6 Best Fast Growing Fruit Trees For Quick Harvests For First-Year Success
Enjoy a harvest in your first year. We list 6 fast-growing fruit trees that deliver quick results, making homegrown fruit an achievable goal sooner.
There’s a special kind of impatience that comes with planting a fruit tree. You put this bare-root stick in the ground and dream of pies, jams, and fruit-filled lunches, but the reality is often a five-to-seven-year wait. For those of us with limited space or a desire for quicker rewards, that timeline can be a deal-breaker. Choosing the right tree, however, can shrink that wait from half a decade to just a season or two, providing the encouragement needed to stay the course.
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Siting and Soil Prep for Quick Fruit
The fastest-fruiting tree in the world will languish in the wrong spot. Before you even buy a tree, find your best location. This means a non-negotiable 6-8 hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight per day during the growing season. Less sun equals less energy, which means slower growth and little to no fruit.
Also, consider air circulation. A spot that gets a gentle breeze helps leaves dry faster, which is your number one defense against common fungal diseases like brown rot on peaches or powdery mildew. Avoid low-lying frost pockets where cold air settles, as a late spring frost can wipe out your entire harvest before it even begins.
Soil is the other half of the equation. You don’t need perfect loam, but you do need to give your tree a fighting chance. The goal is well-drained soil that doesn’t stay waterlogged. If you have heavy clay, you’ll need to amend it. Digging a wide planting hole and mixing in a generous amount of compost will improve drainage and give the roots an easier start. This initial prep work directly translates to how fast the tree can establish its root system, which is the engine for all future growth and fruit production.
‘Brown Turkey’ Fig: Reliable First-Year Fruit
If you want fruit this year, the fig is your best bet. Figs are incredibly vigorous and have the unique ability to produce fruit on the current season’s growth, known as "new wood." This means a young tree can leaf out in spring and set fruit on those brand-new branches for a fall harvest.
The ‘Brown Turkey’ variety is particularly reliable and widely adapted. It often produces two crops: a smaller "breba" crop in early summer on last year’s wood, and a larger main crop in the fall on new wood. This doubles your chances of getting a harvest, even if a late frost nips the early buds. Give it the hottest, sunniest spot you have, ideally against a south-facing wall that can radiate heat.
Figs are also wonderfully versatile. In zones 7 and warmer, you can plant them right in the ground where they’ll become substantial, productive trees. In colder climates, they thrive in large containers. You can enjoy them on a sunny patio all summer, then move them into a dormant state in an unheated garage or basement for the winter, making them accessible to nearly everyone.
‘Dwarf Everbearing’ Mulberry: Berries All Summer
Don’t overlook the humble mulberry. The ‘Dwarf Everbearing’ variety acts more like a large, fast-growing shrub than a towering tree, making it perfect for smaller spaces. It’s incredibly precocious and often fruits in its first year, producing sweet, blackberry-like fruit that kids love.
Its greatest feature is in its name: "everbearing." Instead of one massive harvest you have to process all at once, it produces a steady supply of ripe berries for weeks, often from early to late summer. This makes it an ideal "foraging" tree for daily snacking right off the branch.
The main tradeoff is the mess. The dark purple fruit will stain anything it touches—patios, walkways, and hands included. Site it accordingly, perhaps in a back corner of the yard over grass or mulch. On the plus side, it’s one of the most forgiving plants you can grow, tolerating a wide range of soils and requiring very little pruning or pest management.
‘Contender’ Peach: Cold-Hardy and Fast to Bear
Peaches are not typically first-year fruiters, but ‘Contender’ is a standout that can reliably produce a crop by its second or third season. If you have your heart set on stone fruit, this is one of the quickest ways to get there. It’s a classic, yellow-fleshed freestone peach with excellent flavor.
Its real claim to fame is its extreme cold-hardiness and late-blooming nature. Developed specifically to withstand late spring frosts, its blossoms can survive temperatures down to 21°F (-6°C). For growers in colder climates who have lost entire peach crops to a single cold night, this resilience is a game-changer.
