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Fruit and nut trees

Orchard and dryland trees grown for their fruit and nuts, from the temperate to the desert edge.

Growing·Trees
  1. 01
    Ripening apples on a trained tree in a mixed orchard
    Trees№ 0177 min

    Apples and Pears: The Pome Fruits

    Pollination groups, rootstock choice, disease-resistant varieties, and why the tree you buy is always a clone on borrowed roots.

  2. 02
    Ripening plums and cherries on the branch in a mixed stone fruit orchard
    Trees№ 4636 min

    Stone Fruit: Plums, Cherries, Peaches, Apricots

    The Prunus crops — why they are pruned in summer only, how they fruit on young wood, and the frost timing that decides the crop.

  3. 03
    Ripe pomegranates splitting open on the branch to show red arils
    Trees№ 3645 min

    Pomegranate: Drought-Hard, Long-Lived, and Split by Rain

    An ancient desert fruit that suckers into a thicket, tolerates salt and drought, and splits its fruit if watered unevenly at ripening.

  4. 04
    Ripe yellow guavas on the tree with pink flesh visible in a cut fruit
    Trees№ 2014 min

    Guavas and Feijoa: The Myrtle-Family Fruits

    Common guava, strawberry guava and feijoa — fast, hardy, productive subtropical fruit, and one of them among the worst island invaders there is.

  5. 05
    A large fig tree with buttress roots and dense canopy in a tropical forest
    Trees№ 1615 min

    Fig Species: Tropical Keystones That Feed Everything

    Why 750-plus species of Ficus are the most important tree genus in the tropics, fruiting year-round and feeding more wildlife than almost any other plant.

  6. 06
    Mature walnut tree with compound leaves and developing green nut husks
    Trees№ 5114 min

    Walnut: High-Value Timber and Food

    Walnut pairs premium timber with calorie-dense nuts. Design around juglone allelopathy and you get one of the most profitable trees in temperate agroforestry.

  7. 07
    Macadamia nuts in and out of their hard round shells beneath the tree
    Trees№ 2765 min

    Macadamia, Cashew and Brazil Nut: The Tropical Nut Trees

    An Australian nut with a shell that needs industrial force, a cashew hidden in a caustic shell, and a Brazil nut that cannot be farmed at all.

  8. 08
    Clusters of pistachios ripening on the tree with split shells and reddish hulls
    Trees№ 3584 min

    Pistachio: The Desert Nut That Splits Its Own Shell

    A dryland nut tree that tolerates heat and salt, needs cold winters and both sexes, and crops heavily only every other year.

  9. 09
    Hickory nuts in their thick husks beside pinnate leaves and shaggy bark
    Trees№ 2145 min

    Hickory and Pecan: The Hardest Wood and the Best Nut

    Carya — shock-resistant timber for axe handles, the smoke in barbecue, and a taproot that makes them almost untransplantable.

  10. 10
    Sweet chestnut tree with spiny seed husks and broad canopy
    Trees№ 0804 min

    Chestnut: The Tree That Fed Civilisations

    How chestnuts fed mountain Europe for millennia, why the American chestnut nearly vanished, and how to fit chestnuts into a working food forest.

  11. 11
    A whip and tongue graft bound with tape, cambium layers aligned
    Growing№ 1936 min

    Grafting and Rootstocks: Choosing the Tree Beneath the Tree

    Why every orchard apple is two plants, how rootstock decides final size and soil tolerance, and the four grafts worth learning.

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