# Native fruit and nut trees to grow and eat: what each bears, when it starts, and which need a partner

> Which native fruit and nut trees bear soonest, which need two trees or a male, how they fare without sprays, and whether to plant a seedling or a grafted tree.

Published 2026-10-12. Tags: What to plant. By Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees/

The native fruits people grow to eat are pawpaw, American persimmon, the wild plums, serviceberry, elderberry, chokeberry, red mulberry and the native blueberries. The native nuts are hazelnut, the chinquapins, American chestnut, black walnut, pecan and the hickories. Elderberry, chokeberry, hazelnut and chinquapin bear first, at two or three years. Pawpaw and persimmon start at four to nine years, while pecan and black walnut take about ten and the hickories longer. Pawpaw, the plums, hazelnut, chinquapin and the chestnuts need a second plant grown from a different seed, and persimmon needs a male tree near the females. Unlike apples and peaches, pawpaw, persimmon and hazelnut bear without a yearly spray program, though none is free of pests.

![Two green pawpaws hanging at the tip of a branch above a bunch of long, drooping leaves, a dirt path behind](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees-1-1000.jpg?v=4c1c02c9 "Pawpaws still green on June 24, 2024. They ripen from August to October, and a ripe pawpaw gives when squeezed gently, as a ripe peach does.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Native fruit trees and berry bushes, and when each bears

Elderberry and chokeberry bear soonest and red mulberry last. The table runs from soonest to slowest, with years counted from seed unless a cell says after planting.

| Plant | The fruit and when it ripens | First crop, years | A crop needs | Height, feet |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Black elderberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-elderberry/index.html.md) | Purple-black berries to cook, late July into September | 2 | One bears, a second sets more | 6–12 |
| [Black chokeberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-chokeberry/index.html.md) | Astringent purplish black berries for juice and jam, late August into September | 2 to 3 | One plant bears alone | 3–6 |
| [Allegheny serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/allegheny-serviceberry/index.html.md) | Fruit like a blueberry in size, color and taste, June | 2 to 3 after planting | One plant bears alone | 15–25 |
| [Rabbiteye blueberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/rabbiteye-blueberry/index.html.md) | Blueberries, June into August | 3 to 4 after planting | A second, unrelated plant | 6–15 |
| [American plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-plum/index.html.md) | Red to yellow plums for jam, August | 3 to 5 | A second, unrelated plant | 15–25 |
| [American persimmon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-persimmon/index.html.md) | Fruit sweet as dates once fully ripe, September to November | 4 to 9 | A male among the females | 35–60 |
| [Pawpaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pawpaw/index.html.md) | Custard-sweet fruit 3 to 6 inches long, August to October | 5 to 8 | A second, unrelated tree | 15–30 |
| [Red mulberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/red-mulberry/index.html.md) | Blackberry-like fruit, June into August | About 10, sometimes 4 | Usually a male among the females | 35–50 |

Rabbiteye blueberry is the one kind here for warm winters only, hardy in zones 7 to 9. Elderberries are cooked before eating, since the raw berries and the green parts are mildly toxic. [Which native nuts and fruit are food](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-nuts-and-fruit-poisonous-to-dogs-horses-and-children/index.html.md), and which poison, has a guide of its own. Persimmon puckers the mouth until it is soft and fully ripe. Birds strip serviceberries, elderberries and blueberries as they ripen, so net a bush to keep a crop.

## Native nut trees, and the long wait for most

Hazelnut and chinquapin bear nuts within three years, while black walnut, pecan and the hickories take ten years or more.

| Plant | The nut and when it ripens | First crop, years | A crop needs | Height, feet |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [American hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-hazelnut/index.html.md) | Half-inch nuts in a ragged husk, September to October | 2 to 3 | A second plant within 50 feet | 8–12 |
| [Allegheny chinquapin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/allegheny-chinquapin/index.html.md) | One sweet nut to each spiny bur, September and October | 2 to 3 | A second, unrelated plant | 10–25 |
| [American chestnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-chestnut/index.html.md) | Two or three sweet nuts to a bur, September and October | About 4 | A second tree within 300 feet | 15–30 |
| [Black walnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-walnut/index.html.md) | Rich, strong-flavored nuts in a green husk, September and October | A few at 4 to 6, a real crop at about 10 | One bears, a second sets more | 70–100 |
| [Northern pecan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pecan/index.html.md) | Sweet nuts, smaller than southern pecans, September and October | About 10 | One bears, a second within 250 feet sets more | 70–100 |
| [Shagbark hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shagbark-hickory/index.html.md) | Sweet nuts that rival pecans, September and October | Over 10, in quantity at about 40 | One bears, a second sets more | 60–90 |

![Chinquapin branch seen from below against blue sky, with long pale catkins and small spiny young burs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees-4-1000.jpg?v=2bde6a85 "Allegheny chinquapin in flower on June 7, 2024, with young spiny burs forming among the catkins. Each bur holds one sweet nut by September or October.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

American chestnut bears young in the open, but chestnut blight kills its stems back, usually before they bear much. [Chinese chestnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chinese-chestnut/index.html.md), which is not native, resists the blight and bears at four to seven years. [How it differs from the American chestnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/chinese-chestnut/index.html.md) has an article of its own.

