North Florida isn't the tropics, and that's not a bad thing. Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tallahassee and the surrounding area get real winters with regular frosts, which means you can grow a whole group of delicious fruits that struggle in Miami. Pair those with a few tropical favorites in containers and you can enjoy homegrown fruit nearly year-round.
Here's our guide to the best fruit trees for Jacksonville and North Florida.
Understand your climate
Most of North Florida falls in USDA zones 8b to 9a, with coastal areas around Jacksonville a bit milder than inland spots. Freezes come most winters, and occasional hard freezes can damage even fairly hardy plants. Check your address on the USDA hardiness map, and pay attention to your yard: cold air settles in low spots, while the south side of a house stays warmer.
The cooler winters also give North Florida something South Florida lacks: chill hours, the hours of cool temperatures some fruits need to bloom well. That opens the door to peaches, pears, blueberries and more.
Top picks for North Florida
Figs
Figs are a North Florida classic and one of the most rewarding fruits you can grow. They're deciduous, cold-hardy and productive. Plant them in full sun with steady moisture and a thick layer of mulch, which UF/IFAS recommends to help figs cope with root-knot nematodes in sandy soil. In a hard freeze, a young fig may die back but often regrows from the base. Our Brown Turkey Fig is air-layered from productive mother plants.
Mulberry
Mulberries are about as easy as fruit trees get: cold-hardy, fast-growing and generous with sweet, dark berries in spring. Our Everbearing Mulberry is selected for a long season and ships well. Plant it where dropped fruit won't stain a patio or car.
Pomegranate
Pomegranates handle North Florida winters well, going dormant and leafless until spring. They're drought-tolerant once established and beautiful in bloom. Full sun and good airflow help limit fruit diseases in our humid summers. Try the Azadi Pomegranate.
Persimmons
Asian persimmons grow well in North Florida and produce beautiful orange fruit in fall. Some types are non-astringent and can be eaten firm, while others need to be fully soft.
Blueberries
Rabbiteye and southern highbush blueberries are well suited to North Florida, as long as you give them the acidic, well-drained soil they need. Plant more than one variety for better pollination.
Peaches, pears and grapes
Low-chill peaches and nectarines bred by UF/IFAS, pears selected for resistance to fire blight and native muscadine grapes are all good choices. Your county Extension office can recommend varieties matched to your chill hours.
Loquats and cold-hardy citrus
Loquats are evergreen and fairly cold-hardy, although a hard freeze during bloom can cost you the crop. Among citrus, satsumas and kumquats are some of the most cold-tolerant options. Citrus greening is present across Florida, so buy certified trees from a registered Florida nursery and read citrus greening signs and what to do.
Want tropical fruit too? Use containers
Mango, starfruit, guava, cacao and other tropicals won't survive most North Florida winters in the ground. In large containers, though, you can grow them outside from spring through fall and move them into a garage, sunroom or greenhouse when cold weather comes.
Compact mangoes like Pickering and Carrie are made for this. Read growing mango trees outside South Florida for container tips, and see our mango variety comparison to pick the best one for a pot.
When to plant
In North Florida, late winter through early spring is the classic time to plant deciduous fruit trees like figs, mulberries, pomegranates and persimmons. Container-grown trees can go in through spring. Avoid planting tender trees in fall, when they won't have time to establish before cold weather.
Protecting trees from freezes
Even hardy trees can suffer when a freeze follows a warm spell and catches tender new growth. Water the soil before a freeze, cover young trees to the ground with frost cloth and wait until spring to prune any damage, once you can see what's alive. Our guide to cold-hardy fruit trees for Florida freezes covers it step by step.
Feeding and watering
North Florida's sandy soils need regular mulch and moderate feeding. Fertilize from late winter, when growth begins, through early summer, and stop by late summer so new growth hardens before cold weather. Our guide on fertilizing fruit trees in Florida explains how.
Grow your North Florida orchard
I'm Tony, a botanist and arborist, and I run Giardino Fresco with my family in Miami. We ship fruit trees throughout Florida and to nearby Gulf states, packed carefully to travel. Before ordering, read our tips for buying fruit trees online in Florida.
Ready to plant? Browse our Zone 8 Hardy Subtropical collection, or shop the Brown Turkey Fig and Everbearing Mulberry, shipped to your door. Questions? Call or text 786-774-2125.
