Fruit Cocktail Trees?

[chickenwhisperer]

Saw them at the local nursery and they looked real good, to me anyways...
I picked one up and its been in the ground since late january.

Ive seen lots of videos on youtube of people planting these things, but cant seem to find anybody that has actually grown one to production with evidence that these trees produce as intended/expected, even the very knowledgeable lady at the nursery hadnt heard anything past selling one...

For anybody unfamiliar with these trees, they take a young almond tree and cut all the branches off, then graft branches from certain other fruit trees(citrus w/citrus, apples w/apples, and pit fruits w/pit fruits), in my case i have a tree that has a plum branch a peach branch a nectarine branch and a apricot branch.

These are all fruits I actually like to eat and getting them all from one tree seems so perfect!

Does anybody have any actual evidence that I didnt waste my money and the next 2 years to find out if these trees perform as claimed?

 

[Carol Dee]

I am no help. We had one that was several varieties of apple and a pear. It did not survive one season. But that might be a reflection on us and not the tree!

 

[so lucky]

Being the skeptic that I am, I would think that it's just another gimmick to get your dollar. I bet Marshall would have an idea if this would work or not. Marshall, are you up yet?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

part of the reason you don't see too many of these producing is probably because of early die off from issues grafting to rootstock and where the trees are being grown. there have been some issues with what is called peach tree short life (PTSL) in southern areas. http://www.ent.uga.edu/peach/peachhbk/pdf/shortlife.pdf
most stone fruits are grafted to either almond or certain peach rootstock like Lovell or Nemaguard. there is another that is on the market called Guardian which tends to have less issues from what i've been reading so far.

i always thought it was interesting that whenever i see these fruit cocktail trees advertised for sale it was a drawing or what looks like an old picture, or even just the mixed fruits in a bowl. so i always thought they were fake.

btw, i hope you have good luck with yours and it produces many fruit for you! i'd love to see if these are real!

 

[catjac1975]

We bought 5 in 1 apple trees that were a bust. But, I would still be tempted!

 

[897tgigvib]

I don't know, but I do know that dwarf multi graft Apple trees should be fine.

Carol, yours had Apples and Pears on the same tree? That's new to me. I'd heard that it works, but that the Pear has much thicker cambium that grows at a different rate. I can see how some variety of Pear might well make more Apple tree like cambium for it to work without growing a strange looking weak graft, and or some special cut for the graft.

What was it that happened to your trees Carol and CatJac?

I am still considering one or two dwarf multi grafted Apple trees for my garden, maybe to put in next winter. Making sure I leave places for them when I put in the berries.

=====

ChickenWhisperer, am I understanding right that they graft citrus onto Almond??? My poor brain needs another cup of coffee. Almonds and Citrus are in different families, and I think even in different Orders, that name that ends in "...ales" or "...ae" without the ceae, the next group above that has several families in it.

ok, coffee for the poor Neanderthal

 

[thistlebloom]

I had one many years ago, it was a stone fruit combo. Peach, plum and nectarine? Anyway, one of the grafts grew so much faster than the other two, ( and I believe it was the nectarine) that the tree was hugely imbalanced. I think it produced some plums, because the blooms missed the late frosts most years. That was not in north Idaho btw.

 

[ninnymary]

Last summer I bought a 4 multi-graft semi-dwarf apple tree. It had about 8 apples when I bought it in a 15 gal. container. The apples were very good. Because of my small yard, I also purchased a semi-dwarf pear tree and a semi-dwarf asian pear. I'm hoping they will produce at least a few fruits this year so that I can taste them.

The pear tree is currently blooming and had the Kieffer pear that I was looking for. I had a coupon and it only cost me $8 and was in a 12 gal. I thought it was a good deal. We'll see.

Asian pears are supposed to do well in the bay area and my tree had 20th Century which is what I was looking for. The buds are starting to open.

I hope all of them do well. But it's too soon to tell.

Mary

 

[HotPepperQueen]

I usually plant the unusual so if I lived in a warmer climate I would surely try it! I do find it odd and somewhat suspicious that I can't find a real picture of one of the stone fruit mixed trees. I can find plenty of apple and citrus tree pictures. My grandparent's have a tree in Arizona that produces lemons, limes, and grapefruit all in one tree. It's huge! I'll try to get a picture from them.

 

[Kassaundra]

part of the reason you don't see too many of these producing is probably because of early die off from issues grafting to rootstock and where the trees are being grown. there have been some issues with what is called peach tree short life (PTSL) in southern areas. http://www.ent.uga.edu/peach/peachhbk/pdf/shortlife.pdf
most stone fruits are grafted to either almond or certain peach rootstock like Lovell or Nemaguard. there is another that is on the market called Guardian which tends to have less issues from what i've been reading so far.

i always thought it was interesting that whenever i see these fruit cocktail trees advertised for sale it was a drawing or what looks like an old picture, or even just the mixed fruits in a bowl. so i always thought they were fake.

btw, i hope you have good luck with yours and it produces many fruit for you! i'd love to see if these are real!

That is exactly why I have never bought one. I figure if there is no actual pic of the producing tree to put in the catalouge it is a bad sign. I also use the same reasoning when buying clothing patterns, if they have to have a drawing of how the clothes look on a person I figure the model looked so aweful they didn't want to print it, but that may just be the skeptic in me.