USDA Zones 4-9. Purplish-red skin, amber-red flesh. Self-fruitful. Harvest mid to late July in Central CA. Self-fruitful. Self-fruitful. It was tastier than any of the hybrids, with the exception of a new plum-peach hybrid thats not yet available. Widely adapted (low chill requirement, yet not early blooming). 400 hours or less. $18. Estimated chilling requirement 450 hours. Tangy when firm-ripe, sweet with rich flavor when soft-ripe. Crisp, nice blend of sweetness and tartness, rich flavor. Finished trees include 4n1's plus assorted 3n1's and 2n1's. Large yellow freestone, excellent flavor and texture, low acid. In the Southwest, Flavor Delight ripens from mid-May through June and is self-fruitful, though it produces better with cross-pollination by an apricot. Chilling requirement less than 500 hours. Medium-to-large size fruit with bright green skin and yellow-orange flesh. (Fortunately for all us fruit lovers, it does!) It tastes so sweet that you might wonder what you are eating if it werent for the peach fuzz and that distinctive peach taste. 100 hours. In fact, they may not require any chill at all. Tom's Picks Winners for the Low Chill Southwest, DWN Website Top 50 - Home Garden Tree Fruit Varieties, DWN Website Top 40 - Home Garden, 500+ Chill Hours. Fuji is self-fruitful and is also a recommended pollenizer for other mid-season apple varieties. Very crisp, sweet tart, distinct flavor, good keeper. Skin greenish-yellow with red spots, turning to a maroon and yellow dapple. Calif. (enter a ZIP), Map - Nearest Retailers, So. For fresh use or raisins. Early July in Central CA. Long-time favorite of apricot fanciers for its exceptionally rich flavor and aroma. Cold hardy. An estimated chill requirement of 400 hours or less. Low chilling requirement - less than 500 hours. Use fresh, canned or cooked. Showy bloom. USDA Zones 5-9. Balanced acid and sugar early, then very sweet. Rich, aromatic flavor and crisp texture. Sweet and tangy, fine delicate flavor. 100 hours. All zones. Zaiger introduction. Fuji has fast become one of the most popular apple varieties in the world. Farmers grow a specific variety because it ripens at a time when they can get a good price for the fruit, or because it ships well, or looks good displayed at the market. When it came to peaches, we tried a common, older, naturally dwarf peach variety named Bonanza, but it didnt score well. Minnie Royal and its companion Royal Lee have proven themselves to be low chill adaptable. Weeks later, I can still taste it, or imagine I can. A DWN late season favorite. Taste test winner. We do not accept direct sales to consumers. Similar to Arctic Rose, ripening 3-4 weeks later. Good pollenizer for other varieties. The term garden variety means commonplace or ordinary, but Evas Pride, a garden variety peach, is anything but that. With little tendency to alternate bearing, it produces reliably in most years. Taste is normally not a priority with commercial growers. Delicious, super-sweet, white nectarine. Im told its taste is unique because it was bred to be different by developer Zaiger Genetics. Used fresh and for canning. Not an early bloomer. 300-400 hrs. 250-300 hours. Earlier this month I joined one of these evaluations--the first held by the nursery in Southern California. Sweet, richly flavored, firm red flesh. Pollination Code: SF=Self-fruitful; PSF=Partly Self-fruitful; PR=Pollenizer Required. I grow few deciduous fruit trees because the last peach I had, a delicious one named Red Baron, took up lots of space and overwhelmed us with fruit each summer (often while we were on vacation). Mature tree size about 2/3 of standard (smaller when budded onto Colt or Mahaleb rootstock). Plant Flavor King with Flavor Grenade, Beauty Plum, and Burgundy Plum for good cross-pollination and fruit from June to October. White-fleshed apricot-plum hybrid. Ripe mid-September. Good for fresh fruit, preserving, baking and dehydrating. Juicy, sweet flavor, crisp like an apple. Bright yellow skin. Hot summer required to ripen. Taste test favorite. With Eva's Pride, Mid Pride, and August Pride you can successively harvest peaches for almost three months. One of the most popular ornamental deciduous trees. Burgundys season is from mid-July and often extends through September. Not sub-acid like many white nectarines but a true sugar-to-acid balance. Two-time taste test winner. Small to medium-sized red-orange colored fruit with very sweet orange flesh. USDA Zones 6-9. (Zaiger). Showy purple foliage holds its color all season. Cot-N-Candy favors its apricot parent producing an incredibly flavored, sweet, and juicy white-fleshed fruit with high taste test scores and consistent quality. Light green to greenish yellow ripe fruit holds on tree, becoming exceptionally sweet while remaining firm and crunchy. 