anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can get
a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about them but
cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was dreaming???

Dwayne & Angela wrote:

anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can get
a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about them but
cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was dreaming???

Ken Muir (www.kenmuir.co.uk) stock "family" trees with several different
varieties of the same fruit grafted onto the same rootstock, so it might
be worth asking them.

Just received 3 pears, 2 plums and a gage from them. Far too nasty
outside for planting at the moment though, so they're temporarily
heeled into a trench in the veggie plot.

James

i seem to recall two different types of apples being sold on the same rootstock but cant remember 2 different fruits. may just be my memory of course!

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...
anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can
get
a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about them
but
cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was dreaming???
~~~~~~~~~~
It is not possible to have a single tree with other than all apple, all
pear etc. A single tree can, though, have different varieties of the same
fruit. It was probably this that you read.
Best Wishes Brian.

I have seen trees advertised as "fruit cocktail" trees and they have
different fruits grafted on one tree. The only thing is that they must have
like seeds (plum/apricot/ and apples/pears). I have never tried any, but my
brother has. He never has very good luck with them. We are in the U.S. so
I cant say what kind of luck you would have.

Dwayne

"Brian" --- 'flayb' to respond wrote in message
...

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...
anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can
get
a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about them
but
cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was dreaming???
~~~~~~~~~~
It is not possible to have a single tree with other than all apple, all
pear etc. A single tree can, though, have different varieties of the same
fruit. It was probably this that you read.
Best Wishes Brian.

Brian wrote:

It is not possible to have a single tree with other than all apple, all
pear etc. A single tree can, though, have different varieties of the same
fruit. It was probably this that you read.

Why not, out of interest? IIRC scions of different fruits are grafted
onto the same rootstock, so that shouldn't be the problem. Is there an
incompatability between scions of different fruits?

James

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...
anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can
get a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about
them but cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was
dreaming???

You can buy what are commonly called "Fruit Cocktail " trees which contain
as many different fruits as a green grocer.
e.g..
http://www.directgardening.com/detail.asp?pid=5556
Not certain that they perform particularly well.
Somewhere it is suggested that if you are limited for space planting
different varieties in the same hole may be a solution.

"Rupert" wrote in message
...

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...
anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can
get a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about
them but cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was
dreaming???

You can buy what are commonly called "Fruit Cocktail " trees which contain
as many different fruits as a green grocer.

knew I had seen them somewhere although I doubt if some of those fruits
would fruit properly here, but I am new to all this stuff and am willing to
listen to any advice either way.
e.g..
http://www.directgardening.com/detail.asp?pid=5556
Not certain that they perform particularly well.
Somewhere it is suggested that if you are limited for space planting
different varieties in the same hole may be a solution.
This however sounds promising would they stunt each others growth though? if
this is possible what about apple, pear and plum in the same hole? I think
it would be pretty cool if they twined around each other.

Dwayne & Angela wrote:

"Rupert" wrote in message
...

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...

anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can
get a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about
them but cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was
dreaming???

You can buy what are commonly called "Fruit Cocktail " trees which contain
as many different fruits as a green grocer.

knew I had seen them somewhere although I doubt if some of those fruits
would fruit properly here, but I am new to all this stuff and am willing to
listen to any advice either way.

I can't see plum or any other stone fruit working well on an apple or
pear root stock. But you can get family trees which combine two or three
compatible and cross pollenating cultivars of apple (or pear) on a
single root stock. I have one Egremont Russet & Sunset that works well
though you have to prune more carefully to keep them in balance.

e.g..
http://www.directgardening.com/detail.asp?pid=5556
Not certain that they perform particularly well.
Somewhere it is suggested that if you are limited for space planting
different varieties in the same hole may be a solution.

US advertising standards need to be considered carefully.

This however sounds promising would they stunt each others growth though? if
this is possible what about apple, pear and plum in the same hole? I think
it would be pretty cool if they twined around each other.

I expect they will fight pretty badly. Plums really detest being pruned
and apples/pears require some pruning to perform well.

Nectarines and peaches are pretty well impossible to grow in the north
of England (and fairly easy in Belgium). I know I have tried.

In the UK nectarines & peaches are martyrs to fungal attack by peach
leaf curl after our damp cold dank winters. Surprisingly the extra
warmth of a few degrees further south makes all the difference.

