Mayhaw

Quick facts

Full sun or part sun · medium water · tolerates wet soil soil · 20 ft apart (15 to 25) · direct sow or transplant or cuttings

Nothing is open today. Fall sowing opens in 10 days, Oct 1 to Nov 30.

1. Direct sow Oct 1 – Nov 30 Opens in 10 days
   Worth a tryFall
   Sowing cleaned seed outdoors in fall works, but hawthorn seed has a hard coat and a double dormancy - many seeds sit for two winters before germinating, and seedlings take 5-8 years to fruit and do not come true. Buy a grafted tree unless you specifically want rootstock.
2. Transplant Oct 15 – Nov 30 Opens in 24 days
   Also worksFall
   Early fall planting also works along the Gulf, giving roots a long mild season to establish before the first bloom. Water until the ground cools.
3. Transplant Dec 1 – Feb 28 Opens in 71 days
   Best timeWinterruns into next year
   The South plants fruit trees in the dormant season. Set out bare-root or container mayhaw from December through February so the roots settle before the tree breaks bud - and remember it blooms as early as February, so plant well ahead of that.

Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.

One stage to settle in, then four that repeat each year. Windows are typical; your zone and weather move them.

1. In the garden, counted from transplant
2. 1

   Years 1-3 - young tree

   The first year after planting

   • WaterWater through the first two summersweekly
     Mayhaw comes from bottomland that floods, so it tolerates wet feet better than almost any fruit tree - but a newly planted one still needs regular water through Southern summer heat until it roots out. Soak it deeply once a week rather than sprinkling.
   • PruneTrain an open framework early, while the thorns are still low
     Choose three to five well-spaced scaffold branches in the first two winters and remove the rest. Doing this while the tree is small is far easier than fighting a mature mayhaw's thorns later. Keep it low and open: a tree you can reach into is a tree you can actually harvest and spray.
   • ProtectSite it away from junipers, red cedars, and paths
     Two siting rules. Cedar-quince rust needs junipers and eastern red cedar nearby to complete its cycle and it attacks the FRUIT, so put distance between them where you can. And mayhaw thorns reach 3 inches: keep the tree off walkways, driveways, and anywhere children play.
   • MulchMulch the root zone and keep grass back
     A wide ring of mulch, kept a few inches off the trunk, holds moisture and keeps mowers and string trimmers away from young bark. Grass competition slows a young mayhaw more than most people expect.

   Watch for

   • String-trimmer wounds on young bark
   • Shoot tips blackening and hooking over (fire blight)
   • Grass growing right up to the trunk
3. 2

   Bloom (very early - February to March)

   Feb to Mar, every year

   • InspectOne of the earliest trees to bloom in the South
     Mayhaw covers itself in white (sometimes pink-blushed) five-petaled flowers in late winter, usually before the leaves and often before anything else is flowering. It is a genuinely valuable early nectar source for honeybees and native bees when almost nothing else is open.
   • ProtectThe bloom is early, so late freezes are the main crop risk
     Blooming in February means the flowers are exposed to every late cold snap. A hard freeze at full bloom can take the entire crop for the year. There is little to do on a full-sized tree beyond siting it out of low frost pockets and on a slope where cold air drains away - which is a decision made at planting, not in February.
   • PollinatePlant two varieties for a fuller set
     Most mayhaws set some fruit on their own pollen, but yields are noticeably better with a second variety flowering alongside. Because bloom is so early and cold, bee activity is often limited - so overlapping varieties and undisturbed pollinators matter more here than on a spring-flowering fruit tree.

   Watch for

   • A hard freeze forecast while the tree is in bloom
   • Blossoms suddenly wilting and blackening (fire blight enters through flowers)
   • Very few bees working in cold weather
4. 3

   Green fruit sizing

   Mar to Apr, every year

   • InspectCheck young fruit for rust and curculioevery 5 days
     This is the window when both major fruit problems show. Cedar-quince rust distorts and swells young fruit with orange fungal growth; plum curculio cuts crescent-shaped scars into it. Look at the fruit itself, not just the leaves, every few days from petal fall.
   • WaterKeep water steady while the fruit sizesweekly
     Fruit size is set now, and the ripening window is short. Even moisture through March and April makes a real difference to how much juice you get. Mayhaw handles wet ground easily, so err toward more water rather than less at this stage.

