Best Fruit Tree and Berry Varieties for the Portland Area
Here are my recommended varieties for this area. Updated 12/17/2021
Generally speaking, most fruits and all nuts do better with a partner. Always plant two of everything if you have the space. Otherwise, you can rely on neighbors’ trees for pollination, if compatible and within 100ft of yours. You can also plant a combo (multi-grafted) tree to satisfy pollination needs, though often one variety will outcompete and crowd its neighbors.
Quince, persimmon, peaches, nectarines, sour cherries, and apricots tend to self-pollinate just fine, and can be planted solo. Please check pollination compatibility before purchasing your trees. Thanks to Orange Pippin for the pollination compatibility tool.
Apple Varieties
The best trees for disease resistance are:
Liberty
Spartan
Redfree
Jonafree
For flavor plus disease resistance, these are my recommended apples:
Akane
Macoun
Jonagold
In terms of pure flavor and relative resistance, I recommend russet varieties:
Anannas Reinette
Ashmeads Kernel (my personal favorite)
Hudsons Golden Gem
Honorable mention goes to Granny Smith for it’s excellent storage life (6 months or longer for us)
Apple Rootstocks
I recommend the following rootstocks for Apples:
M-26
Considered a dwarf rootstock, M-26 trees typically grow to 8 to 12 feet high, and are usually spaced 8 to 12 feet apart. M-26 induces early bearing, usually 2 to 3 years after planting, and grows well in most soils, except very wet and poorly drained ones. On windy sites, trees grafted on M-26 may need staking.
M-7
Most trees with this semi-dwarf rootstock will grow to 12 to 16 feet high. Crabapples, columnar, espalier, and combination apple trees on M-7 will be smaller. M-7 is very hardy and adapted to most soils.
B-9
This stock is very dwarf - trees may only grow to about 8 feet high. It needs staking, and is prone to suckering and root rot, so do not plant in heavy or waterlogged soils. It is very cold tolerant and produces red leaves, so you can easily see which suckers to remove.
Quince
Aromatnaya or Pineapple quince both do well here, and are easier to keep small than other varieties.
Asian Pears
I recommend all Asian Pear varieties, though their flavor varies widely between the yellow and the brown/russet types, so be sure you know which you like. All Asian pears are resistant to scab. Like European Pears, Asian Pears are less susceptible to insect pests than apples.
Kikisui is a nice yellow crisp juicy type of pear.
Chojuro has a nice butterscotch flavor in my opinion, though the trees get quite large. Can be pollinated by Bartlett.
European Pears
When recommending European varieties, I opt for disease resistance. I say they are ‘less-susceptible’ to disease, rather than truly resistant.
Go for dwarfing quince rootstock, or semi-dwarfing OHxF 333, for resistance to fireblight. Also, European Pears are less susceptible to insect pests, therefore somewhat easier to grow than apples.
Some European pears can be pollinated by Asian pears (see pollination link)
Rescue - My personal favorite, for its disease resistance and color (red over green)
Comice - Superior flavor, will need consistent fruit thinning to prevent branch breakage as the pears are large. Needs a late-season pollinator (i.e. Bartlett, D’Anjou, Bosc)
Flemish Beauty - Chosen for superior flavor, because it tastes like roses, and I’m happy to peel a pear when it gets scab. Also supposedly self fertile.
Bartlett - If you only have one space for one pear, go with this reliable, fresh eating, self-pollinating all-star.
D’Anjou / Bosc - Do best when ripened in cold storage for 4-6 weeks. Not recommended for home growers.
Persimmon
These trees can grow 30 to 40 feet tall, so be careful what you plant.
Early Fuyu is more compact in size, and is eaten firm.
Saijo is good for an astringent type, due to its more compact size but needs to be either eaten when fully soft, or dried (Hoshigaki) to be enjoyed properly.
Fig
The following trees, which grow to fifteen to twenty feet tall, are the workhorses of the fig family in Portland.
To induce early bearing, and to keep the size of the tree in check, you can plant figs in a half-wine barrel or larger container, though do ensure they are well-watered.
Petit Negra - one of the smaller figs trees, it will ripen one crop of figs in September. They are small and black, with pink flesh.
Brown Turkey - brown skin and yellow flesh, very sweet and prolific. Not a small tree, but my own personal favorite in terms of productivity, flavor, and tree beauty. The first (breba) crop can be the size of a small fist!
Latarulla (or Honey Fig) - produces two crops most years in Portland. Not otherwise exceptional in flavor, but very sweet
Negronne, or Violet De Bordeaux - With both an Italian and French name, this fig does not disappoint on flavor, but it can get large.
There are other varieties that could ripen in our climate (i.e. Stella) in a hot summer. But because our climate is so variable, these varieties perform best in the long term.
Stone Fruits
In Portland, stone fruits, with the general exception of prune plums, are for the brave grower. Peaches, Cherries, Asian Plums, Apricots, and their various hybrids (Aprium, Pluot) are all very disease-susceptible in our region.
