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  • From: Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Multiple fruit trees IN SAME hole - so that they fuse
  • Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 09:08:17 -0500

When I was a kid I visited the historic home of some famous author (Emily
Dickinson?) and it had an ancient full-sized apple tree with three cultivars.
One was about half the tree, but the other two were about even, and they'd
obviously maintained the multi-graft tree for many decades. So it can
certainly be done, even long term.

My guess is that once the tree matures and gets less vigorous, it's easier to
maintain and requires less pruning.

Ginda

On Mar 1, 2012, at 8:57 AM, Scott Smith wrote:

> Jim, to keep the trees balanced the more vigorous varieties need to be
> rigorously controlled by pruning. Basically the minute it looks out of
> balance, I whack it -- I always have my pruners and saw on my belt and deal
> with the problem when I first spot it. If that means removing half the
> graft right now, so be it. Multiple scheduled rounds of pruning each year
> are also needed, I do two in summer and one in winter. It took me several
> years of experience to figure out how to do prune properly, but it is now
> generally working fine. If I had a lot of space I would not be doing close
> planting since it is more pruning work, but I have to put all my trees in
> about 1/4 acre and with close planting methods I can grow over 500
> varieties. I prefer the method of trees in rows with about 3-4' spacing.
> I tried closer spacing but found it was too hard to prune. M9 or other
> strongly dwarfing stocks can in fact do fine in 2', and things like
> vigorous pears are better in 4'. I have us
> ed close spacing on all types of fruit, even the most vigorous plants. The
> trick for kiwis is to hedge them back twice before midsummer, I use powered
> hedge trimmers and trim back all the long shoots. After two prunings they
> calm down for the rest of the summer. On the 3-4' spaced trees I will
> often have multiple varieties grafted to a single tree. I have done as
> many as five varieties on 3'-spaced trees but that is too hard to keep
> balanced; my preferred approach now is 2 or maybe 3 varieties maximum per
> tree. Starting out its probably best to just try to get one variety per
> tree balanced, and later additions or topworkings can add multiple
> varieties.
>
> Scott
>
>
> On Feb 29, 2012, at 10:59 PM, Idell Weydemeyer wrote:
>
>> I have European pears, Asian pears, cherries, plums and apples with
>> multiple
>> grafts- -some for as many as 20 years --and with summer pruning ,they are
>> fine--so far-- On some, I do summer pruning twice. However, I have shallow
>> soil and little water so these trees are not the kind to make 3-6 feet of
>> growth a year--only my peaches and kiwis do that.
>>
>> Idell Weydemeyer
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
>> [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jim Fruth
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 5:50 PM
>> To: NAFEX
>> Cc: Jackie Kuehn
>> Subject: [nafex] Multiple fruit trees IN SAME hole - so that they fuse
>>
>> I wouldn't recommend it. I did something similar. When I planted apple
>>
>> trees, I grafted four different varieties on the same trees. It was my
>> thinking that I didn't want the whole crop ripening at one time. My
>> grafts
>> were to give me a succession or ripening from July into September. That
>> worked well for a few years but, one by one, the more vigorous varieties
>> strangled the less vigorous. Where vigor seemed matched, they pushed each
>> other over until today, fifteen years later, there is only one variety
>> left
>> on each trunk.
>>
>> Jim Fruth
>> Brambleberry Fruit Farm
>> 4002 Davis Street
>> Pequot Lakes, MN 56472
>>
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