My Favorite Fruit Trees that Beat the Heat and Bear Fruit Within 2 Years

Hi everyone, this is Matt. Welcome back to Touchgrass Gardening. Now I live in Phoenix, Arizona, where it's some of the most extreme heat on earth. And today I'm going to show you the fruit trees that beat the heat and can give you fruit within just two years. So my first fruit tree that can really beat the heat is the Chinese jujube. And next to me, I have six of them, which I've planted very densely, kind of as a privacy barrier. But these trees are new. This one is just planted this past year. I have four that were planted this past year. Then I have two that are now two years old, two years in the ground. And last year we had 30 days straight of over 110 Fahrenheit of heat. So all of these trees I'm about to show you today can beat almost any heat in the world and still provide fruit. And what I really love about this jujube is that its fruit kind of tastes like apples, but the birds leave it alone. And it's one that I was able to eat a ton of when I lived in China. And it really brings home that memory for me. And it's a super easy tree to grow. So this will grow from about zone six to nine. It needs some chill hours, so it's not going to grow past zone nine. But in a desert, a Mediterranean climate that still gets a little bit cold in the winter, it's just the perfect tree because it doesn't care about summer. A part of the reason that it can get a little bit colder is that it is a deciduous tree. So what I don't really like about the tree is that it loses its leaves pretty early on in the year. And it's one of the last trees to get its leaves in the spring. So I'm not going to take a Chinese jujube and put it in the middle of my yard as a centerpiece in my yard. This is the very back corner of my yard, kind of in an area that I don't see that much unless I walk out here. And it is also, you can notice, pretty densely planted because Chinese jujubes, they like to have more than one to pollinate each other. In the spring, there'll be just a ton of flowers all over the place. And if you have more than one, you're going to get more fruit. Most of the other trees I'm going to show you today, they don't have that issue. But with Chinese jujube, you really do want more than one. So for instance, I have a li, long, and then behind me, a chico. So there's six of them, and they're all planted pretty densely. You might be asking like, aren't these trees going to kind of go on top of each other and really cause some problems for you? They're going to cause some problems, but jujubes are also the type that you can just prune super heavily. And then they'll come back in the spring and put on new branches based on where you pruned it over the winter. So this is one of my top trees that I just love planting in the desert. And they're so easy. It's a great beginner tree. So if you haven't planted a Chinese jujube, I suggest you put it in your yard. So the next tree I want to talk about today is the pomegranate. And this is one of the easiest beginner trees that can take any amount of heat that you throw at it. And you'll see fruit within the first year if it's big enough. This one actually did fruit on the first year. This has been two and a half years in the ground, and we have about 12 fruits this year. Last year we had about eight, which was the first year in the ground. But it's so easy in that I don't manage it at all other than pruning it in the spring and watering it say every five days. So it actually takes less water. It likes more infrequent water than most fruit trees, which like more of a steady water. But pomegranate, they don't really care. You can leave it alone a lot more than most fruit trees. And the great thing about pomegranate is there's so many varieties. This one is a red wonderful. I have two others that I'll show you in the back that are first year pomegranates. But they all have very different tastes, very different colors. There's red, pink, white varieties. And with this red wonderful, you think, well, that's what you're going to get in the store. It's the same thing. Why plant it? It tastes better than in the store because you're picking it right when you're ready to pick it. So for example, these are ready around Thanksgiving, but they stay on the tree until about Christmas. And whenever we want one, we just come out and pick it and then eat it that same day. So it tastes so much better, fresher, juicier, just a better fruit. And that's really why you're going to want to put fruit trees in your backyard so you can have that experience. Now pomegranate is a deciduous tree, so it's going to lose all of its leaves in the winter. But unlike jujube, it only stays bare for about a month. So I don't mind having this more in the center of my yard because I love the look of the pomegranates. Just when you come out here, it's very tropical look, even though it's not a super tropical tree. I love the look of pomegranates. So it's a really fun, unique tree to put in your yard and is very easy. And so I also want to show the two pomegranate trees that I just put in my yard this past fall and see how they look after just a few months. So here we go. This last one I just talked about was Red Wonderful. Now there's two other smaller pomegranates that are here. This is a Desert Tea and this is a Parfianca. And these are two that I read that are among the best taste test varieties. But this was just a tiny little twig this last fall. You can see where the nursery stake is. I'll probably have to take that out within the next few months. But in the beginning, these like to weep over. So I do like to have a nursery stake here. But this was just about that tall. Now we've gotten bushy, it's gotten taller, and it's gotten thicker down here. So you can see how fast pomegranate grow. In the first year, if it's this small, it's not going to give you fruit. But the Red Wonderful that I showed before, it was about three feet tall when I bought it. It was bigger than these. And then it did give fruit on the first year. So depending on how big you buy the plant, that's whether or not