Regards,
Martin Brown

This however sounds promising would they stunt each others growth though?
if this is possible what about apple, pear and plum in the same hole? I
think it would be pretty cool if they twined around each other.
Knowing what to google for has thrown some good links up this tree on this
page (dont think its a fruit tree? but it looks good anyway.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/gardeni.../grafting.html

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...

"Rupert" wrote in message
...

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...
anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I can
get a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember reading about
them but cant find them have tried googling but no joy. or maybe I was
dreaming???

You can buy what are commonly called "Fruit Cocktail " trees which
contain as many different fruits as a green grocer.

knew I had seen them somewhere although I doubt if some of those fruits
would fruit properly here, but I am new to all this stuff and am willing
to listen to any advice either way.
e.g..
http://www.directgardening.com/detail.asp?pid=5556

snip

I have never seen a multi fruit tree-so I suppose they are not that
successful in the long term.
Martin is quite correct that attempting to prune different trees in the same
hole would require a lot of dedication.
If you want to have a go then pay attention to the type of rootstock and
make it a big wide hole.
I would settle for one good single fruit and buy the rest from the
Supermarket:-)

"James Fidell" wrote in message
...
Brian wrote:

It is not possible to have a single tree with other than all apple,
all
pear etc. A single tree can, though, have different varieties of the
same
fruit. It was probably this that you read.

Why not, out of interest? IIRC scions of different fruits are grafted
onto the same rootstock, so that shouldn't be the problem. Is there an
incompatability between scions of different fruits?

James
~~~~~~~~~~
Yes~~ there is a very narrow band of compatibility. Apples will only
graft on to apple rootstocks etc.. Pears on pear or Quince. They can be of
any varieties. Quite a few of the 'plum' family will take on the plum type
rootstock so that plum, peach and nectarine would be possible on one
rootstock~~ but would be better alone..
The so-called family tree is usually two or three apples, that have a
similar vigour, on the one root.
Best Wishes Brian.

Dwayne & Angela wrote:
"Rupert" wrote in message
...

You can buy what are commonly called "Fruit Cocktail " trees which contain
as many different fruits as a green grocer.

knew I had seen them somewhere although I doubt if some of those fruits
would fruit properly here, but I am new to all this stuff and am willing to
listen to any advice either way.

These are some of the ones I've seen:

http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/products.php?catID=7&subID=58
http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/products.php?catID=7&subID=89

James

Brian wrote:

Yes~~ there is a very narrow band of compatibility. Apples will only
graft on to apple rootstocks etc.. Pears on pear or Quince. They can be of
any varieties. Quite a few of the 'plum' family will take on the plum type
rootstock so that plum, peach and nectarine would be possible on one
rootstock~~ but would be better alone..

Ahhh. I didn't realise the choice of rootstock was so restricted.

James

Dwayne & Angela wrote:
"Rupert" wrote in message
...

"Dwayne & Angela" wrote in message
...
anyone know of a place either in the midlands or mail order where I
can get a apple and plum or pear and plum? I seem to remember
reading about them but cant find them have tried googling but no
joy. or maybe I was dreaming???

You can buy what are commonly called "Fruit Cocktail " trees which
contain as many different fruits as a green grocer.

knew I had seen them somewhere although I doubt if some of those
fruits would fruit properly here, but I am new to all this stuff and
am willing to listen to any advice either way.
e.g..
http://www.directgardening.com/detail.asp?pid=5556
Not certain that they perform particularly well.

The site says "Pick nectarines, peaches, plums, and apricots all from
the same tree. Harvest bushels of fruit." I wouldn't be surprised to see
such grafts take -- note that they're all stone fruit -- but I refuse to
believe it would work well. The four branches would presumably grow at
different rates, which must be the main problem with any "family tree".
That way you'd end up with one type taking over.

But I'm reasoning, not reporting: I've never actually tried it.

Somewhere it is suggested that if you are limited for space planting
different varieties in the same hole may be a solution.
This however sounds promising would they stunt each others growth
though? if this is possible what about apple, pear and plum in the
same hole? I think it would be pretty cool if they twined around each
other.

I don't know how one would avoid the problem of different rates of
growth; and, as you guess, I imagine they'd starve each other even if
they did grow at the same rate. Note how rarely you see two trees
growing arm in arm in the wild, even though seeds must germinate next to
one another all the time.

--
Mike.