what is everyone's top 5 things worth growing?

[ThingsWorthGrowing]

I'm in the process of writing a book about things worth growing.  What are your top 5 varieties worth growing and why?  Does a specific variety taste better home grown so it can be tree ripened?  Does it have specific health benefits, is it just better tasting than normally available varieties?  I'm looking for specific varieties. 

Example: red Pakistan mulberries, very tasty, easy to grow in the right area, easy to pick, expensive and/,or impossible to buy

 Any pictures I could publish would also be greatly appreciated. Business names can be added if you sell seeds or plants. 

If someone sells a large selection of something, say pomegranates, and was willing to work with me, I can do pictures and fruit descriptions for use on a website as long as I could still use them for a book.  I'm happy to pay shipping for the fruit s I can review it first hand for the book and on YouTube.   
 
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration   

[Gkight]

To me it kind of depends what you prefer, but I love the subjectivity of this list. I prefer to have a little bit of everything rather than a ton of anything. Also I tried to plant things to have successive harvests rather than everything all at once.

1 stone fruit which you can multigraft to get nectarine/peach/pluot etc of the variety of your choosing to get early/mid/late harvest on.

2. A guava which you could do the same, however I have a Barbie pink which really produces a ton of fruit

3. Citrus- you could multigraft or just simply choose what you really want, but they are easy and don’t take pest pressure like the aforementioned do. Get a good late fall/ winter harvest
One of my kumquats, as I love growing what I can’t reliably find in stores for citrus

4. loquat, you can’t go wrong with them, for me fruit begins to be ripe in may and into late June






Stone fruit pic out of order sorry

5. This is going to vary so much person to person but any Eugenia could go here or the humble mulberry, blueberry or Feijoa. I like giving recommendations on plants which are easy. The issue is what is easy is going to vary from person to person and zone to zone. However mulberries and blueberries are easy for everyone.

[mcoambassador]

You may want to join various regional FB groups, to get suggestions for each region. Here in inland central Florida, suggestions that often come up are:

1. Pickering Mango
2. Scarlet Beauty Plum
3. Dwarf namwah banana
4. Red hybrid Jaboticaba
5. Lisa Atemoya

But you drive a few hours north or south, the suggestions begin to diverge.

[Julian R]

So far for me in my young food forest...

1. Red Hybrid Jaboticaba

This thing just keeps on producing. Definitely get more than one if you want lots of fruits (at least early on).  My trees are not fussy other than not liking the intense heat and light between June and September, keep 'em shaded.

2. Bananas

I have a couple different varieties. Definitely Namwah.  Orinoco if you like cooking them.

3. Passionfruit

Want tons of fruit fast?  My vine produced within a year and it grew FAST.  I do have to keep it tame, although I let a couple take over the oak canopy in the back of my yard!

4. Figs

My fig is the only tree I don't really have to do anything for other than a prune once a year and the fruits are delicious.

5. Mulberry

Another non-fussy plant. It just produces like crazy.

And an honorable mention would be my Ruby Supreme Guava.  It makes the most fruit and they are quite delicious, the only reason I would not put it on my worth growing list is the fact that just gets constantly infected with worms.  I have to bag fruits to prevent it and that takes a lot of time if I want to get all of them... so I lose most of the crop during the summer.  The Winter crop seems largely unaffected by fruit fly.

[Maria in Brevard]

In my climate mango and lychee are absolutely my 2 favorite. Large and consistent harvest, delicious fruits, not damaged by worms. Mango is #1 out of questions because of it versatility: we eat it fresh, I dried it and made jam - all were delicious. Lychee we eat down to last fruit and share with friends.
After that goes pomelo: we both, my hubby and I, love them and can eat them every day. Also they are ready when I don't have any other fruits in my garden.#4 I think dragon fruit because we eat them and they take so little space compare to trees. #5 guavas because of how easy they are to grow and same as mango I dry them and make jam and it's great. The only problem is worms so I need to protect them.
Non-astringent persimmon is my favorite fruit but it did not make the list because it's hard to make it to fruit in my area. Last year winter was too warm and I did not have any fruits, this year I have some on the tree. If I lived just a 100 mi north non-astringent persimmon would definitely make the list. You'll have different answers depend on where people live.

[DavidBYE]

I second the suggestion above and add grapes for production, multiple uses and low maintenance fruit.
Let's consider calories;
Pigeon peas
Seminole pumpkins
Sweet potatoes
Taro
Dare I say "yams".
P.S. lets not forget the persimmon. 

[roblack]

At risk of being scolded, I went over 5:

mangoes

bananas

papaya

sapodilla

garcinias

passion fruit

kale

moringa

peppers

All grow well here and produce without much work or fuss. Tasty and/or nutritious.

[johnb51]

Every climate zone would have a different list--even a Mediterranean climate (SoCal/CenCal) vs. a more tropical, humid climate (SoFlo).

[gnappi]

Jaboticaba, rollinia, starfruit, mango and guava.

Because I either cannot get satisfactory fruits elsewhere or not at all.

