Hi Tim-
For the Apple trees, I would recommend going with Disease Resistant trees such as Liberty, Williams Pride, Enterprise, Freedom, etc. which are available at raintree and other online nurseries. You'll still may need to deal with insect issues, but you'll either skip or vastly reduce your fungicide sprays for dealing with Apple Scab, Cedar Apple Rust, and all the others.
That said, my DR trees are still young, so I'll be getting my first few apples off them this year. We'll see how they taste. I wish I knew about DR trees when I first started my orchard. My other trees get hit by the diseases hard and require a good amount of spraying.
-Glenn

Tim'
I have a Northstar tart cherry tree which is a natural dwarf. It's only a few years old but is virtually maintenance free. I've never had any disease or bug problems whatsoever. The only thing needed is netting for birds but this isn't too difficult because of its small size.
Ken

Boy, I kind of laugh at Raintree telling you apples are 'low maintenance' They are in the sense that, if you don't do anything to them, the trees will survive. But, if you want an apple you can actually eat that's not full of worms, maggots, and so disfigured from plum curculio larvae that it's not even remotely spherical in shape, you have to do a LOT of spraying. I'd call apples pretty high maintenance.

OK, persimmons, paw paws, mulberries are pretty trouble free, and you'll get a crop off of them without any attention to speak off. Also, most nut trees as well (but, good luck actually getting the nuts if you have squirrels in your neighborhood).

Pears, sour cherries, and possibly peaches or plums (in some climates/regions) are fairly trouble-free -- you might get a decent crop without too much intervention.

Apples, quince, sweet cherries, and apricots, in my experience, need a LOT of care in order to get anything edible that's not totally filled with worms.

Although not "tree" fruits, most berries, strawberries, raspberries/blackberries, blueberries, currants/gooseberries are also pretty trouble-free.

I have found medlars to be very prone to fireblight so I would call them more challenging than asian pears; they also are much more prone to moth damage. I lost one of my two medlars last year to fireblight, and I lost a good chunk of the one left this year. Compare this to zero strikes on my 7 asian pears in the same period.

I agree with Dennis about apples: the plum curculio and moths require lots of spraying, and I have more aphid problems on the apples. Disease resistance doesn't help at all with these things, so its not like a Liberty apple is going to be easy to grow.

Plums require lots of spraying for both curculio and moths, the pressure is very high there. So I would not call them easy at all.

I would agree that tart cherries are pretty easy, but the netting is a hassle on a big tree. Blueberries are very easy once you get the pH correct (plus you need to net; but, they are only bushes). Figs are very easy to grow but they may die back to the ground in the winter. I cover mine which makes it more work but I don't get any dieback. Hardy kiwis are easy, all they need is an occasional trimming. Jujubes are very easy, the only problem is ants getting into cracks in the fruit.

Also, even easy fruits can become hard. I have this uncommon pest called the persimmon psylla which is requiring me to spray my persimmons a couple times a year. Deer and squirrels can eat just about any fruit.

Scott

Some varieties of grapes can be trouble free in many locations. Alden and Steuben are generally fairly disease resistant. You might also try Jupiter and Glenora. Mulberries are very low maintainance. Remember that there are also smaller mulberry varieties like Weeping and Geraldi. Figs are very reliable, though your climate may be a bit too cold. Desert King fig is grown in some pretty cold areas.

I really don't understand Dennis and Scott's comments about apples, at least for the home grower. I have a house with three full-sized very mature apple trees -- two golden delicious (which are incredible -- among the best apples I've eaten -- it sure tastes different from the GD's in the store) and one mac. We do no spraying or treating for bugs at all. They both produce LOADS of fruit, almost none of which is worm infested. Sure, maybe not all the fruit looks as perfect as the things you buy in the store, but with virtually no maintenance except for pruning we get bushels and bushes of fantastic fruit for eating, canning, freezing, etc. I dont know -- perhaps this depends on the region of the country you're in? I'm in Central New York...

I will back up the previously mentioned issues with pears and fireblight, as we've had two young pear trees that already succumbed...

Emily

Pawpaw. End of story.

Emily, if you don't spray here you will get bugs in 100% of the fruit. Not only that, each apple will have a completely deformed shape from all the curculio, plus multiple codling moths in nearly every fruit so there is hardly a non-wormed bite to be found. I had some friends with a 100-year-old tree and I got to see the carnage first-hand -- it was ugly! I grew up in Indiana and our untreated apple trees there were also all bug-infested. NY also has many apple pests so there must be some reason why you are getting lucky, e.g. there is some predator around who is eating all the bad bugs. Count your blessings!

Scott

I suggest you check around locally to see what produces with low maintenance. Visit with your local extension agent, nurseries, and homeowners when you see a yard with different trees. Pest and disease problems vary so much around the country that every fruit is virtually no maintenance in some areas and nearly impossible in other areas, so local experience will be the best.

If I were to vote for low maintenance (and many will disagree due to their local problems), I would note peaches, pears, apricots, both sweet and sour cherries and plums. I only have insect problems with apples which take frequent spraying. All of them take at least some pruning and can have minor susceptibility to disease in my climate, and many of these will only produce fruit a few of every 10 years due to spring frost. Cane berries don't take much, though I really hate pruning out the dead canes on raspberries--but then it doesn't take any longer than pruning any of the other trees, and with everbearing raspberries you could just mow them off in the fall and give up the summer crop and get only the fall crop.

It must be dependent on your location if apples or plums are easy.

I'm lucky to get a single plum (because of curculio) before the borers kill the tree and I've tried a few times. The single plum I did manage to get out of 3 trees had to be bagged with a pair of pantyhose from fruit set to ripe, borers killed the tree the next year.
I know someone with a tiny prune plum the bugs don't want but neither do most humans, it's a good jam tree.

Apples are only problem free here if you want blooms and trees. If you want fruit you'll have to work for it. Pears are like the apples but but better on the fruit and more prone to the tree dying when young.

Pie cherries are easy. They do have some borer issues but other than that just powdery mildew some years. And aphids but I don't consider those much of a problem plus they'll get on anything around here some years.

Mulberries are definitely easy around here, they're a weed. I have a lot of maintenance with them, cutting them out of my fence below ground level and then salting the earth to kill the roots. If you or a neighbor has a white car, house or hang cloths out to dry you won't be happy with what the birds do. You're not going to net a Mulberry around here, I had to reach from horseback to eat the wild ones along the trails.

fearlessem,
I went about 10 years without spraying and only getting a few apples with a few worms. The first years I had no bug issues (amazing because my neighbor had a neglected tree he gave up on). I recently noticed the last 10 haven't been giving me ANY apples that were edible fresh let alone able to be stored. It sneaks up on you.
If you have "almost none" that means you have some and they're breeding a bigger and bigger army to attack with. I would assume you have a beneficial helping you so try to help them with a targeted organic measure (tanglefoot). Don't let the few get out of hand like I did.