17827) (Zaiger), Apricot-plum hybrid. Showy pink blossoms. Tom Spellman's favorite combinations of fruit varieties compatible for close-planting and producing crops at different times for an extended season. Superb flavor, the No. Fujis exterior color is a lackluster yellowish-green with a blush of orange. (Zaiger), Large, all-purpose yellow freestone for mild-winter climates. Taste test favorite. An exciting new white apricot-plum hybrid from Zaigers. Deep watering recommended. August harvest in Central CA. 1 apricot in California. (Most tastings are held in Northern or Central California.) Redder skin than Fuji. Large, firm, red-skinned, yellow freestone. Single pale pink flower. Large, sweet, delicious, light greenish-yellow fruit with practically no seeds. The most-accessed measure is unique pageviews: the number of website user sessions during which a specific page was viewed. Juicy, sweet, refreshing, crisp like an apple. Medium-sized, nearly black, sprightly flavor, early season. Finished trees include 4n1's plus assorted 3n1's and 2n1's. Yellow blushed red. Crunchy, super-sweet, delicious. nurseries, mail order nurseries, and anyone else who qualifies. Not an early bloomer. Popular, large yellow freestone. Very high scoring in taste tests. In the Southwest, it ripens from late August through October. Ripens early- to mid-July. No.1 apricot for canning, excellent fresh or dried as well. I sampled early- and mid-season apricots, Pluots (plum-apricot hybrids), plums, peaches and nectarines. Its white-fleshed, freestone fruit has a sweet, mild flavor with a hint of almond, ripening from late June through July in the Southwest. Needs hot summer. We sell our products to retail nurseries, garden centers, container growers who sell to landscape contractors and retail Fuji is also an excellent keeper and can maintain good quality for more than six months. This fruiting and flowering peach displays a beautiful double red flower. 300-400 hours. Its interior color is a creamy orange-yellow with a wonderful crispy, crunchy sweet flavor so dont let its dull exterior fool you. Its self-fruitful and considered one of the best pollenizers for other Japanese plum and Pluot varieties. Sweet, juicy, early season taste test winner. USDA Zones 5-9. Fine fruit similar to Bing. Reliable producer. Long-time favorite plum in California. A standout flowering/fruiting Zaiger introduction, Double Delight has a chilling requirement of less than 400 hours. We sell our products to retail nurseries, garden centers, container growers who sell to landscape contractors and retail Very firm, fine-flavored, yellow freestone. Suited to coastal and inland climates. Still, Evas Pride didnt even make the top 20 on a list of best-tasting fruit varieties compiled by Dave Wilson Nursery, a fruit tree grower. Finished trees include 5n1's plus assorted 4n1's and 3n1's. This is especially true the closer you live to the coast. It has everything going for it. For seven years this wholesale supplier has been evaluating the taste and appearance of home and commercial varieties of fruit. Best yellow freestone for many warm-winter climates. Heavy crops of soft shell nuts with sweet, flavorful kernels. We now rate it at less than 500 chill hours and for practical purposes, it should be considered in the 200 to 400-hour range. 