It’s the time of the year to plant fruit trees. North Louisiana has great weather to grow certain varieties of fruit and berries.  When picking out your trees, always use a local nursery. They know and sell the varieties for our area. You don’t want to plant a plum tree here that is better to plant in Vermont when you live in north Louisiana.

Good varieties for our area are:

       Peaches – Ruston Red, Dixie Land, and Elberta

       Plums – Santa Rosa and AU Rosa.  These are red plums.

       Pears – Orient, Ayers, and Moonglo

       Apples – Granny Smith, Yellow Delicious, Ana, and Molly Delicious

       Blueberries – Premier, Climax, Tifblue, and Powder Blue

       Blackberries – Natchez, Arapoho, and Navaho

When it’s time to plant your tree, you will need to dig a hole about the same depth as the pot it came in and break up the soil around the roots of the tree.  Two great additives when planting your tree are mulch and peat moss to help retain moisture and loosen the soil. When planting, mix about a gallon of water with a root stimulator pour around the roots. Make sure to water regularly and fertilize yearly.

In the coming seasons, you need to trim and spray the fruit tree.  You will want to monitor your trees for disease, mites and insects. Fertilome Fruit Tree Spray that contains neem oil and is a great multi-purpose insecticide, fungicide and miticide.  You should get fruit in a few years or less.  Enjoy the fresh fruit in your own back yard.

(Mitzi Thomas owns Minden Farm & Garden LLC. Watch for her column on Fridays in Webster Parish Journal.)