Other hickories are slow too. [Mockernut hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mockernut-hickory/index.html.md) first bears at about 25 years, and [shellbark hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shellbark-hickory/index.html.md), with the largest nuts of any hickory, at about 40.

## Which need a partner or a male tree

Most native fruit and nut trees need a second plant of their kind nearby, or crop better with one. Pawpaw, the plums, rabbiteye blueberry, hazelnut, chinquapin and the chestnuts set little or no fruit with their own pollen. The partner must grow from a different seed. A thicket of suckers from one root is one plant, and two grafted trees of one named variety are copies of one tree, so neither makes a pair. Any two seedlings grew from different seeds and can pollinate each other.

Hazelnut pollen rides the wind, so a second bush belongs within 50 feet. Pawpaws cross-pollinate best no more than 30 feet apart, and an American chestnut wants its partner within 300 feet. Black walnut, pecan and the hickories bear alone, but a tree often sheds its pollen before or after its own female flowers are ready, so a second tree sets a bigger crop.

![Two round orange-pink persimmons hanging from a bare twig in front of blurred red and gold fall leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees-2-1000.jpg?v=8dadd387 "Persimmons on a bare twig in Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C., on October 31, 2015. Only female trees bear the fruit, which can hang on after the leaves fall.")
*Photo: Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADiospyros_virginiana_-_Flickr_-_treegrow.jpg))*

In American persimmon and most red mulberries, male and female plants are separate, and only the females fruit. Five persimmon seedlings give a 94 percent chance of at least one of each, and one male seems enough for at least 23 females. The [Native Edible Orchard](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/edible-orchard/index.html.md) plants five persimmons for that reason, and two of each kind that needs a partner.

The [pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=pawpaw:2,american-persimmon:5,american-hazelnut:2) checks a planting of two pawpaws, five persimmons and two hazelnuts. It prints every plant's need, the count to plant, the partner distance and the years to a first crop. [Why a tree flowers but bears no fruit](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/why-a-tree-flowers-but-never-fruits/index.html.md) explains the odds and the other reasons a tree stays bare.

## Which need no spraying, and the pests they still get

Pawpaw, persimmon and American hazelnut bear without a spray program, but no native fruit or nut is free of pests. Apples and peaches carry pest and disease problems that call for scheduled preventive sprays every year, especially early in the season. Pawpaw has few pests of any importance where it grows wild, and the insects that eat its leaves do too little damage to treat. No insect or animal is known to damage persimmon flowers or fruit seriously. Eastern filbert blight does American hazelnut little harm, while the same fungus kills the commonly grown European hazelnut, usually within five to ten years of infection.

![A cluster of young American hazelnuts in pale green leafy husks among toothed hazel leaves on a branch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees-3-1000.jpg?v=863783e2 "American hazelnuts in their leafy husks in Bayfield County, Wisconsin, on June 26, 2012. Eastern filbert blight, which kills European hazelnuts, does this native little harm.")
*Photo: Steven Katovich, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org, [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACorylus_americana_5497076.jpg))*

The native plums are stone fruits, kin to the peach, and open to many of the same pests and diseases. [Beach plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/beach-plum/index.html.md) growers count plum curculio, brown rot and oriental fruit moth among their frequent problems. Rutgers, advising them, puts it plainly:

> "Since beach plums are a native plant, they are well-suited to the local climate, but so are their pests." (Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, *Ultra-Niche Crops Series: Beach Plum*)

Black knot, a lumpy black fungus, swells on plum twigs and is pruned out well below the swelling. Rust spots serviceberry leaves and fruit where [eastern red cedar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/eastern-red-cedar/index.html.md) grows nearby. Rabbiteye blueberry can get mummy berry and blueberry maggot, and weevils grow inside chestnuts and chinquapins. Persimmon wilt kills many persimmons in central Tennessee and the Southeast.

## Seedling or grafted

A grafted named variety bears sooner, and its fruit is known before it bears. A seedling costs less and varies from tree to tree, and it can take a graft later. A grafted pawpaw can fruit in as few as three years, against five to eight for a seedling. A grafted persimmon needs three years, and a grafted Chinese chestnut often bears within two.

