Most Dependable Fruit Varieties for North Central and Northeast Texas
Pears and other fruit trees are planted now.
These are the varieties Dr. George Ray McEachern, fruit and pecan specialist with Texas A&M recommended to us for DFW and the surrounding 100 miles this past Sunday on my radio program. He listed them in his order of ranking:
Choose best peach variety for your area.
1. Orient pear
2. Methley plum
3. Kiowa blackberry (has thorns, but is the most productive variety) or Ouachita thornless
4. Eureka persimmon
5. Champanel (red) or Blanc duBois (white) grapes
6. Celeste or Alma figs
7. Caddo or Pawnee pecans
8. Peaches: June Gold (South Central Texas); Harvester (Waco) and Red Globe (DFW area north to Red River)
9. (East Texas) Black Beauty muscadines
10. (East Texas) Tifblue blueberry
He also mentioned Owari satsumas, and for strawberries, either Chandler or Camerosa grown in strawberry tunnels. If you’d like a pomegranate, he suggested the variety Sumbar.
Your local independent retail garden center may have many of these varieties in stock, or you can order by mail from growers such as Womack Nursery in DeLeon TX (www.womacknursery.com). The big national chain stores don’t usually handle locally recommended varieties.
You can hear all of Neil’s two hours with Dr. McEachern from podcasts.