Fruit salad trees with six different fruit-bearing branches grafted on them

The Fruit Salad Tree Company of Emmaville, NSW, Australia sells trees that have up to six different fruit-bearing branches grafted on them.

* Stone fruits which grows peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots and peachcots
* Citrus which grows a winter and summer orange, mandarins, lemons, limes, grapefruits, tangelos and pomelos
* Multi-apples only
* Multi-nashi fruit only
The Fruit Salad Tree can be grown in the ground as for normal fruit trees, or in pots for those people with very limited space. Instead of having numerous different trees with more fruit than your household can consume there is only one tree with all of the fruits ripening naturally over a period of months. There can be more than one variety of an individual fruit on a tree, thus extending the picking time.

Fruit Salad Tree Company (via Kottke)

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MORE: australia • Business • Food • gift guide • horticulture • Weird

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http://twitter.com/anne_athema World Rocker

I think you guys should buy one and see how well it actually does.
Boundegar

I remember ads for these back when I was a kid. Never knew anyone who bought one, but I’ll bet it takes arcane sorcery to get all the branches bearing in the same week.
- Wreckrob8
  
  It says the fruits ripen naturally at their due time, but if they can get them all to ripen at the same time I want a cream fountain on top, too!
- Ipo
  
  Arcane sorcery and Photoshoppery.
  - https://plus.google.com/104067355242126774300/posts?hl=en Dennis Smith
    
    I did this when I was 14 with 3 different fruits. Was a bit of fun then. Certainly not Photoshopped, But the result of hard graft…….
Brainspore

Oh sure, make one of these and you get heralded as a genius. But start grafting parts of other delicious animals onto a cow and suddenly you’ve gone “too far.”
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Ender-Wiggin/100000885624281 Ender Wiggin
  
  ^ that’s why i love this site. only ten comments on the entire article, but that’s standing at 26 likes already.
  - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
    
    Whoah. 108 likes now.
    
    Pretty sure sure I’ve never seen the like…
    - Felton / Moderator
      
      He is the one!
http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce

The Wiggles Approve!
Trish Bennett

my neighbour has a mature plum/apricot ‘fruit salad’ tree… I think they’re not so new…
robuluz

I’ve had one of their trees with lemons, mandarin and lime. The lime graft never took, and we didn’t get a lot of fruit from it. It was in a pot, it may have performed better in the ground.
nomad411

Now if only the sap could be made to be “Ranch-flavored”…
OOpps, just saw afterwards it was all fruits.
TheMadLibrarian

Didn’t people in a previous post get all sweaty over grafting fruit-bearing branches onto trees along the public streets of SF for sweet, sweet free fruit? Oh, the humanity!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
  - Lobster
    
    …I’ll take a German Shepard head grafted to a Pomeranian with Greyhound legs, please.
Guido Núñez-Mujica

BUT.. BUT.. BUT, this is UNNATURAL!
baeocystin

Multi-grafts can be fun to grow, but they’re more work than you might think. The different branches grow at different rates, and it takes regular pruning and a good eye to maintain shape and vigor across the different cultivars as the years pass.
Daniel Sinnott

This is only 45 minutes from where I live and it was only yesterday I was talking about looking at multi-graft citrus for the small yard in my new house

I think I’ll be going for a drive this weekend!
David Aked

These have been around for a while. They are AWESOME! Friend has one. The fruits are chosen so that they are likely to fruit at similar times. (Can’t get identical). But there is a 1 or 2 week period per year where all the fruit is ripe and you can just pick are random and go NOM! It’s awesome.

However, it is really REALLY nutrient intensive. Requires fertilizer by the truckload. Requires lots of care and making sure that you get early headsup on any pests (borers etc). As for fruit bats. Well yeah. They have a feast. And if you don’t want to harm the bats, netting is right out (we have an endangered micro-bat in our region).

If you love animals however, put a ‘bat-box’ in your multigraft and you will have bats all fruit season. So cute.
TwilightNewsSite

I *totally* wanted one of these, couldn’t ever afford them.

Here is a company in the U.S. that offers them, but beware, you may be inspired to poke your eyes out upon witnessing the “we promise we’re updating our site” web design:

http://www.growquest.com/fruit%20trees%20-%20better%20plant/Fruit%20Salad%20Citrus%20Trees.htm
- Chris Greisman
  
  I’ve seen fruit salad trees offered from this U.S. producer for awhile. Judging by the vintage of the sales photos that means “since before I was born”.
  I’ve bought nursery stock from this company before, and they’re cheap for a reason. Many of their stock tends to be the tiny-twig-with-roots type, so buyer beware.
  
  http://www.eburgess.com/detail.asp?pid=5556
Mister44

My grandpa was at master at this. He had pecan trees with 5 different kinds (IIRC) of pecans growing on them. I sure miss him.
- Ipo
  
  My grampa loved pears and much prolonged the season on his one pear tree.
  Unlike apples they don’t keep well.
http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G

Awesome. Another similar method that has fascinated me for years is what I saw in southern France ~20 years ago, shortly after a record-breaking frost that killed Roman-era olive trees. (I love olive trees.) The new saplings had been planted in fours, twisted together. It looked to me at the time that this would result in olive fruits sooner. N’est-ce pas?
- erimen
  
  I know my dad twisted Monkey Puzzle saplings together since they tend to be kind of whippy and fragile. It made them more “sturdy”. Not sure if it’s the same deal with Olive trees.
  Various Great Uncles twisted hardwood saplings together to grow their own walking sticks/canes too. Can be done with a sapling and a honeysuckle vine too. http://www.tglass.net/Spiral%20Bound/Ash.htm is a good picture of what they wind up looking like,.
  - princessalex
    
    I’d really love to see this! But, the link isn’t working. :(
relawson

Someone do a tomato and basil plant NOW!!!!!!

…if only mozzarella grew on trees.
http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael

as a Yank, the “NSW” threw me for a bit, as I mis-read it.

In support of such future confusion, I hereby petition the government of Australia to change the state’s name to “New South-Facing Wales”
nanner

i’d never heard of this before moving to SW Florida but they are pretty common here. i’m considering getting one. Right now i have Star Fruit, Orange, Grapefruit & Avocado. I think a grafted “fruit salad” tree would produce enough of each fruit but not too much. I definitely have too much star fruit when that tree is in full swing! lol
fermenter

For those in the California, check out http://www.baylaurelnursery.com/ They are an excellent source of mail order fruit trees including “fruit salad.” I have several of their trees including 2 of the multi grafted stone fruit varieties. Yum!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski

These are good ‘maker’ projects. Grow an apple, plum, or pear tree, collect scions from your neighborhood trees in winter when pruning needs to done anyway, and give it a go. Grafting sounds kind of mysterious, but a little bit of reading will give you plenty of info and confidence to start experimenting.
Souse

Obligatory Futurama reference…
http://twitter.com/DonCarlitos Charlie McHenry

The botanical equivalent of vivisection. Truly “franken-fruit.”