   Watch for

   • Swollen, distorted fruit with orange fuzz (cedar-quince rust)
   • Crescent-shaped scars on young fruit (plum curculio)
   • Small fruit dropping early
5. 4

   Picking (late April to May)

   Apr to May, every year

   • HarvestSpread a tarp and shake the treeevery 4 days
     Ripe mayhaws drop, and that is how they are gathered. Lay tarps, sheets, or a frame of shade cloth under the canopy and shake the limbs; the ripe fruit falls and the unripe stays on. Do this every few days across a two-to-three-week window. In flooded bottomlands the traditional method is the same idea by boat - the fruit floats and is scooped off the water.
   • HarvestSort and get the fruit cooked or frozen fast
     Mayhaws bruise and ferment quickly once down. Pick over the tarp catch the same day, discard anything soft or rust-distorted, rinse off leaves and debris, and either cook the juice out immediately or bag the whole fruit and freeze it. This is not a fruit that sits in a basket on the counter.
   • ProtectWear gloves and eye protection under the tree
     Mayhaw thorns reach 3 inches and sit at exactly head height when you are looking up into a canopy. Gloves and safety glasses are not overcautious here - eye injuries from hawthorn thorns are a real and well-documented hazard.

   Watch for

   • Fruit fermenting on the tarp in Gulf-coast heat
   • Wildlife working the drops overnight
   • The whole crop coming ready in under three weeks
6. 5

   Winter dormancy and pruning

   Nov to Jan, every year

   • PrunePrune in dry weather, and never hard
     Prune in early winter while dormant and while the weather is dry. Thin crossing and crowded wood, keep the center open, and take out anything dead. Go easy: heavy pruning and heavy nitrogen both force soft growth, which is exactly what fire blight infects. Sterilize the blade between cuts and never prune a mayhaw in wet weather.
   • InspectCut out any fire blight strikes now
     Blackened, hooked shoot tips and sunken cankers are far easier to find on bare wood. Cut at least 12 inches below every visible strike, sterilize between cuts, and burn or bag the prunings rather than leaving them under the tree.

   Watch for

   • Sunken dark cankers on limbs (fire blight overwintering)
   • Wet-weather pruning wounds
   • Deer rubbing young trunks in fall

Harvest

• Fruit fully colored - bright red, orange, or yellow depending on variety - and slightly soft
• Ripe fruit drops when a limb is shaken; unripe fruit holds on
• Strong sweet-tart apple-like smell under the tree as the crop comes in, in late April or May

• Spread a tarp and shake the tree · every 4 days
• Sort and get the fruit cooked or frozen fast
• Wear gloves and eye protection under the tree

Per plant 5 to 100 lbPicking pick as they ripen

Cook with mayhaws

• Stewed Berry Fool 30 min
• Wild Berry Jelly Put up1 h 5 min
• All 2 recipes with mayhaws

Watch out for

5 to know. 3 are high-risk: Fire Blight, Late Freeze on the February Bloom, Cedar-Quince Rust. None are active in September.

Good & bad neighbors

First rule: keep Eastern red cedar and junipers apart. The single most important thing to keep away from a mayhaw.

Varieties · 8

You pick one when you add Mayhaw to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.

• Super Spur

  Zones 7a to 9b

  Upright tree carrying dense clusters of large bright red fruit on short spurs.

  cultivarheavy-yieldlarge-fruitred-fruit

  One of the leading named mayhaws and a common first choice. Selected for very heavy, densely clustered crops of large bright red fruit on short fruiting spurs, which makes shaking a tarp harvest unusually productive. Vigorous and adaptable across the Gulf South, and a good partner for Big Red.

• Big Red

  Zones 7a to 9b

  Large, deep red fruit up to about an inch across.

  cultivarlarge-fruitred-fruitgood-color

  Named for exactly what it does: large, deep red fruit that produces a jelly with outstanding ruby color. Reliable and productive across the region and widely planted alongside Super Spur, with the two flowering together for cross-pollination. A safe choice if you want color in the finished jar.

• Texas Star

  Zones 7a to 9b

  Medium to large red fruit on a vigorous, heat-tolerant tree.

  cultivartexas-bredproductivered-fruit

  A Texas selection made for the western end of the mayhaw range, where heat and drier springs are the challenge. Productive, well-adapted to east and central Texas conditions, and a sensible pick where the Gulf-coast varieties are being asked to work outside their comfort zone.

• Royalty

  Zones 7a to 9b

  Large, deeply colored red fruit.

  cultivarlarge-fruitdeep-colorjelly-quality

  A selection prized for large, richly colored fruit and for jelly quality - deep color and strong flavor in the finished product. A good third variety in a small planting, extending both the pollination window and the range of jelly you can make.

• Superberry (T.O. Superberry)

  Zones 7a to 9b

  Notably large red mayhaws in heavy clusters.

  cultivarvery-large-fruitheavy-yieldred-fruit

  Known for unusually large fruit and heavy production, which matters more than it sounds: mayhaws are small, so a variety with bigger fruit meaningfully reduces the picking and sorting time for the same amount of juice. Widely grown in Louisiana and neighboring states.

• Saline

  Zones 7a to 9b

  Vigorous tree with medium-sized red fruit.

  cultivarlouisianawet-tolerantvigorous

  A Louisiana selection with a reputation for vigor and for handling the wet bottomland conditions the species comes from better than most named varieties. Worth considering specifically if your site is low, heavy, or seasonally flooded rather than ordinary garden ground.