PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) – Larry Stephenson may love his fruit trees, but he seems to enjoy sharing his knowledge about then nearly as much.

Stephenson will be one of two guest speakers scheduled for 2024 Fall Garden Day, set for Friday, Sept. 27, at the Forrest County Extension Office, 952 Sullivan Drive, Hattiesburg.

Registration is set to open at 8:30 a.m.

Stephenson, who owns a Mississippi-centric orchard/nursery in Carrollton, Mississippi, cultivates a selection of fruit trees specifically meant for the Deep South’s warm and humid climates.

Stephenson said that many types of fruit trees were brought to North American soil as seeds from colonists. While many of the non-native seeds struggled to grow, some trees adapted to their new climate, matured and produced fruit.

“They’d plant 1,000 seeds and like 999 of them would die because they weren’t suitable for their new climate,” Stephenson said. “But there was always at least one of the 1,000 that would make it to produce fruit.

“They were naturally selective like that and we have a lot of them for that reason.”

The reason that most typical non-specialized fruit trees struggled was because winters in the Pine Belt do not get cold enough.

In other words, growers said that a certain amount of “chill“ hours per year were important to a tree’s ability to produce fruit.

“That’s a physical requirement,” Stephenson said. “They have to have that to set fruit and spurs for the next year. Most of your well-known (apple) varieties, like Red Delicious and Gold Delicious, need a minimum of 1,000 chill hours to set fruit.”

Stephenson, who includes a variety of apple trees among his stock, said that the Pine Belt may only see 600 to 800 chill hours every year, which is why he grows different fruit tree varieties that will thrive in Mississippi.

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