It’s time to look at new fruit plants for our zone. Most people associate fruit plants and trees with warm, tropical climates. That’s not always the case. Many fruiting plants have been adapted to grow in colder climates and are well able to withstand the cold winters of growing zone 4. While many fruit trees are not happy with the -30 degrees Fahrenheit zone 4 can throw them during the winter, there are several that will survive the way-below freezing temperatures.
To ensure success with growing fruit plants in this cold region, read plant labels and purchase only those that are cold hardy up to zone 4. Give some of these new fruit plants a spot in your garden and they’ll survive the long, cold winter while providing you with years of fresh fruit.
Berry Plants
The new Jelly Bean blueberry plant is cold hardy to growing zone 4 and provides more than just edible berries. White blooms in the spring, interesting green leaves with red tips during the summer and brilliant yellow foliage in the fall. The new Jelly Bean blueberry plant will produce a bumper crop of sweet berries in early August.
Baby Cakes blackberry is a new thornless, cold hardy berry bush that will produce large, sweet blackberries on a dwarf bush. Harvest times varies with the new Baby Cake blackberry cultivar, so plant a couple different types for a prolonged summer harvest of fresh blackberries.
Blueberry cultivars have also been adapted for growing in zone 4. Duke blueberry produces berries in early spring, Bluecrop is a mid-summer producer and Elliot is a late season producer. Zone 4 gardeners can enjoy fresh blueberries all summer by planting these three new fruiting plants.
Fruit Trees
Several apple cultivars are cold hardy and well able to withstand a zone 4 winter. Try growing Honey Crisp, Northern Spy or Spartan.
Certain plum cultivars will thrive even in bitter cold of zone 3, so give them a try too – Alderman, Superior and Waneta plum tree.
Sour cherries will fare best in the cold climate, like Surefire and Sweet Cherry Pie, but there is one sweet cherry cultivar, the Rainier, that grows well in zone 4.
Planting a pear tree in this zone is a 50/50 gamble, it might make it, it might not. If you have your heart set on trying to grow a pear tree in zone 4, plant a Luscious or Pattern cultivar.