700 hours. Sweet, flavorful, aromatic, spicy, perhaps the best. Red Baron is low chill, rated at 200 to 300 hours, and produces a large, juicy, richly flavored yellow freestone fruit. Tom's Picks Winners for the Low Chill Southwest, DWN Website Top 50 - Home Garden Tree Fruit Varieties, DWN Website Top 40 - Home Garden, 500+ Chill Hours, DWN Top 40 Home Garden Tree Fruit Varieties, 500+ Chill Hours. Widely adaptable, wonderfully flavored fruit varieties - some old, some new. Skin reddish orange over yellow. Zaiger introduction. As with Minnie Royal, the estimated chill requirement is 200 to 300 hours, but my Royal Lee tree has proven fruitful with even less. Excellent pollenizer for other apple varieties. In Southern California and the lower deserts of Arizona our winters can be short, oftentimes lasting less than two months, so it's very important that we choose varieties that are "low chill". Snow Queen has a true, old fashioned Anderson-style nectarine flavor. Very little tartness. Delicious, balanced, true peach flavor. Zaiger introduction, pollenized by Minnie Royal. 9254) (Zaiger), Taste test winner. Attractive glossy foliage turns red in fall. Wonderful dessert apple from New Zealand. But we also sampled a regular plum named Beauty, which can be grown here. Medium size, flat shape, still crunchy when ripe, non-astringent. Best when cross-pollinated with Burgundy plum or another Japanese plum or Pluot. This was a blind tasting, and some grocery-store varieties were included for comparison. Harvest late June to mid-July. Self-fruitful. Sprightly-sweet, intense spicy flavor, one of the best. Nurseryman Ono said that at his home in Yorba Linda his Pluots didnt bear any fruit this year. Round to heart-shaped fruit is excellent eaten fresh, dried, or in desserts. Another highly adaptable Pluot variety with a chill requirement of 400 hours or less. Self-fruitful. Self-fruitful with a low chilling requirement of 250 hours or less. Self-fruitful. Self-fruitful. Natural semi-dwarf tree. Write to Robert Smaus, SoCal Living, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012; fax to (213) 237-4712; or e-mail robert.smaus@latimes.com. Red-skinned, sweet and flavorful, all-purpose yellow freestone. USDA Zones 7-10. Sweet, aromatic, flavorful - the long-time No. Most popular plum in California & Arizona. Very cold hardy and heavy bearing. Exceptionally flavorful, aromatic, Santa Rosa-type fruit. Patent Pending (Zaiger). Self-fruitful. Greenish-yellow skin, amber-orange flesh. Southwestern fruit gardeners can finally celebrate the introductions of two new very-low-chill sweet cherries. It ripens late July through August in the Southwest. Prolonged harvest. Ripe late July/early August in Central CA, up to 3-4 weeks later in colder climates. Fruit ripens from late June to early July. Two crops per year. USDA Zones 6-9. Snow-white bloom in spring. Its not just fond remembering either--a neighbor recently brought me some delicious cots from his tree (which he thinks is a dwarf variety named Aprigold). nurseries, mail order nurseries, and anyone else who qualifies. Frost hardy. Pollenizing companion to Minnie Royal, the Royal Lee ripens about one week later and holds well on the tree until mid-June. Juicy, richly-flavored red and amber flesh. But we didnt know which were which until after the event. USDA Zones 6-9. The primary objectives of the tastings and the report are to 1) provide retail nursery personnel and home orchardists with knowledge of the best tree-ripe home orchard fruit, and 2) afford DWN a systematic means of evaluating new varieties. Once thought to require high chill, Fuji has proven itself as a reliable producer throughout the low-chill Southwest. Self-fruitful. A longtime favorite of mine and one of the first trees I planted back in the late 1970s. Most popular cherry. Resists fire blight. * Landscape designer Kelly Kubica talks about successful shade gardens, Saturday, 10 a.m.-noon, at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada Flintridge. 300-400 hours. Plum, Fl King-Fl Queen-Fl Supr-DapDan. Sweet, mild, almond-like flavor. Patent pending. Prune to any shape. The nursery plans tastings next year at several places in the Southland for those who want to experience firsthand how good garden varieties can taste. We tried several plum-apricot hybrids (Pluots) that were quite interesting, but most of these need more winter cold than we have here. It has an estimated chilling requirement of less than 400 hours. Home garden selection of Zaiger low-acid yellow nectarine. Oh yes, its a Zaiger! Sweet and juicy, firm when fully ripe. Requires another Pluerry, Plum or Pluot as pollenizer. Very low chilling requirement, less than 300 hours. Tropic Snow was another