Northern California.

I lived in Lebanon where all these trees grow at once. Many mediterranean countries can grow all fruit trees successfully. Dates are best suited for coastal areas or the semi arid regions.

The Sierra foothills south to north in line with Bakersfield to about Fresno.

Harvestman nailed it.

thanks. it would be nice to know if anyone out there has done it before

I have lived in Michigan, France, Italy, California, and Brazil. You can not grow all those thing in a single backyard. If you live in Fresno, yes, you can have dates, but to have apples you have to drive up to 5000 ft elevation.
There is just no zone overlap.

I don't see the need for it either. Starting in Zone 7 you can have fresh fruits 6 months a year, in Zone 9 and upward, 9-10 months a year. If I were still living in California, say around Bakersfield, I probably would not grow apples, even though here in MI I probably eat 1000 apples a year, and love them. Things are best in their optimal fruiting range. I do agree that dry climates are generally best. It is hard to establish trees, but then disease pressure is low.

There's a reason CA is the number one fruit state in the nation. By itself, it produces half the fruits and vegetables grown in this country. Florida is second place and only grows less than 10% of fruits and vegs. CA is about the only place in the U.S. that has a truly Mediterranean climate. My understanding is the Central valley gets almost all its rain in the wintertime. Summers are warm and dry. This is a perfect climate for fruits. No fruit cracking, few fungus, little insect pressure. No wonder most of the organic folks come from CA. They live in one of the few places that can grow stuff organically.

"...but to have apples you have to drive up to 5000 ft elevation."
I'm not sure where glib heard THAT, but that's simply not true. I have about 20 kinds of apples on my multi-grafts, and I'm in Sacramento, elevation 25 feet. In fact, applenut on this board gets apples in the DESERT. I would say apples are about the easiest "classic" fruit to grow anywhere (as opposed to, say, pluots!) Now QUALITY is another matter--some apples do well with heat, and others need cold to develop good flavor.
I would extend harvestman's line, north to about Yuba City, because that area grows all kinds of things. I don't think dates would do very well, but I might be wrong about that, because I know of one person growing dates commercially on the other side of the Sierras, near Lone Pine.
But anyway, as far as apples, here is a link to growing apples in warm climates:

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: Warm climate apple growing

I wasn't suggesting that you'd be able to grow dates or even mangos- one's for deserts the other the tropics. My brother lives in hawii and grows lots of fruit but his figs aren't so hot (not enough chilling) and he doesn't grow stonefruit or pomes. There is no one site where temperate, tropical and dessert fruit can be satisfactorily grown without a greenhouse. Of any site I know, the Sierra foothills would be best for variety and quality. The central valley is too hot for lots of what I like to grow and in fact I believe that as Sonoma county went to vinifera and the area around Silicone Valley went to development california's stonefruit quality went steeply down hill. That's why pluots are so popular- they can take the heat of the more interior valleys without baking on the trees.

Interesting discussion. This is going to take a lot of research. I could easily get a greenhouse, but I could also settle for growing classic fruit or tropicals.

Could figs, olives, apples, citrus easily grow in one place?

hey i know the place:-) It is Serbia, there you can grow apples, pears, plums, grapes, peppers, watermelons, cherries, quinces, apricots, nectarines, rasberries, currants, cantalope, almonds, walnut, filberts,
Slivovitza (plum brandy) and zillion more things.

I miss my Serbia!

Could figs, olives, apples, citrus easily grow in one place?

They all grow easily here in north county San Diego along with a bunch of other stuff.

Zeuspaul

Southern California... The state grows almost everything... I'd go down towards San Diego and grow Cherimoya, along with every citrus i could and stonefruits of all types... Wisconsin sucks! (i have a hard time getting peaches to fruit).

I think many commercial growers do a fine job with dates, especially if you pick up some while visiting the Coachella Valley or somewhere similar. My favorites are the little round ones. Can't remember the variety name.

Home growers may want to concentrate on fruits where "home-grown" makes a big difference.

Softmentor,

Do you know which varieties of apricot grow well in the heat of the Coachella Valley? Heat causes pitburn in some varieties here in the Central Valley. There are also some varieties that don't get enough winter chill here.

Just throwing out another option to the already mentioned California: Northern New Zealand

Buy a strip of land in Puerto Rico that starts in the lower elevations and extends into the central mountains. I think I heard, when I lived there, that apples were possible at the higher elevations, and I had bananas and coconuts in my back yard in a suburb of San Juan. Good citrus, pineapple, weird fruits you never heard of too. Plus its a US commonwealth for the time being, not that New Zealand doesn't sound good to me!

Chuck

I think Iran can also grow a wide variety of fruits... I watched a PBS special and they went to the north of Iran and the climate went from arid wasteland desert to tropical paradise... There is a strip up there along the Caspian that is very wet and humid...

Another mention would be along the Himalaya...

before Silicon Valley was Silicon Valley, it was the Valley of the Heart's Delight - where apple, pear, nuts, stone fruit, citrus and flower farms reigned supreme. All the old factories were drying and canning operations. My mom's old house (built in 1958) had a two-story orange tree and was surrounded by old cherry and walnut trees left over from the orchards that were there before the housing development was built. And yes, we get ZERO rain from May until October. Low humidity in the summer, and cool nights in the summer when the offshore breezes come in around 4:30pm.

