tomatillo and just reseed/replant annually.

I found mine to be pretty, but not very tasty, and kind of an invasive weed. They uproot pretty easily from moist soil, though, so extirpating them isn't overly difficult.

bussone:

--- Quote from: Galatians522 on November 21, 2022, 09:45:30 PM ---Plums are big in Taiwan, too. Aren't they? I think there are several nice releases from USDA in Byron and also from Auburn University that would do well in your location. I have been very interested in the AU Cherry plum, but it requires more chill than we get here. Along the same lines as plum, Ume would probably be hardy in your zone. For spices, maybe she could grow ginger, galangal, and tumeric. They would just need to be dug after the first frost and stored in the garage for planting again in spring.

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There's a lot that will grow annually -- mung beans, soybeans, cilantro/coriander, basil (may or may not become perennial; depends on species and location), pretty much any pepper.

Millet, peanuts, strawberries, rosemary, pretty much any allium, and mint are perennial (mint obnoxiously so; don't put it in-ground). You *can* grow tea plants (camellia sinesis), although the harvest will be disappointing. (If you want a challenge, try the related Franklinia tree -- it's an endangered cousin and zone 7 hardy, but it's fussy)

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