Have you heard of these trees? I had not, but ran across the idea in a little article I read online and immediately started to research them. I have space for another small tree out back and this sounds like a wonderful idea to consider. Maybe.
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A Unique Art Piece: Tree of Forty Fruit
Artist Sam Van Aken has been developing a tree that blooms in pink, fuchsia, purple and red in the spring. It is also capable of bearing 40 different kinds of stone fruits, all from the Prunus genus. An amazing one-of-a-kind tree, that involves craft and art skills.
CFGrower: Each tree made, and no 2 trees are alike, is a 10-year project, of which six years are devoted to grafting 20 fruit varieties. The a home is sought, for a cost of ~$30,000. The fruit on the tree comes from varieties of native and antique stone fruit trees, thereby preserving fruit varieties that are not commercially produced or available. He grows the various trees, then grafts them onto a base tree, and has already sited 21+ trees (1).
Fruit Salad Trees
Why Plant Fruit Trees?
The reasons to plant fruit trees in our yards are plenty. The trees themselves will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, release oxygen, and help clean the air we breathe. They also play a part in improving soil quality, and its fertility, so we can grow other foods or plants as well.
Fruit trees also provide us with seasonal beauty, changing colors, changing leaves for flowers, and then produce fruit. So they feed our bodies, but also improve the aesthetic value of our homes.
But while trees benefit humans, they also feed and house our local and very precious wildlife: squirrels, possums, bees, birds, bats, and butterflies.
The Craft + Art of Grafting
Fruit Salad trees, or also known as Fruit Cocktail trees, are multi-grafted trees with different fruits from the same family, that are grafted together on one tree trunk. This means they are not to be viewed as GMO. Grafting is a very old technique of adding branches to the base of one tree.
Grafting can involve a number of different styles. But basically it is done by cutting a shallow layer of bark on a base tree, peeling it back, and inserting a small twig or single bud from another tree. The grafted section is then sealed with tape. This can be done with one graft or many (2).
The goal is to match the cambium layers of the rootstock and the inserted twig. The cambium layer is a narrow band of cells layered just inside the bark that carries water up the tree, and transports the sugars of photosynthesis down. If they connect, the graft will take, and the new limb will grow.
But it is not “graft and leave alone,” as you have to keep an eye on the individual branches growth, so one does not outgrow the others and take over. After all, in a multi-fruit tree, each branch added of a different fruit will have its own growing season, and specifications for care.
Cons of these Trees
These trees may need special care so that they maintain a branch balance. All the gardener sites I visited, mentioned you need to pay attention and prune to assure balance between the various fruit branches. Often, it seems, one fruit may do better than another and that will tell in the fruit that are produced.
Just like regular fruit trees, you will have to remove some of the fruit so there is ~6” between fruit to develop them to their peak. This will also help reduce the weight burden on the branches, especially while they are first developing.
Fruit Salad or Fruit Cocktail Trees
Yes, believe it or not, growing this type of fruit tree is scientifically possible, and are actually growing in some yards in the USA, Australia, and elsewhere right now. I specifically mention Australia for these trees were developed there in 1990 by the West Family from New South Wales.
These trees can bear up to 6 different fruits of the same “family” and each of the fruits retain their own individual size, flavor, and appearance. Additionally each have their own ripening times. In terms of growth, in general these trees can get 12’ to 18’ in height and can be 10’ to 15’ wide.
What makes this such an interesting idea, is that for us who have limited space, we could plant 1 tree instead of 6 or 8 and get a years worth of various fruits to eat. There is just a little care required, such as harvesting the fruit that may appear early, within its first 18 months, to give the branches time to grow firmer and thus able to hold onto heavier ripening fruit better (1).
The fruit salad tree should be planted in full sun to part sun (citrus variety needs full sun), but in an area sheltered from heavy wind. Trees can be grown in yards or containers, and can be espaliered to maximize space.
Stone fruit: This tree can produce peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, almonds, and nectarines. Typically, this type of fruit salad tree can be grown in USDA Zones 5-9.
Citrus fruit: A wide range of citrus fruits can be produced like oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, pomelos, mandarins, kumquats, and tangelos. This tree is hardy in Zones 9-11.
Multi apple: A variety of apples can be grown on this tree including red, green, and yellow apples. Usually, apple trees grow best in Zones 4-7.
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Local Nursery Options
Located in San Leandro. They offer a 3-in-1 mixed fruit tree. Each fruit salad tree will bear at least 3 of the 5 possible varieties: Gold Dust peach, Independence nectarine, July Elberta peach, Late Santa Rosa plum, or Blenheim apricot. They are all deciduous, slow growing, upright trees that take 3-5 years before fruit production.
Locations are all over California, mainly in the southern part of the state. But they have these multi-fruits trees, the pages I saw focused on the stone fruit.
They have stone fruit and mixed apple trees as described above, but also have some unique ones for sale. Locations are in Dublin, Campbell, Cupertino, Novato, Palo Alto.
A multi-grafted Cherry tree:
- Black Tartarian – Huge cherries that are bursting with flavor! These juicy cherries are perfect for snacking and baking.
- Bing Cherries – Large and heart-shaped with a firm, meaty, purplish-red flesh and a semi-free stone that is easily removed—making them ideal for fresh eating and preserves.
- Lapins Cherry – Delicious dark fruit nearly one inch in diameter and has purplish red flesh that is firm and sweet.
- Van Cherries – Often compared to the Bing cherry, Van cherries are the most widely planted varietal, but is even sweeter, juicier, crunchier and more flavorful.
A multi-grafted Asian Pear tree: Grow this tree in Zones 5-9, depending on the varieties of Asian pear grafted on the tree.
- Hosui – Consistently rated the best-tasting Asian pear at Dave Wilson Nursery fruit tastings. Large, juicy, sweet, flavorful, refreshing, crisp like an apple. Brownish-orange russeted skin.
- Shinseiki – Juicy, sweet, refreshing, crisp like an apple. Easy to grow. Keeps well. Bright yellow skin. Vigorous, heavy bearing (usually by 2nd year).
- 20th Century – Juicy, sweet, mild flavored fruit is crisp like an apple. Keeps well. Easy to grow, heavy bearing small tree.
- Chojuro – Russeted golden brown skin. Crisp like an apple when ripe. pear.
Multi-grafted Pluot tree:
- Flavor King – Taste test winner. Unique plum-apricot hybrid with sensational bouquet and sweet, spicy flavor. Reddish-purple skin, crimson flesh. Naturally small tree. It’s an interspecific plum, includes plum and apricot in its parentage.
- Flavor Queen – Exquisite plum/apricot hybrid with candy-like sweet, wonderfully pleasing flavor. Greenish-yellow skin, amber-orange flesh.
- Dapple Dandy – Taste test winner. Ranks with Flavor King Pluot® among the all-time top five best flavored fruits. Creamy white and red fleshed freestone with wonderful plum-apricot flavor. Skin greenish-yellow with red spots, turning to a maroon and yellow dapple.
- Flavor Supreme – Taste test winner. Plum/apricot hybrid with sweet, richly flavored, firm red flesh. Greenish-maroon mottled skin.
Salutation
In theory this is a great idea, but seems you really need to learn all about taking care of fruit trees to have one be successful. As I wrote, it does need some special care. But still the idea is attractive and interesting to think about having. Especially so if you have limited yard space.
If you ever decide to plant a tree like this please let me know, I would like to learn more and actually see how it grows.
—Patty
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