Best advice is to always go to a reputable nursery.
They can give you the best information and you probably won't pay that much more for your trees. Like you, I would be leary about apples this far south but with all the new cultivars available I wouldn't be surprised to find one that does well down here.

You will learn that chill hours are most important in finding a fruit tree for your area. Have you looked at peaches, figs and pears?

Go to the LSU AG center website and download the publication " Louisiana Home Orchard". This document discusses the different cultivars, where they will be successful and how to care for them.

Good luck

Thank you very much. That is a great idea . I like the sound of "Louisiana Home Orchard"!!

If you can't find it or if it is no longer there I can probably e-mail you a copy or try to find a link for you. Let me know

There are a lot of low chill trees, including apples.

I have 3. Ein Sheimer, Dorsett Golden, and Anna. They are still young and have not fruited yet. They are growing well, although the two hurricanes loosened them in the soil and broke a lot of roots. Katrina pushed them toward the north and Rita pushed them toward the south. I got them from Ganier's Nursery in Houma. The wholesaler was Bracy's nursery in Amite.

there are a great many apple trees that grow well here even peachs,pears,plums and yes cherries. good luck Jim

Bracy's Nursery is where a lot of the local places get their stock. I have several trees that came from there & all are doing well. Amite isn't too far from me so I wish they sold to regular plant lovers.

I used to know a great gardener (think he's gardening in that great garden in the sky now) who had a lot of various fruit varieties and was very successful. We tried Anna and the poor little thing got so confused--she would bloom in September and get frosted before the fruit ripened. Seems when they don't get enough chill (and this was twenty or so years ago when we actually GOT a little chill!) they go dormant in the heat of the summer and then think it's spring when it cools off a bit. But there are varieties, he said. Wish I could ask him!

Here's the thing with most fruiting trees, We have almost no winters these days, So most trees such as apples, plums, peaches, and any other in that group need what is called chilling hours (hours below 40 degrees to rest) Figs are Tropical they dont count! If you are looking for good apple trees for the south that first would be Ein Schimer(bred in Isreal for the hot climate) Self pollinater so if you had room for only one this is a good choice. Anna is another low Chill apple that needs a pollinator. If you have an Anna with no apples you need another apple tree to pollinate it. I have both and also FuJi that makes small apples and Golden delicuis that has made no apples. My Ein Scheimer is loaded again this year as the past 2 years. Planted in the ground 6 years ago and almolst wiped out with Katrina and Rita!

Blueberries grow here in southern Louisiana. Have a 6' bush in my yard partial to full sun. Lots of fruit each year. It attracts blue jays and cardinals.

Hey sarahsaid,

You should make a trip over to Bantings in River City (south of N.O.). Last time I was there they had a good selection of fruit trees including pawpaws. Link is below.

Coyote Creek, north of St. Francisville has had mulberry in the past. http://www.coyote-creek.net/. If they don't have it in stock, they can likely order one for you.

Cleggs and Louisiana nurseries in BR typically have a good selection of fruit trees.

I have two Ein Sheimer apples in my edible landscape which are doing great. Planted one last year and one this early spring. Kumquats (both sweet and sour) do excellent as well as satsuma and mandarine oranges. Planted a lime this spring too along with 3 Meyer's lemons. All of my citrus trees are loaded with fruit thanks to my two Italian honeybee colonies in the backyard.

Japanese plums also do excellent down here, although this spring they flowered too early and got hit by a freeze, so no fruit this year. I like the Bruce plum the best. I was away on a border security project, so I was not around to cover them.

Prunus angustifolia var. gunthrie has produced lots of plums for me the last few years. You likely can't find this one in Louisiana, but you can get them from a nursery near Atlanta, Georgia: Nearly Native Nursery: http://www.nearlynativenursery.com/

In September or October you should go to the Hilltop Arboretum plant sale in Baton Rouge. You can usually find a number of fruit trees plus stuff the usual nurseries don't sell. This year's date will likely be posted on this forum.

Sounds like you also need a colony or two of honeybees. Nothing better than fresh honey from my honeybee hives and a bowl of blueberries from my blueberry shrubs!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Bantings Nursery

My advise would be to plant the mulberry a good distance from the house.

Mulberries grow from seed.I found an old wild mulberry down here in Kenner, I planted three fruits in a medium sized plant pot. Last year, I had to transplant the now seven foot tall result into a medium sized TREE pot. Fruited this year, but my feathered friends assumed I did it for them and gleaned all the berries before they even came close to ripening. I am planning to try it up on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. I hope it WILL succeed, as the old tree has been destroyed by rezoning.
Lowe's usually sells only what will grow in the area where the store is located.
I bought my apple tree, a yellow delicious variety that's self-pollinating, from Sam's Club, it survived an attack by a neighbor goat. Now fully leafing, many branches, about 6-7 feet tall, no sign of fruit yet, but it has only been in the ground since last spring. I'll let you know how it does.

I was sold Fuji and Eim Sheimer apples in Lake Charles. At first they looked healthy and beautiful for about a year when they developed some kind of fungus leaf rot other have had. I used need oil I mixed every week to spray everywhere on the tree. Leaf after leaf fell, branch after branch. Eventually the trees died. The Fuji was the last to go. Nurseries will sell everything because it keeps their kids in college. Go to forums or ask your neighbors. Sometimes experimentation is great, but that was a lot of money. Others have steered me clear of cherries too. There is a difference between clinging to life and thriving. Now I plan on getting the tastiest local variety of plums, pecans, and maybe a peach, but this time it needs a mound to keep it above flooding.