Fruit

I have grown a great many different types of fruit successfully over the years and even managed to grow figs, pineapples and kiwis in Yorkshire, a place in the north of England noted for being cold and wet.

Below: Figs growing in my poly-tunnel.

Fruit growing is split roughly into two types, tree fruits are hard fruits like apples and soft or bush fruits include currants, blueberries and strawberries. 

Hard and soft categories of fruits refers more to their shelf life rather then their texture. Hard fruits keep for much longer than soft fruits and can be stored.

There are many fruits that you have to grow yourself as many are just available in stores or they are very expensive when they are. Gooseberries is a good example, easy to grow and highly productive but almost never in any shops or grocers.

Below: This years gooseberry crop was over 90 lb and they are almost never found in stores.

What is the easiest fruit to grow?

Apples are the easiest tree fruit and strawberries the easiest soft fruit to grow. A well chosen apple in a good spot with fertile soil and proper care will produce hundreds of pounds of fruit every year.

It does to some extent vary depending on where you live. Figs grow wild like weeds in many parts of the world.

How long does it take for a fruit to grow?

It takes between 1 and 5 years for fruit trees to become productive and 1 to 2 years for soft fruits to produce decent crops.

Below: It takes 50 years or more to grow a fruit tree like this.

Some modern varieties of tree fruit can produce reasonable crops from their third year.