low-chill variety (200 hours) that I rated not especially attractive but with very good taste. (Zaiger). Plum/apricot hybrid with sweet, richly flavored, firm red flesh. Small to medium size, red-orange skin, very sweet orange flesh. (Zaiger). Self-fruitful in many western U.S. climates; pollenizer recommended for best production. We dutifully made notes on the attractiveness, maturity, texture, acidity, sweetness and overall flavor of 29 fruits trotted out for tasting and evaluation. No. Sweet and tangy, fine delicate flavor, firm texture. Even its interior color, washed with red, is exciting. Beautiful dark red skin. Note that many varieties have not yet been tested. A fond favorite from the Bahamas, Dorsett is thought to be the lowest-chill apple variety in use today, needing less than 100 chill hours to set a crop. Famous yellow freestone. Vigorous, productive tree. We sell our products to retail nurseries, garden centers, container growers who sell to landscape contractors and retail Reddish purple skin, amber flesh tinged red. Self-fruitful. This list is sortable by first harvest date: click on the column heading. Unique plum-apricot hybrid with sensational bouquet and sweet, spicy flavor. Desert Delight (requiring only 100-200 hours of chilling) had a traditional nectarine taste but it was almost as delicious. Attractive red skin. Pollenized by Emerald Drop, another Pluot or Japanese Plums. Adapted to hot climates. Harvest begins early. Also great for preserves and pies. Very nice flavor, the best early season yellow peach. A chill hour is approximated as one hour below 45 in late fall or early winter.For Southern California, we consider low chill to be 500 hours or less. Having grown up in an apricot orchard, I like to think I know what an apricot should taste like (Ive certainly picked my share). We do not accept direct sales to consumers. (Zaiger), Newest in the Zaiger Pluerry line of high-flavor interspecific plums (plum + cherry), Sugar Twist is unique in that it harvests a month earlier than Sweet Treat. USDA Zones 5-7. Note that many varieties have not yet been formally taste-tested. Large, white flesh, nearly freestone when fully ripe. Also look for Sweet Bagel, a yellow-fleshed peento-style peach that ripens through August. Harvest mid-August in Central CA. Double Delight is freestone and ripens through most of July. Chill hours in the late fall and early winter contribute more toward satisfying a fruit trees chilling requirement than do hours in mid-to-late winter when the trees are beginning to push and break dormancy. One of the all-time highest-scoring fruits at DWN. White flesh resists browning. (Pat. by Shinseiki, Bartlett, or other. 300 hours. We sell our products to retail nurseries, garden centers, container growers who sell to landscape contractors and retail June harvest in Central CA, about two weeks before Santa Rosa. Donut has a low chilling requirement of less than 300 hours and seems to produce just as well in high chill conditions as it does in a low chill. Greenish-maroon mottled skin. Its skin is dark speckled red, the amber/red flesh slightly subacid and very sweet, with a wonderfully unique flavor. Sweet, firm-ripe fruit holds on tree, continuing to sweeten. Large yellow freestone, excellent flavor and dessert quality. Early bloom. Crisp, sweet, excellent flavor. Drought tolerant, but best with ample water and feeding. August Pride is a large size, all-purpose yellow freestone peach. Freestone, very good quality. Self-fruitful. Pollenizers can be a Japanese plum such as Burgundy, or another variety of Pluot. For the 12-month period ended September 30, 2015, the 50 tree fruit varieties listed below were the most frequently accessed of the more than 300 tree fruit variety pages in the Dave Wilson Nursery Home Garden/Retail Nursery catalog. No. Richly flavored, one of the best early season stone fruits. Also adaptable to higher-chill climates. Growers in some climates will also be interested in the DWN Top 40 Home Garden Tree Fruit Varieties, 500+ Chill Hours. Consistently excellent flavor. This phenomenon only affects a small percentage of the crop, and with such great flavor, I can live with a little cracked fruit. Fruit Tasting Report 2014 pages 1-5 (PDF), Fruit Tasting Report 2014 pages 6-8 (PDF).