Here in McKinney, persimmons, certain pears, Celeste figs, and certain jujubes like li and honey jay do great. Like fruit nut says, womacks is a great nursey, all their products will grow here, though apples, peaches, etc will need to be sprayed

Here in Farmers Branch I am surrounded with fig and pear trees. Planted two peach trees both bore the second yr!

I have had a fair amount of success growing fruit in Dallas.

I have not had to use chemical spray yet. Compost tea and Garrett Juice sprays have been sufficient so far to ward off any pests and disease.

For the last three years, I have been growing strawberries, blackberries, apples, figs, pears, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, jujubes, apricots, plums, elderberries, cherries, grapes, pomegranites, persimmons, pluots, shipova, juneberries, pineapple guava, kiwi, and wolfberries.

Not all of these are producing yet, but the only plant that completely bit the dust for me was gooseberry. I don't think it could handle our hot summers; however, I am not entirely sure that is what did it.

You can read about some of my experiences at: http://www.dallasfruitgrower.typepad.com/

Bob Wells Nursery in Lindale, Texas is also a good local source for fruit trees and bushes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dallas Fruit Grower

My Fuji and Granny Smith apples are doing well and I've only had to use insecticidal soap and Neem oil so far (only 2 years). So far so good.

While not a tree I think the best backyard fruit crop for this area is blackberries. I've personally had great success with several of the University of Arkansas varieties. Tough as nails and they produce like crazy. The most rewarding thing in my yard.

Blackberries grow well, as do peaches (if yu spray them with poison), plums. I had nine fig trees die, so they don't do well in some locations. People keep telling me they know people with figs, but I've lived here for 30 years and have seen over 250 houses when house hunting, and I have never seen a fig tree here. I would like to know the secret to growing htem here. Maybe it's my soil. But with the freezing winters, hard clay soil that doesn't drain well, alkaline soil, and extreme hot sizzling sun, I can't see how figs would do well. Fig trees are for subtropical climates, which Dallas is not. But plums don't need pollination or to be sprayed with poison, and naturally do well here. Easy to plant and grow. They aren't long lived trees though. I cut the peach tree down because I didn't want to spray poison in the yard. Grapes supposedly do well here.

Hc8, do you grow plums? Which ones?

I have a big fig tree, and have seen another. Trick seems to be to keep it alive until it's a good size. Mine is on the south side of a wall, another is on the s side of a solid wood fence

I planted a couple of Mexican plum trees. Small trees that produce lots of small sized plums that are delicious. It took, I think, about 2 years to get a decent sized crop on each tree. They don't need to be sprayed with poison, and they don't need pollination. They do great in the Dallas area, with the heat. Pretty small white flowers in the spring. But the trees don't live a long time. I did everything to make the fig trees live. I planted them in various places in my yard (which faces south), up against a building, behind a huge shrub, on one side of the yard and on the other. I carefully watered, dug the holes properly as far as I can tell. Several died separately at different times, then the last 4 or so all died at the same time. I think they may have gotten the one disease that fig trees get....I forget what it is. The leaves shrivel up and turn brown and die suddenly. I don't have much soil, and the soil is awful hard clay that doesn't drain well. I added some amendments when I planted, but you're not supposed to add a lot, or the roots will go into shock when the reach the real soil. They lasted long enough to produce a few figs (a couple of years). It's just too hot, and the soil is too bad, and the winter too cold. This is really not an area conducive to subtropical plants, which is what a fig is. You are lucky. You may have unusual soil in your area. There are a few areas with better soil.

I also had a dwarf magnolia tree die, as well as several Foster Stevens shrubs, gardenia, roses (I even used an axe to dig out the rock to create an 8X8 rose bed, to no avail). Bear in mind that I'm no idiot. I've successfully grown many trees, some citrus, vegetables, watermelon. I guess it's my yard.

Supposedly the hardiest fig here is 'Celeste". I think what kills them is if they leaf out if Feb & then there's a hard freeze, they're not cold hardy once out of dormancy. Once they're 8-10 ft tall they seem to do ok, but if there's bad luck with the weather before they're 3-4 years old there's no chance.

I can see how Mexican Plums would do well, they're late enough to escape the insects that bother peaches and regular plums like Methly & Bruce.

Thanks, Maryhawkins. As I recall, the fig trees/bushes that all died at the same time - that was summer. So it wasn't from a frost. At first I thought they had died from lack of water. But I had been watering them, and it was suspicious that they all died so suddenly and all at the same time. I was tired of trying to keep them alive, so I pulled them out at that point. I've since researched a bit and found the ONE disease that fig trees will get. That's what they do when they get that disease: shrivel up suddenly and look as if they are dead. They might be dead, OR it might be possible to still keep them alive for the next year, I read. I didn't try that. It was clear that my yard was not a natural for fig trees. What has been successful in my yard have been the plums (which are VERY good! and they produce a lot of plums...plenty even for the birds to share). Trees include oaks, Leyland Cypress, Chinese Pistache, Caddo Maple. Bushes-Nellie R Stevens, Burford, that red-something shrub that everyone plants. Peppers do well, since they thrive in the hot sun. Squash, watermelon, blackberries. I think I planted canteloupe one year and it did okay. Prior owner had grape vines, but I pulled them out.

As many here have suggested there are a lot of choices that do well in the DFW area.

I would say it's been my experience that the BIGGEST reason for failure is not preparing a proper hole. Not only does it need to be 3 times bigger then the root bundle but most importantly you need to be sure that the #1 reason for failure has been remove from that hole IE, Chalk Rock.

Most of the DFW area has a layer of Chalk Rock anywhere from a few inches to two feet or more down. Once you reach it, it might be only inches thick and easy to break through and remove or it might me almost 2 feet thick and more dense then concrete. Believe me here in Plano TX I have ran into both.

Chalk Rock is basically the remains of prehistoric shallow inland seas so it does have a high concentration of Calcium and Salt in it. If you don't remove it then after about 2-4 years the tap root on your tree will make it's way down to it and within one season of touching it, the tree will die.

Another culprit that we really can't do much about is Cotton Root Rot. Bradford Pears are very susceptible to this disease. I lost two at the same time when they were about 7 years old. The landscape tree person told me that if it wasn't for this issue and Bradford Pears, he wouldn't have a business. If you see ANY tree dying after it had been established most often it is Cotton Root Rot that is to blame. This entire area was cotton fields at one point. Even as early as ten years ago not more then 6 blocks away was fields of cotton. Not it's a Technology park.