Some Florida growers grow "Heritage" raspberries as an annual, planting liner plants in fall I believe to harvest in spring. But if you tried that spring to fall, the shortening days likely would not produce the fruiting you want. The tropical-mountain solanaceous fruit naranjilla (tomato related, but pleasantly sour and fruity for flavoring drinks) might work in the summers of zone 5. They do here at the boundary of 7/8. "Golden berry," a Physalis (sp?), though somewhat less "fruity," is a solanaceous crop that would easily work too.

All melons satisfy your requirement for a fruit grown as an annual.

~Chills

And tomatoes are technically annual fruit as well... though we often use them as vegetables. -Glenn

Oh yeah well I know about melons, they just take up a lot of room and I have limited space, I might grow a few though but I would like to have some fruit daily for smoothies, juice, and snaking.

I consider tomatoes a fruit also, most of the world considers it a fruit as well, the US Supreme Court ruled it was a vegetable for tax purposes, see the link below it's interesting. Technically if you think about the "fruit" of plants, aren't seeds thus grains the fruit of plants.

Well I was looking for something sweet and compact.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato - Fruit or Vegetable?

My mother-in-law states that if you plant/transplant strawberries in the fall then you can harvest the next June. I've done that and it worked great. I did intend to get some of my "babies" transplanted this fall, but didn't get done yet and now it's too wet, so I may not. I do still have the "mother plants" which will give us some strawberries next summer. If you have time, fine someone with baby plants (I think we may be in the same zone, but could be far apart) and plant this fall. Our nephew is coming over on Saturday to dig some plants for their new strawberry bed.

Well, the list of annual fruits isn't too long, but some that most of us in N. America can grow are:

Garden huckleberries
Wonderberries/Sunberries
Chichiliquite huckleberries
Pineapple Tomatillos/Husk Cherries
Goldenberry aka Peruvian Groundcherry
Melons of all kinds
Litchi Tomatos (I like these a LOT, taste like watermelon/cherry tomato mix, good for sweet or savory uses)

You MIGHT get away with pepino dulce -- I have a couple of potted plants with unripe fruit, which I bring in to overwinter and ripen the fruit.

There are Israeli or more likely Japanese melons that are small enough to support their weight from the stem and thus can be grown on space-saving vertical trellises. I grew some years ago and liked them. More a melon flavor in a crisper cucumber consistency though.

melodydf1953,
I live in Central Indiana, Indianapolis to be exact (zone 5b)

denninmi,
I just realized your username, I believe you replied to my Amaranth and Quinoa post. I've been looking through all the fruits you listed, I've just recently found out all the plants in the deadly nightshade family and how many of those fruit. I'll have to look at all those you listed
I think I may try and find some seeds for Litchi tomatoes and grow a few.

AND the melon suggestions, I guess I never researched melons enough, I researched some I found an "Oriental Melon" it's small like a grapefruit and you can eat the rind and seeds all. I found a site with all types of melons described, I put it below.

I plan on hopefully devoting at least one 16x4 bed to melons next summer and putting some on some trellis elsewhere.

Tyler.

Here is a link that might be useful: Melon Varities

Growing to 20' or more, I'd hardly consider a papaya as a herbaceous plant!! And it requires a frost free climate (Z10 and above), an extended hot growing season and lots of sun to produce fruit its first after planting. It seems rather unlikely that this would be suitable choice for 90% of the country.

btw, this is a 10 year old thread so also have to wonder at the need for additional comments at this stage.........

Well, that depends on which 'expert' you rely on. Wikipedia would argue with you that they are not herbaceous. Their trunk has a hollow core. I've grown dozens of papaya trees in zone 9 and lost very few to frost and harvested fruit the first year. Some guides say that they will fruit in 7-9 months. They don't need to reach 20' to fruit and there are dwarf varieties that will yield fruit and only grow to 4 or so feet in height. Just for S&Gs, I'm going to broadcast Caribbean Red seeds, hopefully next week, in TN and see what happens. I can only wish that there is not a late spring or early fall freeze.

Herbaceous means having NO persistant woody parts. A tree with a trunk, hollow or not, that can exceed 20' is never considered to be herbaceous. And I see nowhere under Wikipedia's listing for Carica papaya that refers to this plant as herbaceous....or even succulent, for that matter