A seedling is not identical to its parent, so no one can promise its fruit. Rabbiteye seedlings differ in berry size and ripening time from plant to plant. Kentucky State University's pawpaw program describes the range among wild trees:

> "There is a considerable variety of flavors among wild Pawpaws, ranging from awful to sublime. Most Pawpaws taste good, some are truly wonderful, and a few are better for throwing than for eating." (Kentucky State University, *Pawpaw FAQ and Contact Information*)

A persimmon seedling, like a holly, shows whether it is male or female only when it flowers. In a Forest Service count of 1,930 holly seedlings, the first flowered at age 3 and the last at age 9.

A seedling that bears poor fruit can be grafted later with a better variety. Topworking a native persimmon, or grafting onto its suckers, brings a superior [cultivar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/glossary/index.html.md) into bearing quickly, and Asian persimmon varieties are often grafted onto American persimmon roots. Blue Whale Trees grows its fruit and nut trees and shrubs from seed, not grafted, so each seedling is genetically distinct. [Whether a nut or fruit comes true from seed](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/will-it-come-true-from-seed/index.html.md) is the subject of its own article.

## Where to start

Pick the crop, then plant enough of each kind to bear:

- **A pair to check:** the [pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=pawpaw:2) opens with two pawpaws, and its [table of every plant](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md) gives each one's need and count.
- **A small orchard:** the [Native Edible Orchard](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/edible-orchard/index.html.md) sets six natives together, with a harvest from late summer into November.
- **Every plant to eat:** the [edible list](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/edible/index.html.md) holds every tree and shrub we grow with fruit, nuts or berries to eat.
- **The quickest crops:** the [early-bearing list](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/early-bearing/index.html.md) narrows it to those that bear two to five years from seed.

## Common questions

### How long does it take a pawpaw tree to bear fruit?

A pawpaw grown from seed usually bears at five to eight years, once it stands about 6 feet tall. A grafted tree can fruit in as few as three.

### Do I need two pawpaw trees?

Yes, because pawpaw will not pollinate itself, so plant two trees grown from different seeds or two different named varieties. Two grafted trees of one variety are copies of one tree and will not pollinate each other.

### Do you need a male and female persimmon tree?

Yes for American persimmon, since most trees are male or female and only the females fruit. Five seedlings give a 94 percent chance of at least one of each.

### Will one chestnut tree produce nuts?

No, because a chestnut will not pollinate itself, and a lone tree drops empty burs. Plant a second seedling within 200 feet of a Chinese chestnut, or within 300 feet of an American chestnut.

## Sources

- [Pawpaw FAQ and Contact Information](https://www.kysu.edu/academics/college-ahnr/school-of-anr/pawpaw/pawpaw-faq-and-contact-information.php): Kentucky State University, with its Pawpaw Planting Guide: pawpaw rejecting its own pollen, two grafted trees of one cultivar that will not cross-pollinate, few pests of importance where it grows wild, seedlings bearing at five to eight years and grafted trees in as few as three, seedlings whose fruit cannot be guaranteed and that cost less, the quotation on the flavors of wild pawpaws, a seedling grafted later with a better variety, and a ripe pawpaw that gives like a peach, with creamy flesh like custard.
- [Less Common Fruits for a Home Garden](https://extension.umd.edu/resource/less-common-fruits-home-garden): University of Maryland Extension, with its Starting a Home Fruit Garden page: native fruits that are not pest-free, apples and peaches with scheduled yearly sprays, stone fruits sharing pests and diseases, insects on pawpaw not worth treating, serviceberry rust near eastern redcedar, pawpaws no more than 30 feet apart, seed-grown plants and cultivars as partners, and Asian persimmons grafted onto American persimmon rootstock.
- [Ultra-Niche Crops Series: Beach Plum](https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1297/): Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (FS1297): plum curculio, brown rot and oriental fruit moth as frequent problems of beach plum, and the quotation on native pests.
- [Common Persimmon](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/common-persimmon): USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, with the American holly chapter: no insect or animal known to damage persimmon flowers or fruit seriously, one male for at least 23 females, persimmon wilt in central Tennessee and the Southeast, topworking or grafting onto suckers to bring a superior cultivar into bearing, and the 1,930 holly seedlings that flowered from age 3 to 9.
- [Diospyros virginiana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/diospyros-virginiana/): NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: separate male and female persimmon trees, seed-grown trees fruiting in 4 to 9 years and grafted trees in 3, fruit astringent until soft and ripe, and fruit that stays on the tree after the leaves fall.
- [Eastern Filbert Blight](https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/eastern-filbert-blight/): University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Wisconsin Horticulture: eastern filbert blight doing little damage to American hazelnut and killing European hazelnut, usually within five to ten years of infection.