Barbados Cherry is a great shrub that can be container grown in your climate, and brought inside for winter. I have 2 of them.

Peaches, Plums, Apples, Grapes and thornless Blackberries are well worth growing. It is quite easy to keep them healthy and productive. I spray 2-3 times a year (in winter) and prune in summer after harvest. The hardest part is protecting the fruit from tree rats(G). I have 18 Peach/Nectarine trees, 7 Plums, and 15 Apple trees. It takes me a day to spray them all. Strawberries are more work intensive, as they need to be thinned/moved every year, to let the new plants take over. They are best grown in raised beds, with a secure fence around them, since everything loves to eat them.

You might be able to grow Satsuma Mandarins which are quite cold-hardy. Citrus also can be container grown and moved indoors if you choose a less-hardy variety.

Please check out Just Fruits and Exotics, and Bay Laurel Nursery for fruiting plants that will do well in your zone. Both nurseries have top-notch plants, and knowledgeable staff!

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: My fruit trees

I wonder if you have considered Mulberries for your kids? Great trees, easy to grow, and there are white-fruiting ones and dwarf ones. I LOVE my Mulberry trees! They are not sprayed, rarely fertilized, and produce buckets of scrumptious fruits!

What about Figs? Or Pomegranates? Blueberries?

Lisa

just a not about extension services in general - they like to push the fact that every plant can get some disease and that you should do this and that and this and that inorder to grow something. Here is a example in people terms - it is like a doctor telling you that you have the chance of catching 500 diseases that your exposed to in the next week and that inorder to prevent that you have to go to a bubble room and excercise 5 hours a day and eat only 5 organic things to survive and not to let sunlight touch you but the dark is not healthy either. See the problem ..........In order to grow things use common sence. Check your plants at least every couple of days. Especially in hight of summer when they are more apt to get something. Have organic spray avialable that will treat fungus and a good variety of insects and a can spayer for each. I am saying organic since your kids are out there and your likely to eat and go and not always wash before you eat it. If you check your plants often your going to notice if they are being invaded or if the leaves look like they have some problem. You can treat it as soon as it happens and nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem. Our farm has been in operation for 90 years and 4 generations and we have learned that the extension offices have some usuable information but honestly you cant take to heart most of what they say and common sence rules over all.

If these will grow in your area, theyÂre good bets for children. Sherylls is right about listening to Extension services, but making your own decisions, even taking a few risks. There is something to be learned from crops that fail, as long as there are not too many failures. Children can be taught simple maintenance routines like regular watering and weeding, but will need reminding, supervision.
Thornless boysenberries (one child asked why we ate them if they were "poisonberries"?) Kishu mandarins- small, very sweet, easy to peel, seedless, fruit "candy".
Small "lunch box" sized apples, like sweet crabapples (Wickson, Chestnut, Rescue),
Pixie, Pixie Crunch, Pitmaston Pineapple,
Sweet cherry tomatoes like Sun Sugar, Sweet 100, Yellow Pear (my sonÂs favorite)
Sweet muscadines and scuppernongs (my favorite growing up) Seedless preferred.
Seedless grapes (my son still talks about our old Black Monukka vine)
Mulberries  just make sure they are where you wonÂt step on them and track them in the
house when ripe.
Blueberry- Sunshine Blue stays kid size- four feet. Other varieties might be bigger, taste
better, but get really tall.
Strawberries- The ones I grow in planters in potting soil seem to do better than in the
ground. The white and yellow alpine strawberries are especially good. Children learn
that size, color, and flavor donÂt always go together.
Pumpkins- my 26 yr. old son still grows them every year, for toasted seeds, pumpkin
pies, carving at Halloween, gifts to friends at Thanksgiving.
Pineapple tops can be rooted in water, moved to potting soil, and grown in pots, moving indoors over the winter.
Good luck with it. Let us know how it goes.

Lisa is right on about mulberries. Check out ediblelandscaping.com for good info. Pomegranates are another winner for tough and low maintainance. You might also want to check out loquats, like Gold Nugget.

I second checking out Just Fruits and Exotics -- they are in northern FL and focus on fruits that actually can work in the hot and humid south. If you have question on how hard something will be to grow where you are, just call them up and ask.

Scott

You are in Satsuma country as LA is famous for this delicious citrus. There are numerous varieties available from early to late types. I have two varieties that have been growing in the ground with no protection for about 10 years. They are quite hardy when fully dormant and have taken temperatures of 12-15 degrees some years with only minor tip damage. Kids love them as all you do is break the skin and it flips right off.......no peeling and the fruit is delicious with very few seeds. They should be easy to locate at nurseries in your area. My area is 40 miles south of Fayetteville, NC a few miles from the SC state line. My summers are comparable to yours in that the summers are long, hot and humid.

Figs and pomegranates are fruits that kids love and will do good in your area.

Good luck with your growing.

Jack

Sounds like you can probably grow what I can in Houston.

In which case, the easiest (no worries about pests, spraying, fertilizing, etc) for me in hot humid Houston are:
Satsuma mandarin oranges
figs
Asian Persimmons
loquats

Also, look into sunquats (tiny lemons), hardy citrus, pomegranates, and some pears(ask your extension for varieties.)

If you have room, get a 'Maypop' Passion vine for lots of passionfruit and super-cool, fascinating-for-kids flowers.

Vicky's blog!

I knew I could count on you guys! Thanks so much for ALL the info. My kids have been crabbing at me to make up my mind. They're raring to grow! I got the point across to my three older ones that we needed to make sure we were buying the right stuff, but when it came to my younger two, I had to explain how plants can get sad if their home is in the wrong place... So my three year old proceeded to inform me, as serious as could be: "trees don't get 'frouchy,' mom." Well, you can't help but grin at that!

How fun that your kids are so interested and excited about the fruit trees! That makes it all worth it. My son loves blueberries so we planted some. He's really into gardening at 4 now. Really fun times!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

We grow the white alpine strawberries on the sloped part of our orchard, and my small boys spend 1/2 hour each day hunting for them, May-October. When friends come over, that is the first place they go. The berries seed down but don't run.

My kids also like gooseberries, red currants, blueberries and evergreen huckleberries. I second the Sunshine Blue recommendation. It stays small, and produces fruit over a long period, so there's always a few to eat. They also nibble on the lingonberries and wintergreen berries a bit. They know which flower petals and leaves they can taste: scented geraniums, lavender, violas, basil, lemon thyme, etc.

Good luck!

Kelle