[Gone tropo]

1. Durian
2. Durian
3. Durian
4. Durian
5. Durian

If forced to choose something other than durian

1.Durian
2. Rambutan
3.mangosteen
4. Mango
5. Abiu (outrageously productive year round)

[DavidBYE]

Let us not forget the humble pear. Highly productive and almost no care required after planting it.

[tropical_rag_g-fruitforum]

My goal is to have homegrown fruit every month of year. I am in Zone 10a

1. Avocado
2. Mangoes
3. Mamey
4. Jackfruit
5. San Pablo Custard apple
6. Papaya
7. Jujube
8. Mulberry
9. Star fruit

[bovine421]

Tomatoes cantaloupe and muscadine grapes

[fruit nerd]

1. Durian
2. Durian
3. Durian
4. Durian
5. Durian

If forced to choose something other than durian

1.Durian
2. Rambutan
3.mangosteen
4. Mango
5. Abiu (outrageously productive year round)

Agree with Gone tropo but might swap Mango for Jackfruit. I have a hard time growing mangoes.

[Tropheus76]

In the ridiculously hot, humid and rainy, and sometimes freezing for a day central Florida 9b/10a.
1. Dragonfruit-if you can prevent bacterial disease.(I would be interested to know the copper content of the soil in the pot at this point)
2. Guava
3. Mangos
4. Mulberries
5. Olives

[SHV]

For southern CA, the 5 bullet proof trees you can put in the ground and they produce loads of fruit with minimal effort:
1. Guava
2. Loquat
3. White sapote
4. Citrus
5. Avocado

There are better tasting fruit IMO that require more effort, but the 5 I mentioned above are set it and forget trees with the best ROI.

[Lumi-Ukko]

For southern CA, the 5 bullet proof trees you can put in the ground and they produce loads of fruit with minimal effort:
1. Guava
2. Loquat
3. White sapote
4. Citrus
5. Avocado

There are better tasting fruit IMO that require more effort, but the 5 I mentioned above are set it and forget trees with the best ROI.

A good list, I would definitely agree with loquat, citrus, and avocado.

I'd definitely also argue for Feijoa/Pineapple Guava. When I lived in SoCal, I had a tree that set copious amounts of fruit and I never ever fertilized it, never had any pests (save the squirrels who loved the fruit), and I could let the soil dry out without any damage.  Perfect tree suggestion for anyone without a green thumb.  And depending on location of SoCal, Passiflora Edulis, again grew rapidly and fruit profusely with hardly any input except some help pollinating when there was a marine layer, which could make the pollen a bit sticky.

[Elijah]

My top 5 plants/ tree that I love to grow are;

1. Avocado
2. Blue berry
3. Macadamia
4. jack fruit
5.Hawaiian yam

[Lumi-Ukko]

I have a lot of young trees down here yet to fruit, so this list might look different in a few months or years. But for now, and in my climate in no particular order:

Jackfruit
Mamey
Mango
Mulberry
Papaya

All of these grow really well in our poor basic alkaline soil,.produce tasty fruit, and require little work compared to other more demanding species.

[Rob From Sydney]

I'm in the process of writing a book about things worth growing.  What are your top 5 varieties worth growing and why?  Does a specific variety taste better home grown so it can be tree ripened?  Does it have specific health benefits, is it just better tasting than normally available varieties?  I'm looking for specific varieties. 

Example: red Pakistan mulberries, very tasty, easy to grow in the right area, easy to pick, expensive and/,or impossible to buy

 Any pictures I could publish would also be greatly appreciated. Business names can be added if you sell seeds or plants. 

If someone sells a large selection of something, say pomegranates, and was willing to work with me, I can do pictures and fruit descriptions for use on a website as long as I could still use them for a book.  I'm happy to pay shipping for the fruit s I can review it first hand for the book and on YouTube.   
 
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration

[sc4001992]

My favorite fruits I like to eat.

1. Citrus
2. Loquats
3. Persimmons
4. Mulberry
5. Lychee
6. Guava (I know it's more than 5).
7. Figs (seedling finds)

If you need photos, I have hundreds of photos of my fruit you can use in your book, just give me a photo credit somewhere.

[Rob From Sydney]

A couple more:

Meyer Lemon. Ancient Chinese lemon/orange hybrid. Used like a lemon, some consider it superior. You can't buy it the the shops. Good cold hardiness.

Sanguine (aka Indian Blood or Blackboy) peach. Another ancient Chinese fruit. Not very commercial but it should be. A red fleshed peach. My tree is flowering for the first time, so I have not yet tasted it, however those who have say it is very good. Very much worth growing!

[seng]

For me:
1-taste good.
2-childhood memory.
3-hard to get.
4-don't have.
5-hard to grow.

[Gkight]

For me:
1-taste good.
2-childhood memory.
3-hard to get.
4-don't have.
5-hard to grow.

I would also add 6- unavailable at a grocery store

[Tropheus76]

[/quote]

I would also add 6- unavailable at a grocery store
[/quote]

Conversely, available at the grocery store, but you can show people how much better home grown taste. My dad mentioned this to me about mangos this past weekend. "Your mangos tasted so much better than these little ones we get at Publix."