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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] 4 in one trees
  • Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 14:17:45 -0400

Caren, back in the 1970s I asked an employee at a garden centre at Ottawa why they were selling Bing sweet cherry which would not even survive much less bear fruit. He told me almost in so many words that they were not in business to lose money by telling customers what they should not buy. If a customer wanted to buy something, they would sell it. I fear that a lot of businesses still operate on that principle.


Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


On 23/05/2011 11:44 AM, Caren Kirk wrote:
I'm seeing more and more of the "4 in one" or "5 in one" fruit trees,
i.e. a pear, apple, plum or cherry with 4 or more different varieties
grafted. They're all over the large surface DIY stores, but they're also
being sold in several higher quality garden centres. Obviously trying to
appeal to those of us with not a lot of space that want to try fruit
growing. I totally get the concept.

However I question the scruples of selling these trees to an uneducated
public. I am by no means an expert but I am trying to learn a lot about
fruit growing and have investigated and have some experience with
certain varieties for my zone. I have seen plums with 3 japanese
varieties and 1 self-sterile european. How is that meant to work? They
have pears where only 2 out of the 4 varieties are hardy in our area.
Not to mention the sweet cherries which are practically all for a zone
or 2 warmer.

Of course then there are the issues of pruning, spray requirements etc
for multi-grafted trees. There is no or very little information given on
rusticity, care etc with these trees, especially from the large surface
retailers.

I am all for experimenting and pushing the limits with fruit growing and
I know that multi-grafted trees can serve a purpose, However I just
think that Joe Public has no idea what they are getting themselves in
for, and people are exploiting the concept of a perfect tree to a
somewhat ignorant consumer base.

Any thoughts?

Caren Kirk
St. Jerome, QC
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