I am considering grafted fruit trees. My wife saw some in a catalog and liked them. Has anyone had any experience with them? Are they pretty hardy? Do they start fruiting reasonably quick. Is the fruit good quality?
Grafted fruit trees?
- Thread starter 1acrefarm
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Settin'_Pretty
Leafing Out
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They're almost all grafted, you'd be hard pressed to find one that isn't.
They produce excellently and depending on what you buy and how you care for it should be producing within 4 years or so.
If they send off suckers at the base, which all trees tend to do, they will be coming from what the original root stock was, so clip them off and throw them away, don't try to root them and expect to get another tree from it.
Fruit trees require a lot of care, so if you just slap them in the ground, then your results will be marginal at best.
They require pruning, spraying, and watering on a regular basis.
Watering them is critical for the first couple of years to help them get established, the third year is when you will start seeing serious growth, the first and second season the roots are growing more than anything.
When ordering and planting, consider their pollination needs.
Some are self pollinating, others need cross pollination from other trees.
They produce excellently and depending on what you buy and how you care for it should be producing within 4 years or so.
If they send off suckers at the base, which all trees tend to do, they will be coming from what the original root stock was, so clip them off and throw them away, don't try to root them and expect to get another tree from it.
Fruit trees require a lot of care, so if you just slap them in the ground, then your results will be marginal at best.
They require pruning, spraying, and watering on a regular basis.
Watering them is critical for the first couple of years to help them get established, the third year is when you will start seeing serious growth, the first and second season the roots are growing more than anything.
When ordering and planting, consider their pollination needs.
Some are self pollinating, others need cross pollination from other trees.
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- #3
Rosalind
Deeply Rooted
Oh, those fruit salad trees that are like, cherries, peaches, nectarines and plums (or some combination of stonefruit) all on the same rootstock?
Meh...Well, I am a fussy home orchardist, but if I had seriously limited space I suppose I'd get a couple. Here is what I would be concerned about:
-The grafted scions (i.e., the fruit-bearing branches) may not be well-matched with respect to vigor. In theory, they should all be equally-matched and produce about the same amount of fruit. In practice, you might get one branch that grows really really fast and takes the majority of energy from the rootstock, giving you tons of, for example, cherries, but only a couple of nectarines. You can control the vigor by pruning...sort of. How much you have to prune will depend on the vigor of the scions, which you will have to find out the hard way.
-Most likely they will all be disease-resistant modern commercial varieties. This will affect the fruit quality, in that the very sweetest, most aromatic and juiciest peaches/nectarines/plums/cherries are not often the disease-resistant commercial kind that were originally developed for production, packing and shipping cross-country. Now, a tree-ripened peach, even of a commercial variety, is invariably better-tasting than a peach picked half-green and sprayed with ethylene to ripen in a grocery store warehouse, but still. If you were looking for, you know, the Ultimate Nectarine Experience, you're not gonna get it from a nameless commercial variety, as a general rule.
-You will indeed have to spray it. Probably a couple times per year. And now that I think about it, you will have to hope very much that the grafts have been thoughtfully placed. Fruit trees are usually pruned in the following shapes: goblet, Christmas tree, or flat against a wall. The positioning of the grafts is going to dictate how you wish to prune this thing, because obviously in this case, if you need to lop off a badly-placed branch that is, say, hindering air flow through the branches and inclining the tree to fungus, you will lose a whole type of fruit rather than merely a branch. Your other option, in that case, would be to spray the heck out of it and hope. I would imagine that they place the grafts in such a way that you would get a goblet tree, so if you wanted some other shape you'd be outta luck.
Me personally, if limited space is an issue, I would look into espaliering or cordoning several trees flat against a southern wall/fence. But that may be more pruning than you want to do.
Meh...Well, I am a fussy home orchardist, but if I had seriously limited space I suppose I'd get a couple. Here is what I would be concerned about:
-The grafted scions (i.e., the fruit-bearing branches) may not be well-matched with respect to vigor. In theory, they should all be equally-matched and produce about the same amount of fruit. In practice, you might get one branch that grows really really fast and takes the majority of energy from the rootstock, giving you tons of, for example, cherries, but only a couple of nectarines. You can control the vigor by pruning...sort of. How much you have to prune will depend on the vigor of the scions, which you will have to find out the hard way.
