What fruit trees can be planted from seed? (And left untended.)

That sounds like a really interesting project!

Have you looked up your USDA gardening zone? That will make your research a lot easier, because you can figure out what will grow in .

Also, is there a reason you want to start from seed rather than from cuttings? Most of the fruit varieties that are domesticated, even heirloom varieties, will either not produce true to type or will take a very long time to produce fruit if started from seed.

Cuttings from some fruit trees can be rooted and planted as "own root" trees, which makes for a sturdier, more disease resistant tree than a graft. From what I understand, the main reason grafting got started was to encourage the trees to bear fruit earlier, in three years or less, rather than five to ten. Seed Savers Exchange has a lot of members that trade fruit tree cuttings, either to graft or develop into own root.

For native fruit, you may be able to wildcraft and transplant a good portion of what you need. There should be edible plant field guides for your part of the country that will help you figure out what native fruits to look for. Your county extension service may be able to direct you to native plant nurseries, or advise you about the legal aspects of wildcrafting in your area.

Also, be aware that the taste of wild fruit can vary from bush to bush or tree to tree because of soil conditions or genetics. Both wild blackberries patches and persimmon trees are like that in our area - some are always good, others are downright nasty!

Grapes, cherries, figs, peaches, plums, apricots, almonds. I seem to remember many unwatered orchards in the bay area from when I was a kid. We had a winery next door that grew lots of fruit trees with out irrigation. We had "wild" almond trees in the vacant lot behind our home. 

I'm trying to grow some pawpaws from seed right now.  The seeds require nicking and some chilling, which could be done in a refrigerator.  I don't know how they would do in your climate, but they are a good-tasting fruit that grows wild so shouldn't need any care.

Pomegranites can grow from seed and are good for your climate, I would try those.  J.L. Hudson has seeds for those, and for pawpaws I think.

One problem with untended fruit trees is that, in many cases, the fruit will end up growing well out of reach of humans.  I'm thinking of an old mulberry tree we have in my yard, that is practically useless because we can't get at 95% of the berries.

Nut trees, as you probably know, are generally better candidates for what you're trying to do. 

I'm not too sure about which fruit trees would need least maintenance -- to be honest I'm only really an armchair permaculturalist. Someone like Chris has far more experience actually growing food forests.

But my advice would be to come up with a list of candidates, based on what is grown in your area commercially, then find out exactly what is involved in caring for each of those.

Citrus and nuts come to mind as options for California. There's actually an anecdote in Carol Deppe's book "The Resilient Gardener"  in which she talks about harvesting nuts from trees planted many decades before along the side of the road all over her small town in Oregon. However, there were some steps she had to take to be able to get good nuts from them (I can't remember off hand -- don't have the book with me right now).

However, that's also not a bad goal to aim for -- if you can get your food forest set up so that it could quickly be turned productive again with a little effort and knowledge.

Ooops,

Just forgot to mention. Fruit that isn't good for fresh eating is probably meant to be either cooked or turned into cider / alcohol.

Regards

Chris

Hey bstar,

I'm unfamilar with US conditions, but if I was trying to achieve what you were setting out to do then the following may be of help:

• Bring in a couple of truck loads of woody mulch material, preferably from a source that takes whatever green / garden waste (ie. not just one type of plant such as pine chips) and chips and composts it;
• Spread the woody mulch material around the entire site as this will create a fungal dominated environment that suits the requirements of fruit trees. It will also increase the worm activity and better retain water in the soil. Basically you are bringing in feed for the food forest before starting it as you wouldn't be doing this sort of concept on prime agricultural land;
• If you don't get about 500 hours below 7 degrees celsius you won't be able to grow many deciduous fruit trees as they won't produce flowers which in turn leads to fruit. If you get this condition but also little to no frosts then go hard and grow whatever;
• Collect seeds from the fruits that you and other people eat and distribute them about the place (ie. randomly throw them around - you can always cut small plants back). Look, if your land is well fed (woody mulch) and well drained (ie. the mulch, funguses and worms have all had a bit of time to aerate the soil and increase the available nutrients) then soil diseases won't really hassle you too much. People always go on and on about grafted trees being the best. Yes the rootstock is hardy and I have hundreds of grafted trees, but the graft is also a weak point in the tree which can bring disease problems too. Also, the genetic variability that people also rabbit on about isn't really as big a deal as you'd imagine either these days as so much fruit is produced in mono cultures anyway and as such the genes don't fall that far from the parent tree. I grow both apples, stone fruit and citrus from seed here amongst firewood leguminous trees too. Go hard and experiment, it's the only way to find out. Most rootstocks are designed to make the tree smaller anyway, people get a bit frightened by a 20m lemon tree, but that's how it evolved to grow and having a huge root system they'll be more drought hardy than the grafted trees and aren't you trying to get a food forest that looks after itself?
• Fence the area to initially exclude the local herbivores. I find that the trees here have to be at least 3m tall before they can tolerate predation; and
• Most importantly, have fun and experiment. Don't be afraid to try stuff like planting the trees close together. Most peoples advice is based on practices suitable for commercial orchards trying to achieve maximum yields. A food forest can be a resilient system whereas commercial orchards are anything but.

Good luck

Chris

I think a forest garden takes some time to reach the low-management stage, and will probably never require zero management.

As for growing fruit trees from seed, I would think that you would at least have to take care of them in their early years, when an especially dry spell could kill them. If the site is remote, this could still be as little effort as occasionally bringing out a large bucket full of water with holes in the bottom for each tree. Bio-swales and careful water planning could help, but even t hose will likely need to be designed, tested and adjusted over a period of a few years to get them performing right.

The trees may also need soil nutrients, which you can provide with a guild of shrubs, but these in turn will require at least some maintenance

Creating a forest garden requires greatly accelerating the process by which a forest arises, by about an order of magnitude. Natural second-growth forest takes 100-500 years to get established; you usually want to see some return from your food forest within your lifetime. That requires significant design and management to bring about.

Also, while a food forest emulates a natural system (second-growth forest), it is not actually at the equilibrium state of the system it is emulating. A  food forest  has a much higher concentration of edible fruits than a natural forest, so will likely always require some tending to keep it producing food and not moving towards a more natural state.

I would suggest aiming for "minimally managed" rather than completely unmanaged.

  Your best bet may well be to look into whatever fruits grow wild in your area or similar climes.

   You didn't mention how you'd plan to use the fruit. Is it for eating right off the tree/bush or do you need fruit that stores well or you can preserve in some way? How soon to you need to be able to harvest? Shrubs may well fruit much earlier than trees.

   There are many fruits that are unpalatable at first to folks more used to store bought produce, but as you become more familiar with them you can become easily adapted to their distinctive flavours and textures. Wild fruits have far more nutritive value as well. Crab apples come to mind.

  It may be helpful to research what the native folks of the area ate, and go from there.