Any reason not to plant fruit trees?

I would put more if I had the room. Already have a satsuma, meyer lemon, and 2 apples (these won't be easy in S. La). I also have an olive tree in the front but still deciding if I want to keep it or not (it was free).

Just have to make sure you have the right varieties for your area.

One thing to consider though is when they get bigger, how much will you mind the fruit dropping to the ground that you can't get to. Outside our office we have a massive persimmon tree and it is a PITA because fruit drops all over the parking lot and it is hard not to step in it. I imagine that isn't as big of a deal in a yard though and wasn't enough to deter me.

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I have a big back yard so I'm not too worried about the mess. They wont be falling on an areas we use often.

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If you hate rats, or have an aversion to possums or raccoons, you might want to pick up fallen fruit or reconsider the number of fruit trees. Possums are no nuisance, as they're nature's little garbage men, but some ppl's dogs loathe them & a regular possum visitor can set off barking dogs at 3 am to much annoyance.

Rotting fruit on ground can definitely bring in the wood rats & resulting snakes that prey on them.

Otherwise, fruit trees are great. I've got pomegranate, meyer lemon, navel orange, calamansi, satsuma, blood orange, fig, and five productive olive trees. The pomegranate doesn't produce fruit, and the fig just feeds the birds, so I'm thinking of getting rid of those two and replacing with more citrus. I dearly love blood orange, so I'd like another of those. And maybe try again with a key lime (lost mine 2 winters ago).

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The second best time is now.

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If you are planting a young tree, be weary of winter. Best time to plant is February so that you catch the growing season and avoid the chance of frost.

I plan on picking it up and just throwing in the compost pile what we dont eat.

I cant do lemon or a thing citrus here really (north alabma). The stuff I have picked out is for my area. Peaches, pears, nectraines, apricots, plums.

They are some of the most disease resistant and common for my area.

I would consider how much fruit they make. For example, blueberry bushes need to be mature as in big before the birds eat a ton of them. So it’s best to plant 4-6 to get a reasonable amount of berries. Peaches produce pretty quickly. I don’t know about apples. Im just saying you don’t necessarily want just 2 of everything, sometimes you want 6 of one thing and 1 of another as it produces a ton.

Is it easy to find citrus trees locally? I haven't visited too many local nurseries but a lot of the time online it will say it can't ship to LA b/c of diseases/commercial crops/etc.

I would kill to be able to grow a Ruby Red grapefruit or 2.

Try stark brothers, they sell alot of stuff.

That's usually my go-to site. I got all of my blue berry bushes and apple trees from them.

They are extremely limited on citrus trees though. The only place I've found so far is FastGrowingTrees.com but they don't ship ruby red to LA.

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They are extremely limited on citrus trees though. The only place I've found so far is FastGrowingTrees.com but they don't ship ruby red to LA.

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Any state with a commercial citrus industry -FL, LA, TX, AZ, CA come to mind - has laws, it actually may be federal law, I forget, that make it illegal to import citrus trees from other states to prevent the spread from some very serious citrus diseases that could harm that state’s commercial citrus industry. You would would need to purchase a Rudy Red grapefruit tree produced in the state. You located in LA, if so whereabouts, b/c ruby red grapefruit trees are readily available for purchase in LA.

You will find citrus trees at almost all plant nurseries in south LA. Even WalMart and Lowe’s sell citrus trees here.