As many have said you want to look at California. Anything below 800ft elevation and relatively close to the coast.

Below 800 ft elevation? I say head for the hills, at least for the temperate climate fruits. Maybe 2 to 4 thousand feet although some of you californians probably have it down more specifically. I did most of my CA fruit growing around Malibu in Topanga Canyon but moved east 25 years ago.

Gardening was great in San Diego, I had several successful apples, but the one that really performed was Ein Sheimer developed in Israel. It had wonderfully flavored applesauce even from small green ones. The citrus was really nice since it ripens in winter and early spring when the other fruits are not around and the acidic peel protects it from raccoons and opossums which decimate other fruits.

Now I live in the PNW which should be wonderful for stone fruits but is not since there seem to be a lot of very bad diseases. Several stone fruits grew, fruited wonderfully, then declined over several years and died. Of my 5 cherries, most bloom but don't set fruit, I only got fruit from one last year. Peaches don't last more than a few years for me. But apples and pears do great here. I really miss the citrus fruits, though. The direction I'm taking now is native and unusual fruits, like mulberry, persimmon, Paw Paw, and a few figs. And this is a great place to grow blueberries.:-P

In the zone 10 part of coastal Southern California it is possible to grow most tropical plants side by side cold plants. I said "possible", not that either of them will grow well, and depending on the type of plant it may require a lot of special care. The summers can get kind of hot and dry, so a lot of plants do better in partial shade and need to be consistently watered.

Mangosteen has been one of the elusive tropical plants. Some people have managed to get it to be able to survive here (just barely), but it never fruits outside a warm humid greenhouse. Grapefruit trees grow fine here, and Lychee and Java Apple can be grown. Apparently Malay Apple, which the Polynesians grew in Hawaii, has trouble growing here.

You can grow Mango and Pineapple, but they do not thrive here quite as well as they do in more tropical climates.

The only downside is that real estate here is some of the most expensive in the country, especially near the mild coastal areas where anything tropical is going to be able to survive.

I will also point out that raspberries are one of the fruits that are difficult to grow here, because of the dryness and heat, so there are tradeoffs. If you go to Florida then it's going to be too humid, and combined with the heat that's going to create its own set of problems. So best climate I would say would climate zone 10, not too dry and not too humid. That climate does not exist anywhere in the U.S.

In fact, I'm looking at a world hardiness zone map and the only zone 10 climate that seems to be in a region with optimally moderate humidity levels is Northern India.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Hudson Valley in NY

The Hudson Valley is good as the Northeast goes I suppose, but growing up in that area I never had the impression it was any kind of fruit growing mecca the way many places in milder parts of the West are. Seems it would be hard to get too excited about any place colder than zone 8 or 9 when you're going for variety (anything other than pomes, stone fruit, and berries).

California has a million micro-climates. SF Peninsula where i live can vary 15-20 degrees based on if you are in the path of the incoming fog. My particular city (our motto is Climate Best by Government Test) is pretty much optimal - not as much fog as up north but not too hot in the summer, we haven't seen frost in 3 years but still get enough chill hours for peaches and plums. My neighbor to the right grows bananas and has a mango tree (no fruit yet) and the other neighbor grows cherries. Zone 9b, Sunset 16 - its gardening paradise. It will cost you big bucks to live here, though, especially with enough land for fruit trees.

As mentioned, San Diego. As close to the coast as possible. Expensive, but great tree and human climate.

It is more difficult if you want to grow tropical fruits side by side stone fruits. It might be easier to buy an orchard in another country for your tropical fruits and then travel back and forth every year. Tropical fruits usually do not need much maintenance. Or build a huge greenhouse for your tropical fruits.

Good topic.

Theres a huge difference with warmth. Anywhere really cold is dead to life, miserable Hopeless gardening.

Yeah, San Diego is a nice compromise on temperatures. Never too cold (but doesn't get enough chill for higher chill cherries, apples, etc) and usually not too blazing hot. I have apple, fig, and plum trees growing next to dragon fruit, mango tree and citrus trees. My mango tree is very young, but there are lots of them in the county. Others grow many other tropical fruits. I'm just starting, got a bitten by the bug....

I hear swtitzerland and certain parts of isreal

I lived in Sandy Valley Nevada right on the CA border and raised Fuji and Gala Apples, Early Alberta peaches, Santa Rosa plums, almonds, pears and neighbors grew dates at China Ranch. Drill your well, hit water at only 50" and compared to CA land is affordable. Of course irrigation is essential. Watermelons and Hale's cantaloupes were to die for....

I just came across a calendar for a upick orchard i stopped at passing through Bakersfield, CA, and am still amazed at what they grow. From apples, cherries, and grapes, to citrus, and much more, there is something available for harvesting every month of the year. I'm sure Israel is similar, but Switzerland probably nowhere close to that kind of diversity...

Here's that calendar I mentioned above...

Sorry, not sure if photo is uploading...