Organic Gardening Guide: Fruit Trees for North Texas
- Marshall Grain Co.
- Apr 7
- 10 min read
Introduction
Many types of fruit trees grow well in our local climate, but others do not. In this video you will discover some of the best choices for North Texas gardens. This video and accompanying article will help you select and grow the best fruit trees for our part of North Texas: Grapevine, Colleyville, Southlake and the surrounding areas. You'll learn our recommended organic methods for how to care for fruit trees to keep them healthy and maximize their production.
Choosing Your Fruit Tree
The four key factors in choosing a fruit tree are:
Grow fruit you like to eat
Give it plenty of room to grow
Plant it in a full sun location
Ensure that it gets the proper number of chilling hours
The first and most important advice about choosing a fruit tree is to pick something you like to eat. There's little point in having a tree produce fruit that no one will eat. If you prefer an ornamental tree, there are many other options that won't leave you with messy fruit to dispose of.
The next thing to consider is the mature size of the tree. As the tree grows, the root zone will expand to match the canopy of the tree, so be sure to allow enough space for that at the time you plant it. Any other plants within the root zone of the tree will steal water and nutrients away from your tree, which can harm it.
Thirdly, all fruit trees need to be planted in a full-sun location where they can receive a minimum of six full hours of direct sunlight throughout the year. Avoid planting under a covered patio or over-hanging roof and away from other trees.
Finally, you need to consider the number of chilling hours your tree will need.
Fruit trees need to experience a minimum number of chilling hours to break dormancy and prepare for proper growth and fruit production in the spring. Chilling hours for fruit trees occur when temperatures are between 32°F and 45°F. Without sufficient chilling hours, trees may struggle to bloom on time, produce poor quality fruit, or fail to set fruit altogether.
For example, some apple trees need only 300 chilling hours while others need 1,000 or more.
Here in North Texas we typically received about 800 to 900 chilling hours per year, therefore, you should pick a variety that will produce well at or below that number.
Best Fruit Trees Varieties for North Texas
For some great choices, see our list of Best Fruit Trees for North Texas.
Sorry, Citrus Lovers
Among the types of fruit trees that don't grow well in North Texas are citrus. Citrus trees are unable to tolerate our winter temperatures and so can't be grown in the ground. Instead, they need to be grown in a container that can be moved indoors for the season. This article focuses on those that can be grown in the landscape.
Pollination
Most fruit trees are self-pollinating, which means it’s not necessary to have a companion tree, although you will get better fruit production if you have other fruit trees in the area. They don't have to be in your yard. If your neighbor has a fruit tree, you’ll both benefit from each other’s trees.
Once you've chosen your tree, it's time to plant them.
When to Plant
The best time to plant your fruit tree is . . .anytime! In North Texas, trees can be planted any time of the year. However, the best time is while the tree is dormant because it will be a little easier for the tree to get established. The most difficult time would be in July-August when it is extremely hot. Once your tree is planted, it takes about three to six months for it to become fully established.
Although your tree’s roots will be established in a few months, you shouldn’t expect to harvest edible fruit for a few years. Young trees may produce a few small fruits, but they will be hard and not very juicy and it's much better for the tree if you remove the fruits and let the tree continue to mature for a few years.
Planting Your Tree
Unlike some plants that are more forgiving, trees in general, are particular about how you plant them. So let’s dig in to that.
Start by digging a hole that's a little bit bigger than the pot the tree comes in. If you’ve chosen a tree suitable for North Texas, it should already be adapted to our climate and our soil and, therefore, you shouldn’t need to amend your soil. In any event, the roots are going to grow beyond whatever portion you may have composted anyway.
Before removing your tree from its pot, be sure to water both the tree and the planting hole. Never place a transplanted plant (or any other new planting) in a dry hole.
Instead of using plain water, I like to use a solution of Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed, which acts as a natural root stimulator.
Plant the tree to about the same depth as it is in its original pot.
If you look carefully at the trunk, you will see that it flares out a little bit at the base where the roots begin to emerge It’s important that you never mound soil or mulch or other material above that root flare. Doing so will actually cause the trunk to rot and kill the tree.
When you excavate the soil, and loosen up the planting area, the tree will settle and sink, so you should plant it just a little bit high to compensate. Make sure that after it settles, the root flare is still visible and that there is no depression around the tree where water might collect.
After planting, apply a layer of mulch, again being careful not to cover the root flare. As an organic gardener, I prefer to use wood mulch because it continuously breaks down to add organic matter to the soil. Another option is to use small to medium sized rocks as mulch. Avoid using synthetic materials like rubber that can be toxic.
Watering Your Tree
Many people like to plant grass under their trees because they like the carpet effect around their trees. However, any arborist will warn you against this practice. Not only will the grass steal nutrients and water from the tree, but also your trees need to be watered more deeply than your lawn. Sprinklers set for lawn watering will not drench the soil enough to get moisture down to to the root zone of your tree. When our professional landscape designers create landscapes for our customers, they typically create a bed underneath the tree that incorporates shrubs or other plants out from the root zone of the tree, instead.
After you've finished planting, water the area again.
How much water to apply will vary depending on the time of year, the type of soil you have, rainfall, and general conditions.
One way to check is to simply stick your finger down into the soil or use a water meter to see if the soil is still moist. It may take several weeks for the soil to dry out to that depth.
For a new tree, and during the heat of summer, you may need to water once every two to four weeks, while in winter you can cut back to as little as once every two or three months, depending on rainfall. In the summertime, you might want to use a Gator Bag to help, especially if you're going to be on an extended vacation. A Gator Bag is a special bag that wraps around the tree and acts as a water reservoir. Water slowly seeps out of it into the soil to keep the soil moist around the tree for a longer period of time.