Be aware that peaches are a step up in terms of care. They require annual pruning to maintain an open, vase-like shape for good air circulation and fruit production. They are also susceptible to pests and diseases like peach leaf curl, which often requires a preventative dormant spray. It’s more work, but the reward of a homegrown, tree-ripened peach is hard to beat.
‘Improved Meyer’ Lemon: A Zesty Container Choice
For those with no in-ground space or who live in cold climates, the ‘Improved Meyer’ Lemon is king. It’s technically a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, resulting in a sweeter, less acidic fruit with a thin, edible rind. These trees are almost always sold with blossoms or even small fruit already on them, giving you an instant sense of success.
The Meyer lemon is perfectly suited for container life. It stays small, is highly ornamental, and can produce fruit nearly year-round when it’s happy. A single tree can have flowers, green fruit, and ripe yellow lemons all at the same time.
The key to success is management. It needs a pot with excellent drainage, a fertilizer formulated for citrus, and consistent water. Most importantly, it’s a tropical plant that cannot handle a frost. You must have a plan to bring it indoors to a sunny window or under a grow light for the winter, which is a commitment you make from day one.
‘Santa Rosa’ Plum: Sweet Fruit in Two Seasons
The ‘Santa Rosa’ plum is a classic for a reason. It’s a workhorse tree that produces large quantities of sweet, juicy, reddish-purple plums. While it might take two or three years to get a significant harvest, its vigor and reliability make it a top choice for a fast-bearing tree.
Its most critical feature for a hobby farmer is that it’s self-fertile. Many fruit trees, including most apples and some plums, require a second, different variety nearby for cross-pollination to produce fruit. Being self-fertile means you only need to plant one ‘Santa Rosa’ to get a full crop, saving you space and money.
This is a true tree, not a bush, so give it adequate space to grow. Plums benefit from pruning to an open center to improve sunlight penetration and air circulation, which helps prevent diseases like brown rot and black knot. Keep an eye out for these issues, as a little preventative pruning goes a long way.
‘Honeycrisp’ on M9 Rootstock: A Quicker Apple
Apples are notoriously slow to bear fruit, often taking five years or more. The secret to a faster harvest isn’t the variety of apple, but the rootstock it’s grafted onto. By choosing a popular variety like ‘Honeycrisp’ on a dwarfing rootstock like M9, you can get apples in as little as two to three years.
Think of it this way: the rootstock is the engine, and the scion (the ‘Honeycrisp’ part) is the body of the car. A dwarfing rootstock like M9 is a smaller, more efficient engine that tricks the tree into focusing its energy on producing fruit (reproduction) instead of growing massive branches and leaves (vegetative growth).
This speed comes with a significant tradeoff: dwarf trees have weak root systems and require permanent support. You must plan to install a sturdy stake or a trellis system at the time of planting. They are also not self-fertile, so you’ll need another compatible apple or crabapple variety blooming nearby for pollination. It’s more of a system than a standalone tree, but it’s the only reliable way to get a quick apple harvest.
Planting and Care for Your Fast-Fruiting Trees
When you plant, dig a hole that is twice as wide as the container but no deeper. The spot where the trunk flares out to meet the roots should sit at or slightly above the soil line. Backfill with the native soil you removed, and don’t add fertilizer to the planting hole, as it can burn the delicate new roots.
The first year is all about water. A newly planted tree has a tiny root system and can’t seek out moisture on its own. Provide deep, thorough waterings once or twice a week, depending on your climate, rather than a light sprinkle every day. Applying a 3-4 inch layer of wood chip or straw mulch around the base of the tree (without touching the trunk) is the single best thing you can do to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and keep the soil temperature stable.
Here’s the hardest piece of advice: pinch off any fruit that forms in the first year. This feels completely wrong after you’ve chosen a tree specifically for fast fruit. But allowing a young tree to fruit diverts precious energy away from establishing a strong root system. By sacrificing that first tiny harvest, you are setting the tree up for decades of heavy, healthy production starting in year two.
Choosing a fast-fruiting tree is about more than just impatience; it’s about building momentum. That first small harvest provides the motivation and confidence to tackle the pruning, watering, and care that fruit trees require long-term. With the right variety and a little prep work, you can turn the dream of a backyard harvest into a delicious reality sooner than you ever thought possible.
