Native Edible Orchard

Why these six go together

This orchard is meant to be grown without sprays. Every plant in it evolved here with its own pests and their predators, so expect some damaged fruit and nuts, and plant enough to share. The harvest runs from late summer into November: black chokeberries in late summer, wild plums and pawpaws from August, hazelnuts from September to October, persimmons after the first frosts and pecans in the fall. Pawpaw gives the largest native fruit in North America, custard-sweet. Persimmon ripens sweet orange fruit once frost has softened it. The plum makes the jelly. The pecan is a northern-adapted line that ripens small, sweet nuts in a short season.

Between them the six also feed wildlife on the same schedule, so expect to share with the birds, foxes and squirrels, and plant enough to have a crop left.

Where it fits

Full sun for the pecan, persimmon, plum and hazelnut. Pawpaw and chokeberry take light shade, and pawpaw is happiest as an understory tree, so it can go in the shade the pecan will cast. Ordinary soil suits everything here. Persimmon and chokeberry take dry ground, and pecan and pawpaw like it moist. Together they are hardy in zones 5 through 8.

The pecan becomes a 70 to 100 foot tree and wants the deepest, sunniest ground, 40 feet from the house, other trees and power lines. Persimmon reaches 35 to 60 feet, plum and pawpaw 15 to 30, hazelnut 8 to 12 and chokeberry 3 to 6. Plum and hazelnut sucker into thickets, which is what makes them a hedge.

See the set's year in the bloom and fruit calendar, how many of each give a crop in the pollination planner, and how far its tallest plant goes from the house in the planting-distance tool.

Planting the orchard

Plant dormant, cage everything against deer and rabbits, and water weekly through the first summer. Most of these fruit better with a partner. Pawpaw, plum and hazelnut need a second, unrelated plant, and pecan sets more with one, so plant two of each. Persimmon carries male and female flowers on separate trees, so plant five for a 94% chance of both. Chokeberry fruits alone.

Chokeberry bears in its second or third year and plum within three to five, pawpaw in five to eight, persimmon at about six, and the pecan last, at roughly ten. Prune only to shape, in late winter, and leave the fallen leaves under the trees.