By Marie-Luise Blue Updated March 27, 2015
Some strawberry (Fragaria spp.), raspberry and blackberry (Rubus spp.) varieties are among the plants that bear fruits their first year. Growing berry plants in a home garden can be simple and rewarding, and many berry varieties are better suited for a home garden than a commercial production because berries are highly perishable. They add flavor and health benefits to meals and snacks. Dwarf and grafted fruit trees such as lemons (Citrus spp.) also can be grown in a home garden and may produce fruits their first year.
Kinds of Strawberries
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Choose June-bearing or day-neutral strawberries in your garden. Both kinds produce fruits their first year, but removing June-bearing strawberries' first-year blossoms may result in a better crop from those plants their second year. June-bearing strawberries produce fruits for several weeks in June or earlier when the weather is warm. Day-neutral strawberries, sometimes also called ever-bearing strawberries, may begin to produce fruits three months after they were planted. Crop production by June-bearing strawberries depends on the length of daylight hours in a day while day-neutral strawberries bear fruits regardless of the daylight hour length. "Tristar" strawberry (Fragaria "Tristar") is a day-neutral strawberry that is perennial, or hardy, in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 9.
Types of Red Raspberries
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When choosing red raspberry plants, you have the options of summer-bearing and fall-bearing varieties, but summer-bearing raspberries produce fruits only in their second year. Fall-bearing raspberries are also called "ever-bearing," and they produce fruits their first year on stems, or canes, called "primocanes." They have a small crop in summer and a larger one in fall. One fall-bearing variety is "Heritage" (Rubus idaeus var. strigosus "Heritage"), which is hardy in USDA zones 4 through 8.
Blackberry Varieties
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Blackberries come in many varieties and differ from raspberries in fruit color, fruit flavor and growth habit. Thorny blackberry varieties have sharp, large thorns and a trailing growth habit. If you don't want a plant with thorns, then purchase a thornless hybrid. Most blackberries are biennial plants, fruiting on only second-year canes, but first-year- or primocane-bearing varieties were made available by the University of Arkansas in 2004. One of those primocane-bearing blackberry varieties is Prime-Jim (Rubus "APF-12"), hardy in USDA zones 4 through 8.
Non-Berry Fruit Plants
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Choose a grafted or dwarf fruit tree if you want to harvest fruit from a tree during its first year in your yard, though even a grafted or dwarf tree may not fruit until a later year. A fruit tree grown from seed, however, takes many years to mature enough to produce fruits. "Eureka" lemon (Citrus limon "Eureka") is an example of a lemon tree with early fruiting. That tree survives outdoors all year in USDA zones 9 through 10. You can encourage a lemon tree to fruit by planting it in a warm, protected spot.