-Most likely they will all be disease-resistant modern commercial varieties. This will affect the fruit quality, in that the very sweetest, most aromatic and juiciest peaches/nectarines/plums/cherries are not often the disease-resistant commercial kind that were originally developed for production, packing and shipping cross-country. Now, a tree-ripened peach, even of a commercial variety, is invariably better-tasting than a peach picked half-green and sprayed with ethylene to ripen in a grocery store warehouse, but still. If you were looking for, you know, the Ultimate Nectarine Experience, you're not gonna get it from a nameless commercial variety, as a general rule.
-You will indeed have to spray it. Probably a couple times per year. And now that I think about it, you will have to hope very much that the grafts have been thoughtfully placed. Fruit trees are usually pruned in the following shapes: goblet, Christmas tree, or flat against a wall. The positioning of the grafts is going to dictate how you wish to prune this thing, because obviously in this case, if you need to lop off a badly-placed branch that is, say, hindering air flow through the branches and inclining the tree to fungus, you will lose a whole type of fruit rather than merely a branch. Your other option, in that case, would be to spray the heck out of it and hope. I would imagine that they place the grafts in such a way that you would get a goblet tree, so if you wanted some other shape you'd be outta luck.
Me personally, if limited space is an issue, I would look into espaliering or cordoning several trees flat against a southern wall/fence. But that may be more pruning than you want to do.
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- #5
It would be a small orchard. I would prefer espaliering myself. I think my wife is just enthused by the novelty of having 5 varieties of apples from one tree 5 pears from another plus a fruit cocktail thing. I really don't want an orchard. I prefer bartering with the neighbor across the street as he has alot of fruit while I have alot of veggies. I will ask my wife if she still wants those trees in a few weeks to make sure its not an impulse thing. If she wants them she will get them though as I want her to be happy. She does not ask for much I sure will not deny her of those trees. Multigrafts are unfamiliar to me so its got my curiosity up. I do like the point that they are dwarfs so they can be maintained and harvested without a bucket truck.
patandchickens
Deeply Rooted
My understanding is that the "fruit cocktail thing", as you say 
, does not work as well as just several varieties of the same fruit. My father-in-law made a bunch of multiply grafted apple trees that have been doing magnificently in their backyard for probably at least 15-20 years, quite possibly longer. One of them has, like, probably 8 or 9 different varieties on it in one place or another, including a couple of unnamed hedgerow varieties from my b-i-l's place.
I think the thing is just to make sure you don't have major disparities in vigor among varieties.
Why not get a couple 'normal' apple trees, then try grafting yourself, with scions from friends' trees or whatever? It is not rocket science, you just need to be careful and expect some failures. It will take a little longer to bear than the commercial 5-in-one things but this way you can get the exact varieties you want (I don't think I'd start with *five*, though <g>)
Have fun,
Pat
, does not work as well as just several varieties of the same fruit. My father-in-law made a bunch of multiply grafted apple trees that have been doing magnificently in their backyard for probably at least 15-20 years, quite possibly longer. One of them has, like, probably 8 or 9 different varieties on it in one place or another, including a couple of unnamed hedgerow varieties from my b-i-l's place. I think the thing is just to make sure you don't have major disparities in vigor among varieties.
Why not get a couple 'normal' apple trees, then try grafting yourself, with scions from friends' trees or whatever? It is not rocket science, you just need to be careful and expect some failures. It will take a little longer to bear than the commercial 5-in-one things but this way you can get the exact varieties you want (I don't think I'd start with *five*, though <g>)
Have fun,
Pat
My dad (rest his soul) always wanted to be a master grafter. He had such huge dreams of grafting his favorite troubled apple tree onto our super strong apple tree. He never had very much luck.
I think the whole concept is just amazing!
I think the whole concept is just amazing!