Another watering option is to use a tree ring hose, which is simply a short, circular soaker hose that wraps around the trunk of the tree and then connects to your regular hose to allow water to slowly drip around the trunk.
Protecting Your Tree
Often when trees are young, it’s a good idea to stake them to keep them from leaning over or bending. Stakes can be made from bamboo or metal or any other sturdy material. The tree itself should be wrapped carefully with a soft material, such as a rubber-coated tie, that won’t cut into the bark of the tree.
If your tree is in an area to be mowed or weeded, you may also want to wrap a tree guard around the trunk to protect it from getting damaged.
Fertilization
While your fruit tree is actively growing and producing fruit, it should be fertilized regularly — about every two to four weeks. A good tree fertilizer is Green Tree Elixir, a special fertilizer developed by a local arborist.
During the first two to three years, remove any fruit from the tree. One reason for this is to prevent damage. Young branches are very, very flexible and the weight of the fruits can cause branches to break or even deform the shape of the tree by pulling the branches downward. The other reason is to allow more of the tree's energy to be channeled into it's growth.
Even after the tree is mature, you should continue to thin out the fruit. This is because the fruits typically grow in clusters that can crowd each other. By thinning it out, the remaining fruits will be bigger and juicier, so although you will have a little bit less fruit, what remains will be a better quality.
Pruning Your Tree
The purpose of pruning is to maintain the shape of your the tree and encourage better air circulation, which will help minimize fungal problems and other diseases.
Pruning should be done in the late winter when your tree is dormant. Some say the best time to prune them is after the last frost of the season, which for the DFW area of North Texas is March 17th. But often by then, your tree will have already started to bud out and ideally, they should be pruned before new buds begin to show. The timing for this will vary from year to year, depending on our crazy North Texas weather, so the best way is to carefully watch your tree.
Where to Cut
Looking closely, you will see little bumps, or nodes, at regular intervals up and down the branches. These are where any new growth will emerge from. Always cut slightly above one of those nodes at a 45 degree angle. Your cut should point outward from the center of the tree. This will cause new growth to grow in the direction of the cut, which will encourage a more open shape, which in turn, will help with pest and disease control.
See the illustration below:
An incorrect cut will cause the area above the cut to dieback, which can attract destructive insects. Likewise, be sure your pruning tool is sharp and take care to make a nice, clean cut.
If a branch does become damaged, you may want to apply a wound dressing, such as Treekote spray or compound, to seal the ends of the cut.
Pests & Diseases
Each type of tree has its own particular susceptibilities.
Peach trees, for example, often get leaf curl, which is a fungus that tends to appear in the early spring when the weather is cooler and moister. Once it develops, you can't do anything about it for that year. You will have to live with it. If you are concerned about it, you can spray with Copper Fungicide in the early spring before the fungus forms on the tree. However, I found that my own peach tree performed equally well whether I treated for leaf curl or not. Some experts report that this is typical and doesn’t seem to significantly affect fruit production.
Fruit trees are also prone to fruit worms in the fruit. These are actually caterpillar larvae deposited by moths such as the codling moth, apple maggot, or green fruitworms. The best organic solution for these is to release beneficial Trichogramma Wasps. These tiny, non-stinging wasps parasitize moth larvae and kill them. Another organic solution is to spray your tree with Bacillus thuringiensis, or BT. This naturally occurring bacteria that specially targets caterpillar larvae. It won't harm pollinators or other beneficial insects, and is safe to use up to the day of harvest.
You may also choose to spray your tree with horticultural oil. This must be done in the spring before the bugs start to appear, but it should not be applied more than once every three to five years.
Another common garden pest is white flies, which cling to the undersides of the leaves and suck the juice from the tree. Good organic solutions for white flies are Neem Oil, Spinosad, or Ferti-lome Triple Action.
If you maintain a healthy organic environment, your garden visitors will include beneficial insects that will help you control pests.
Fire Blight
Apple trees and pear trees are prone to a disease called fire blight. Fire blight is a bacteria, which should be treated with a product called streptomycin. Products like Neem Oil and Spinosad will not work on fire blight because they do not have anti-bacterial properties, as does streptomycin. Streptomycin is a powder to be mixed with water and sprayed on the entire tree, including both foliage and wood.
Fire blight is recognized by a blackening of the branches and foliage of the tree that usually starts on the outer edges. As it progresses, it will work its way toward the trunk of the tree. It is critical to get fire blight under control as soon as possible because once it gets advanced, it is extremely difficult to get rid of and it will kill the tree within two or three years.
First aggressively cut out any sign of fire blight. After each cut, cleanse your tool by dipping it in a chlorine bleach solution to prevent spreading the disease further. After pruning out any infected material, spray with streptomycin approximately ever five days. Continue to check for new signs of the disease and remove any new diseased portions.
Apple trees may also suffer from cotton root rot. However, it's important to note that nearly all apples trees bought from reputable nurseries have been "grafted." Grafting is a method that selects a type of apple tree that is more resistant to disease and then grafting branches of another more popular type of apple tree on to it. The result is that the tree will be produce fruit of the grafted variety while remaining more disease resistant.
Conclusion
Once your tree is established, with a minimal amount of care, you can expect to enjoy many years of successful harvests for you and your family to enjoy. If you do encounter problems, you'll be prepared to handle them using natural and organic solutions that are safe to consume.
