North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

Group:
Would the following strategy work in developing a multi-grafted fruit tree 
that would not be unbalanced (i.e. that some cultivar(s) would dominate)?
1. Frame: Grow the dwarf rootstock or a single variety (chosen for it's high 
disease-resistance and/or cold-hardiness) until it is an 8' x 8' tree.
2. Frame: Allow only a few limbs to support the many smaller branches.
3. Varieties: Now, graft the ALL OF THE tips of the (now) 8' x 8' - grafting 
all around - staggering the varieties, and using a repetitious sequence:
i.e. for sweet cherry: going clock-wise or counter clock-wise -Rainer; Bing; 
Lapins; Rainer; Bing; Lapins (apex); Bing; Rainer; Lapins; Bing; Rainer.
4. Final: Grow the (now) 8' x 8'  sweet cherry to a final size of 
approximately 12' x 12'; so that EACH variety has exactly 4' to extend from 
the point at which they were grafted.
5. Final: Always, uniformly and symmetrically prune the tree to the 
approximate dimension of a circle: 12' x 12' tree.
I think that this strategy will increase the likeliness that:
A. No cultivar will prevail over another, since they will not have grown far 
enough to cause much shading on the other.  I think the staggering helps for 
a number of reasons.
B. The tree will look more aesthetically interesting.
C. The differences in weight, being distributed throughout the tree, will 
decrease physical stress.  Say if you had a 3-in-1 multi-species multi-graft 
fruit cocktail tree: if 1/3 of the franken-tree weighed so much more then the 
other, if that one 1/3 was bearing fruit at a time the other 2 were not... 
that could really be a problem.
All this...As long as you prune the tree evenly all around.
Will this work?
If I did a sweet cherry like this - maybe with 5 to 7 cultivars on it, how 
many pounds would a 12' x 12' tree produce, eventually?
Does this sound like a problem?
I'm going to try it for:

Asian Pear
European Plum
American Persimmon
Asian Persimmon
Jujube
Apricot, Peach, Nectarine



I mistakenly, at first, considered making the frame (4' x 4'), then adding a 
variety to the tips, then waiting for the uniform varieties to extend 2', to 
then add another variety in 2', etc etc - like a rainbow arch - but I then 
realized that only the outer-most layer would produce blossoms and that very 
few stray spurs in the inner-workings would bloom in the interior, so only 
the outer-most layer/variety would be productive.  


If anyone has done this or has photos, please let me know.


Thanks,
Steve; NJ 6b/7a