Multiple grafted fruit trees

12 years ago

Hello,

I am a newbie to this forum. I am trying to figure out if I wasted a lot of time and money on 5-in-1 apple, 5-in-1 pear, and 6-in-1 fruit trees (all dwarf). I bought them via mail order, thinking they were grafted branches... but when the trees arrived, they looked like a stick with roots. I cannot seem to find any info about this type of 'grafting' (if that's even what its called).

Do these types actually produce as advertised? Or will one variety take over? Is there a special way to prune them, since I have no way of knowing what branches will produce what type of fruit?

Thanks!
Phil

Featured Answer

drphil69
Original Author

12 years ago

I was afraid of that. I got them from Burgess.com. I remember Burgess seeds from when I was kid, thought the company was good by that. I actually bought them 2 years ago but didn't learn much about them until recently. One of them died and they replaced it, with something that looked the same. I also got a double-labelled tree from them. It was late March and my order had not arrived yet, so I called and emailed, and they were waiting on one tree. Then I get the order (in May, when its already getting hot here) and I see a tree labelled 'gala' and 'mcintosh.' I figured they ran out of gala and slapped another label but forgot to remove mcintosh label. They did send me another tree labelled 'gala' though.

They really looked like typical bare-root trees. I just assumed there was new technology for grafting.

Sadly, the pear and 6-in-1 fruit are doing really well. I know the 6-in-1 has pairs of fruit varieties for cross pollination (supposedly...). I guess at this point I just wait and see. These two trees have very nice trucks, about 1.5" diameter while my apples seem to be struggling. I think I will replace the 5-in-1 apple with one of the early Fuji varieties to pollinate the gala and the "unknown" double-labelled tree.

Thank you for your replies.

Phil

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Comments (7)

Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
12 years ago
Phil, what company did you purchase them from. It seems strange that they look like a stick with roots. There should be a designated, labeled branch for each variety that the tree is supposed to carry. This seems strange to me.

Suzi
mrsg47
12 years ago
My combo Euro pear (first combo I ever tried) had five branches all separately labeled. I am noticing that the strongest branch the Bartlett pear is taking over the top of the tree. After my pruning next month that will change. There is still one skinny branch of a different variety that is growing slowly. I am only trying one 'combo' as I would really prefer to learn to graft my own trees. Mrs. G
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Kippy
12 years ago
I would love to know where you got yours, but I would say you got taken.

Even the box stores 3 or 4 on ones are labeled and the scion (twig) is obvious. I suppose it could be some chip bud, but that would be obvious too.

Hope you used your credit card and can get your money back.
alan haigh
12 years ago
A graft leaves an obvious scar that takes a couple years, at least, to disappear. Multi variety trees I've seen have very obvious grafting wounds at the beginning of well developed scaffold branches for each variety. Please let us know what company you got these trees from and I do hope you can manage to get your money back.
Konrad___far_north
12 years ago
>>they looked like a stick with roots.If you have a stick only without branches then I can only think of several bud grafts, not grown out yet, [we need to see pictures].
Charlie
12 years ago
Mine was from Willis and looked the same. It is now quite large. It has 4 stone fruits.