The following information on the best fruit varieties for the amateur home garden comes from Five Acres and Independence by M. G. Kains. Five Acres and Independence is also available to purchase in print.
Best Varieties of Fruits
The following varieties have been chosen because of their high quality and therefore suitability to amateur, home gardens.
Apple: Benoni, Blenheim, Chenango, Cortland, Delicious, Early Harvest, Early Mackintosh, Esopus, Spitzenberg, Fall Pippin, Fameuse, Golden Delicious, Golden Russet, Gravenstein, Grimes Golden, Hubbardston, Jonathan, Lowland Raspberry, McIntosh, Northern Spy, Peck Pleasant, Porter, Primate, Rambo, Roxbury Russet, St. Lawrence, Shiawassee, Williams, Winesap.
Apricot: Alexander, Alexis, Blenheim, Budd, Early Golden, Harris, Montgarnet, Moorpark, Peach, Royal, St. Ambroise.
Cherry, sour: Dyehouse, Early Richmond, English Morello, Large Montmorency, Ostheim, Wragg.
Cherry, sweet: Bing, Black Tartarian, Burbank, Napoleon, Lambert, Governor Wood, Schmidt, Windsor, Yellow Spanish.
Cherry, duke: Late Duke, Louis Philippe, Magnifique, May Duke, Olivet, Royal Duke, Reine Hortense.
Crab: Excelsior, General Grant, Hyslop, Martha, Transcendent, Whitney.
Nectarine: Boston, Downton, Early Newington, Early Rivers, Early Violet, Elruge, Hardwicke, Humboldt, Hunter, Newton, Pitmaston Orange, Stanwick, Victoria.
Peach: Belle, Carman, Chairs, Champion, Early Crawford, Fitzgerald, Foster, Frances, Greensboro, Hiley, Late Crawford, Morris White, Niagara, Oldmixon Cling, Oldmixon Free, Ray, Rochester, Salwey, Smock, Stump, Waddell, Yellow St. John.
Pear: The following varieties are best when grafted on pear stocks: Bartlett, Belle Lucrative, Onondaga, Seckel.
Pear: The following do equally well as standard and dwarf trees: Anjou, Beurre Superfine, Clapp, Cornice, Madeleine, Josephine de Malines, Osband, Pound, Tyson, White Doyenne.
Pear: The following usually fail as dwarfs unless double worked (that is with quince roots, pear trunk and the desired variety grafted on the pear trunk): Beurre Bose, Marie Louise, Sheldon, Winter Nelis.
Plum, American: Desoto, Downing, Hammer, Hawkeye, Miner, Stoddard, Surprise, Terry, Wayland, Weaver.
Plum, European: Bavay, Golden Drop, Imperial Gage, Italian Prune, Jefferson, Middleburg, Mirabelle, Pearl, Peters, Reine Claude, Shropshire, Tragedy, Washington, Yellow Egg.
Dwarf Pears
The following varieties do better as dwarf trees than as standards: Angouleme, Beurre Diel, Easter Beurre, Glout Morceau, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Vicar of Winkfield.
The following varieties are offered by the leading nurseryman who specializes in dwarf fruit trees: Anjou, Bar-Seckel, Cayuga, Clapp, Cornice, Dana Hovey, Dr. Reeder, Duchess d’Angouleme, Flemish Beauty, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Seckel, Souvenir, Vermont Beauty, Wilder, Worden-Seckel and several others of less conspicuous merit.
Grape Varieties
In the following list the order of ripening is indicated by a number: “One” means earliest (in Southeastern New York about August 20) and “ten” latest (about October 20). To be on the safe side, if you reside north of New York City I suggest that you omit 10, 9 and perhaps 8 because in some years the growing season is shorter than others so these may fail to ripen; if you live north of Albany perhaps 7 and 6 should also be omitted. Names in italics are noted as long keepers.
Black varieties: Fredonia, 1; Moore’s Early, 2; Worden, 3; Barry, 3; Herbert, 4; Campbell, 4; Wilder, 5; Eumelan, 6; Mills, 6; Canandaigua, 10.
Red varieties: Moyer, 1; Brighton, 2; Lindley, 2; Gaertner, 3; Delaware, 4; Brilliant, 4; Salem, 5; Vergennes, 5; Agawam, 5; Caco, 6; Goethe, 7; Iona, 7; Catawba, 7; Urbana, 8.
White varieties: Ontario, 1; Portland, 1; Winchell (or Green Mountain), 1; Diamond, 3; Niagara, 4; Pocklington, 5; Empire, 5; Dutchess, 7.
Bush Berries
Blackberry: Agawam, Ancient Briton, Blowers, Early Harvest, Eldorado, Kittatinny, McDonald, Mercereau, Ward.
Blueberry: Adams, Cabot, Dunfee, Greenfield, Grover, Harding, Katharine, Pioneer, Ralph, Rubel, Sam.
Currant: Boskoop Giant (black), Cherry, Diploma, Fay, Filler, Lee (black), Perfection, Pomona, Red Cross, White Grape, Wilder.
Dewberry: Gardena, Lucretia, Mayes, Premo.
Gooseberry: Chautauqua, Crown Bob, Downing, Oregon, Pearl, Poorman, Red Jacket, Smith.
Mulberry: Downing, Hicks, Merritt, New American, Stubbs, Townsend.
Raspberry, red: Cuthbert, Erskine, Herbert, June, La France, Marlboro, Ohta, Ranere (or St. Regis), Latham.
Raspberry, black: Gregg, Hilborn, Honeysweet, Kansas, Plum Farmer, Tyler.
Raspberry, purple: Cardinal, Columbian, Royal Purple, Shaffer.
Raspberry, “white”: Carolina, Golden Queen.
Strawberries
Early varieties: Dorsett, Fairfax, Premier, Southland.
Midseason varieties: Aberdeen, Big Joe, Glen Mary, Marshall.
Late varieties: Aroma, Big Late, Chesapeake, William Belt.
Very late varieties: Gandy, Orem, Pearl.
Everbearing varieties: Champion (or Progressive), Super Giant, Lucky Strike, Mastodon.
Click here to purchase Five Acres and Independence in paperback
