# Native Edible Orchard

> A native food forest with no spray program: pawpaw, American persimmon, wild plum, hazelnut, northern pecan and black chokeberry, zones 5 to 8.

Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/edible-orchard/

A food forest from native species only: fruit from June to October, nuts in the fall, and no spray program.

## Plants in the set

- [Pawpaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pawpaw/index.html.md) (*Asimina triloba*): Small tree, zones 5 to 9, 15 to 30 ft, not yet priced online. The largest native fruit in North America, custard-sweet and tropical, on an understory tree of rich bottomlands.
- [American Persimmon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-persimmon/index.html.md) (*Diospyros virginiana*): Medium tree, zones 4 to 9, 35 to 60 ft, not yet priced online. Sweet orange fruit after frost, blocky alligator bark and a tree that grows nearly anywhere.
- [American Plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-plum/index.html.md) (*Prunus americana*): Small tree, zones 3 to 8, 15 to 25 ft, not yet priced online. A thicket-forming wild plum with fragrant white spring bloom and tart red-yellow fruit for jelly and wildlife.
- [American Hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-hazelnut/index.html.md) (*Corylus americana*): Shrub, zones 4 to 9, 8 to 12 ft, not yet priced online. Sweet native filberts in late summer on a dense, easy hedgerow shrub.
- [Northern Pecan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pecan/index.html.md) (*Carya illinoinensis*): Large tree, zones 5 to 9, 70 to 100 ft, not yet priced online. Northern-adapted pecan from the upper reaches of its range, ripening thin-shelled nuts in short seasons.
- [Black Chokeberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-chokeberry/index.html.md) (*Aronia melanocarpa*): Shrub, zones 3 to 8, 3 to 6 ft, not yet priced online. White spring flowers, glossy black antioxidant-rich berries and some of the best red fall color of any shrub.

## Why these six go together

This is an orchard that needs no spray program, because every plant in it evolved here with its own pests and predators. The harvest runs from late summer into November: hazelnuts and black chokeberries in late summer, wild plums and pawpaws from August, 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 thin-shelled 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, 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 and 35 feet of room; persimmon reaches 35 to 60 feet; plum and pawpaw 15 to 30; hazelnut 8 to 12; chokeberry 3 to 6. Plum and hazelnut sucker into thickets, which is what makes them a hedge.

## 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 needs two unrelated trees, persimmon carries male and female flowers on separate trees, and plum, hazelnut and pecan all set more with a second plant nearby, so plant two or more of each. 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.

Order the plants individually from their pages, or email captain@bluewhaletrees.com to have the whole set put together at the sizes on hand.

## Other bundles

- [Honey Tree Trio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/honey-trio/index.html.md): Three of the finest nectar trees in eastern North America. Black locust and basswood give the lightest, most sought-after honeys; black gum flowers between them and colors scarlet in fall. 3 plants.
- [Shade Understory Pack](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/shade-understory/index.html.md): Five plants that are happiest under a canopy of oaks: flowers from March to November, fruit for thrushes, and the host plants of two swallowtails. 5 plants.
- [Wet Spot Pack](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/wet-spot/index.html.md): For the corner where the lawn drowns every spring. Every plant here tolerates standing water, and together they give fragrance, winter berries and year-round structure. 6 plants.
- [Dry Sandy Site Pack](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/dry-sandy/index.html.md): Pine-barrens and prairie toughness for sand, gravel and drought: two shrub oaks, two fruit plants, prairie leadplant and the best fall color on a dry bank. 6 plants.
- [Bird & Berry Hedgerow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/bird-hedgerow/index.html.md): A mixed native hedge that fruits from June through the following March, with dense cover for nesting and thorns at the edges. 7 plants.
- [Rare Oak Collection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/rare-oak-collection/index.html.md): Five oaks almost nobody grows, from two-foot scrub oaks to an eighty-foot bottomland giant. A living collection for a large property or a conservation planting. 5 plants.