anyone know of any or any bare root or seeds from known large producing big fruited trees?
is it my imagination or is naming their fruits and trees a mess out there in the real world? it seems everyone uses the same pictures for every Crataegus and the same descriptions for them all. but never is two descriptions of any of the Crataegus the same for any variety or group . what a mess.
reason I need a small orchard of these because had a heart attack IN JAN and NEED TO GET LOTS OF THESE FRUITS INTO MY DIET SOMEHOW ..

I have a couple of small fruited, native hawthorns (crataegus phaenopyrum)which I pick the fruits from. I harvest them for a naturopath doctor who uses them for tinctures. He uses that the same way the large fruited Chinese varieties are used. The native wild hawthorns still have their fruits and will most all of the winter. Like rosehips, they are fine to collect in the winter.

That said, please work with an herbalist, naturopath, or some other health care professional to help you take control of your health safely.

FataMorgana

Our native hawthorns having the largest fruits are C. mollis, C. punctata, C. aestivalis, C. opaca, C. harbisonii, C. coccinioides and C. triflora. These are not necessarily the heaviest producers, however.

The cultivars C. viridis 'Winter King' and C. phaenopyrum 'Vaughn' are much more reliable fruit producers (fruits 10-14mm) than any of the straight species, and these two grafted cultivars are commercially available in quantity. They do not bear so well in sandy, hot or dry soils, however.

So, if I were to suggest a species to grow for medicinal fruit harvesting, C. crus-galli is most adaptable to a variety of soils and it has good quality "ingredients"; it is also frequently available through seed or nursery stock; there is even a thornless variety, 'Inermis'. The mayhaws (aestivalis, opaca, rufula) grow well and produce heavily in the deep South, in moist soils; they are also readily available. For the north, or higher elevations of the South, large-fruited and reasonably prolific C. punctata and C. coccinioides would be my choice; these may be available only rarely, through seed.

Hope those comments help. Disease resistance did not really play into those comments - presuming the disease of concern is fungal rusts, which affects all hawthorns if they are in the vicinity of infected alternate hosts (eastern redcedars). Sometimes one reads claims of "disease resistance" to hawthorn rust in Crataegus phaenopyrum and C. crus-galli, but this is not really true.