Plums
Of all the stone fruits, plums are the most consistent producers, and fare best with disease pressure. They tend to get coryneum blight, but otherwise, they fare pretty well. Plum varieties I recommend:
Hollywood - Asian plum with nice purple leaves and yummy fruit.
Beauty - Early red plums, tasty (think bubblegum) and prolific. Ours produced its second year in the orchard!
Shiro - Extremely productive yellow plum. The flavor is greatly impacted by the amount of sunlight the fruit gets, so only plant this one in all-day sun.
Brooks - European prune plum, quite large and easy to harvest. Can be a vigorous grower, so be sure to prune every summer and late winter.
Howard’s Miracle - has the best plum flavor in my opinion. It is a cross between Asian and European (hence the miracle). It is a pollinator for both European and Asian plums, and the flavor has hints of coconut and banana! The downside is that it is not very productive.
Cherry
Advanced growers will do better with cherries. They are prone to many Diseases, and then you will be fighting with the squirrels, raccoons, birds, and western cherry fruit fly for any formed fruit.
Compact Stella - marketed as a dwarf cherry, will likely reach 15’ in our region.
Schneider’s Heirloom - A promising variety from Germany. I haven’t seen it produce yet, as it is new to the market.
Lapin - another promising, disease resistant variety
Surefire - Sour pie cherry, very small and productive. Those in our orchard have no signs of disease. They are easy to net, due to their small stature (under 5ft so far)
Always go with Colt rootstock for cherries, as it is canker resistant.
Peach
Again, plant with caution. The ONLY peaches that stand a chance here (due to peach leaf curl) are:
Frost- a tasty cling stone peach with resistance to peach leaf curl
Oregon Curl Free- similar in all ways to Frost
Apricot
Again, plant with caution:
Puget Gold - a seedling from Puget Sound, is the only apricot I’d recommend planting here as it is resistant to diseases caused by our cold wet spring weather.
You could also try Harcot or Harglow, as they show some resistance to brown rot and bacterial canker, but they are more of a risk than Puget Gold.
Plant apricots in a place where they will be somewhat hidden from view, as they can get quite scraggly and ugly with disease. Controlling disease organically is quite difficult, as sulfur spray will kill apricots.
Berries
Blueberries
You want at least two or three types of blueberries. I prefer the evergreen for the landscape, and they produce well:
Sunshine Blue - tolerates a more neutral soil than other types
Misty Evergreen - also tolerates a more neutral soil
Duke - BEST for production and flavor in my opinion. Pair it with Blueray.
Blueray - good companion to Duke
Bluecrop - recommend, but needs regular pruning, as it will make so many berry clusters they will break branches.
Raspberries
All golden raspberries are susceptible to verticillium. In well-drained areas, I typically plant:
Harvest Gold
Red raspberries tend to get Raspberry Bushy Dwarf Virus, unless otherwise noted for resistance. Good choices for red raspberries that are more resistant to verticillium wilt:
Boyne
Amity
Blackberries
Go for the thornless varieties, unless you are really set on marionberries, You will thank me later. What you lose in flavor you more than gain in ease of maintenance.
I typically recommend the Triple Crown variety, but they do get huge, with stocks up to 3-inches in diameter! So, plant them about 5 feet apart.
The other benefit to thornless is that you will easily see any sneaky invasive Himalayan blackberry coming up in your rows that need to be removed.
Grapes
Most do great here, but do avoid late-season ripening types:
Himrod - These green grapes are less susceptible to birds, who prefer the colors red and purple in the fall. Go figure!
Canadice - A Red grape with nice flavor that ripens well.
Concords - smell amazing and have the classic “foxy” flavor, however most varieties contain seeds. They make excellent jam and are productive even with a heavy pruning.
Fuzzy Kiwi and Kiwi berries:
Fuzzy Kiwi: Most likely the recommendation is “do not grow kiwis”, unless you have space to build a very large arbor or trellis, and then rebuild it 10 years later when it is destroyed by the weight of the vine.
I’ve seen mature, unpruned fuzzy kiwis swallow buildings and come up in basements in Portland. Also, you need to plant two (both a male and female vine) to get fruit. Also, you may like eating kiwi, but do you enjoy eating 300lbs a year?! Too bad you can’t juice them.
Kiwi Berries: That being said, I am in favor of the smaller (a relative statement) kiwi berry vine. You will still need to plant two (a male and female). However, they are more on par with grapes in their growth, and easier to maintain on a trellis or arbor.
Kiwi berries have the added benefit of a thin, no-need-to-peel skin, though they have a much shorter storage life than the Fuzzy kiwi.
Nuts
What’s true of nuts is that they get huge, they make a mess, and the urban squirrels eat them all. That being said, if you’re really set on it, go with fire-blight resistant hazelnuts, and prune them so that they branch super low down, to keep them more like a bush that you can net. You must plant two for pollination. Update: Never mind, squirrels will chew through commercial grade tree netting.