you're going to get fruit in the first year. But by the second year, pretty much any pomegranate is going to give you fruit. So it's one of those trees that is just such an easy tree that gives you rewards very fast. So the next fruit tree we're going to talk about is fig. And this tree that's about 10 feet tall is just two years old in the ground. So some fig varieties are super vigorous. And this one is called a Nixon Peace fig and is one of the most vigorous varieties. And I was really struggling with this spot in my yard because it should have a tree based on a fig tree. But it doesn't have a fig tree. But it's behind a really big orange tree, this tangelo tree, where it's going to block the sun in the morning. But then it's going to get blasted by the afternoon sun. So this is mostly shade until about noon. And then it gets sun from about noon to 6pm. So it's really not ideal unless you have a super hardy tree. And fig fits that bill. So this is one where I really don't do much with it to manage. I never put shade cloth on it. I never like protect it in the winter. It's deciduous, just like the other two fruit trees we talked about already. And it doesn't have an issue other than that it likes to grow more towards the sun. And that's why I'm pulling it back with this stake to try to keep it straight. But as you can see, if you come in here, there's already fruit on the in just two years. The first year, there was no fruit. But here in the second year, we have about seven fruits on here. And Nixon Peace is known as one of the better tasting kind of yellow figs. And I'm really looking forward to trying these within the next couple weeks. If you want to learn more about figs, there's a great channel that I've really learned a lot from called Enlightenment Gardening. I suggest you go over to her channel and learn more about figs. And you can hear her talk about everything fig related. So the really cool thing about figs is they're super easy to propagate from just a cutting, cut it, put it in the ground or cut it and graft it onto a tree. So there's a lot of people that have done like multi grafted trees of figs. That's something I'd like to do someday. But this is the first fig tree that I've grown. And now that I realize how easy it actually is, I think it's the type of tree that I can feel more comfortable cutting things off, putting things on and I'm not going to kill the tree like I would say, maybe an avocado or a lychee or things that are more sensitive. Fig does not seem sensitive to me at all and can take any sun, pretty much any cold, and it's still going to look like this within two years. So super vigorous tree, very easy to grow and fruit within two years. So the last tree we're going to talk about is the mulberry. And next to me is my Pakistan mulberry, which we've done a deep dive video on already, which you can see here. And this tree is one that I think is probably the best beginner tree if you have space in your yard, because you can see just how big it is, just two years in the ground. And it just looks so lush with these huge leaves that just stay green all summer long, despite the heat. And even though the fruit is eaten and gone, it's still a beautiful, wonderful tree that you can enjoy in your yard, even though you've already had the fruit. And so this tree has actually been one that is popular in my area in Phoenix among the fruit tree growers, but is one that I think you don't really see in non-hobbyist type of yards. I just don't see it very often, unless I'm going to someone who has, you know, specific fruit trees in their yard. So I think this is one that really can be planted more because of how beautiful it is and how it looks even without the fruit. So this is one that is also going to be deciduous. It's going to lose its leaves in the winter. And I love to use these leaves for mulch. They break up really nice, they break down, and they're just great mulch leaves. And it's a super easy tree to prune in the winter. I prune heavily, but it's one that is just, you take it, take a saw, and it'll come back no matter how you prune it. Even if you just prune it to a stump, you want to keep it smaller. It's not one that's going to overtake your yard as long as you cut it back. Now this is a two-year-old mulberry that has been pruned back heavily. But now I'm going to show you my one-year-old mulberry. So this is the white or green mulberry. And this is just one year in the ground, and it's probably tripled in size. So this is one that I really enjoy because it's a nice contrast to Pakistan that has that sweet purple mulberry, where this is more of the like honey green mulberry. And so it's great to have two mulberries in your yard that are quite different from each other. And this one has slightly smaller leaves, it has a different look, it's weeping out more. So each mulberry variety looks a little bit different. And there are some that have like super huge leaves that I really love the look of, but didn't like the taste of the fruit as much. So just go to your local nursery and see which varieties they have, see which one you like, and if you can try the fruit in the spring, that's the best time to think about a mulberry to put it in the ground. Because again, it loves summer, it loves heat, it doesn't care how hot it gets as long as you're giving it occasional water. And that's why mulberry is just one of those trees, like all four we've talked about today, which are able to take the sun and give you fruit within just two years. So this has been our video on fruit trees that can beat the heat and give you fruit within two years. I hope it helped you think about which trees that you want to put in your backyard or in your garden, and you can get rewards from quickly and that are easy to take care of even in the harshest climates, which is where I live here in Phoenix, Arizona. So again, let me know what you thought of the video. Please like it, and if you haven't subscribed, I'd really appreciate if you subscribe and be a part of our community as we're growing and continue to make videos. So I'll see you again next time.