Fruit
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British Columbia is Canada's top fruit producer!
Tree fruits: BC grows apples, apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, and plums
Berries: BC exports blueberries and cranberries
Hardiness Zones
British Columbia is one of the larger provinces, so it’s important to consider what hardiness zone you’re looking to plant in. Consider your climate and look up the hardiness zone because they vary within the province from 1a to 10b.
If the prairies are Canada’s breadbasket, Okanagan is Canada’s fruit basket, and you have a lot more versatility, producers there can successfully grow peaches, pears, plums, or cherries. For northern parts of the province, look for cold-hardy fruits like pears and Honeycrisp apples. Haskup (Honeyberry), blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and currents also can do well depending on the hardiness zone and the cultivar chosen.
Some sour cherry varieties grow well in northern BC.
These varieties are part of the Romance Series, which are hybrids of Mongolian sour cherries and sour cherries from Northern Europe.
Romance Series
Romeo: A dark red cherry that's good for juicing and pies
Juliet: A dark red cherry that's high in productivity and good for fresh eating
Cupid: A cherry that's almost black to dark red and blooms later
Crimson Passion: A cherry that's almost black and has large pits
Valentine: A bright red cherry that's tart and good for pies, jams, and canning
Dwarf sour cherries are cold-hardy and easy to harvest, making them a good choice for northern British Columbia.
Apricots are more closely related to plums and are from similarly cold regions. There are Apricot varieties that will fruit up into zone 3.
Peaches are more related to Almonds and are from distinctly warmer climates. While the trees may survive zone 5, the flowerbuds usually require zone 6 or warmer.
As per Barbara Rayment, author of ‘From the Ground Up: A Horticultural Guide for Northern Gardeners’.
“There are many varieties of apples that will grow well in zone 3, as well as hardy plums and sour cherries. One of the advantages of growing anything in the colder regions of B.C. is that there are fewer pests and diseases to deal with. That said, every plant attracts a bug of some kind or another, and the best way to cope with that reality is to create a healthy and " ecosystem wherein plants and bugs can achieve a natural balance, where sprays which can destroy the beneficial insects as well as the few destructive ones are not used at all.”
“The worst pests are going to be the big ones—deer, moose and bears, any of which can rip a young fruit tree apart overnight (and don’t say you don’t have any of these—if you plant fruit trees you will have). The combination of good fencing and a good dog is the best solution.”
Barbara visited Quesnel in 2012:
Pushing the boundaries
In different parts of Canada, producers have attempted to grow things like tropical fruits. While this is small scale production, it demonstrates what ingenuity can do and the possibilities of diversifying food production on a local level.
Multiple people in Canada have grown bananas, including a farmer in Saskatchewan, a man in Vancouver, and a farmer in British Columbia.
Saskatchewan
Dean Sopher - A farmer in Saskatoon built a greenhouse to grow tropical fruits, including bananas. Sopher's bananas are similar to store-bought bananas,but have a tropical flavor. He also grows other tropical fruits like oranges, lemons, limes, passion fruit, and guava.
British Columbia
Yukon Soles - A farmer in Fort Nelson grew nearly 200 bananas in his greenhouse. He started with two banana seedlings he bought from a grocery store.
Meet BC’s Tropical Fruit growers
