North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Sherlock Terry <sherlocksmith@gmail.com>]

Hi,

This fall I picked and tasted at the "Heirloom Zoo" orchard of Poverty  
Lane in NH. They have a couple of hundred Mac and Cortland trees that  
they have either top worked or added a single branch of a new variety.  
It's a pretty inspiring place, but also a little chaotic, hence the  
"Zoo" in the title.

I've been thinking about making some multi-graft trees of my own next  
spring for some obscure and borderline hardy fruits here in VT  
(medlars, quince, apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, european plums,  
asian pears, etc). I see it as a way to save space and to trial new  
fruits. I was thinking that open center/vase shaped pruning may be a  
tidy way to go. I looked back though my bookshelf and did a quick  
search on the web, there are lots of illustrations, but I'm having  
trouble finding many photos of trees pruned this way. Do any of you  
have any pics of open center trees? Can you prune most any fruit tree  
this way (and do folks ever attempt it with kiwis or grapes)? How do  
you handle multi-grafts?

Thanks.

-Sherlock
North/Central VT