To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Make a four-on-one apple tree
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:52:48 -0700
Most nurseries in this area won't sell multiple variety trees any more. One of the biggest problems was that one variety would almost always outgrow the rest and either leave the tree unbalanced, or the weaker ones would get pruned off.
The best multiple variety dwarfs I've seen were grown by Prof. Albert Heinrich in Corvallis, OR. He espaliered all his trees with a total of six arms per tree, and each arm was a different variety. He had over 100 varieties in his yard in an amazingly small space. He did his own grafting, mostlly on M9 as smaller rootstocks didn't work well enough. He was very diligent in his summer pruning.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
For even more grape lessons, go to http://www.grapeschool.com
For growing supplies and more; http://www.grapegrowersolutions.com