Family Fruit trees

[Mell]

I was wondering if anyone else here grew family fruit trees ?

I like lots of cultivars so grow several family trees plus some single cultivars

I have one pear with three cultivars on, another with Nottingham Medlar
Wick court Eric perry pear
Blood pear perry pear
Q old pear
Winter Nelis
Fertility Improved
Rouge de Vigny

on it I expect to put another 4-5 cultivars on it this winter.

I also have an apple tree with 5 cultivars on it & am adding another 7 or so this winter, plus others to an old tree I pruned very harshly last winter, which has lots of new growth on it.

Another coupole of apples have two cultivars one the either to deliberatly compare them or because I ran out of rootstocks !

Although family trees need careful attendance, I'm surprised people done have them more often as it is a great way to have fruit over a long season, with a variety of tastes rather than a glut of a single cultivar.Esp where one has an old cooker and does not cook much !

I grafted a pot grown one for my sister whose garden is too small for even a mini orchard

At some point I want to try an apple and pear tree.

[Jax]

I dont have any for the moment but I would love some family trees.

[bharper1]

Sounds very interesting! Grafting is something i have been temped to try for some time now.

Where do you get your new cultivers from? Do you basically buy a cut branch from somewhere or just buy a normal 1 year old maiden and cut that off its rootstock?

[Mell]

Sounds very interesting! Grafting is something i have been temped to try for some time now.

Where do you get your new cultivers from? Do you basically buy a cut branch from somewhere or just buy a normal 1 year old maiden and cut that off its rootstock?

Go for it grafting is nowhere near as hard as people like to make out !

I have got scions (the bit you graft to the rooted tree or rootstock) from friends , or local orchards eg community ones, or via the scion exchange group on Yahoo groups or via interest groups like this. I brough some cherry scions off ebay lasy year, but I prefer to pick my own or ask them from others and in turn gift to others.

[chrisguk]

Go for it grafting is nowhere near as hard as people like to make out !

I wish i could agree, to this date i've never managed a successful attempt; although i have only tried 2 or 3 times.

Also, what rootstock are you interested in grafting another 7 varieties too?

[Mell]

I wish i could agree, to this date i've never managed a successful attempt; although i have only tried 2 or 3 times.

Also, what rootstock are you interested in grafting another 7 varieties too?

What type of graft are you trying & what time of year ? If I can I'll try & point you in the right direction, My kids all graft & I've taught groups to graft with 90% sucess rates.

I'm not sure what the original rootstock is that I'm adding more too, I affectionally call it the rank apple tree because itsapples are so well rank ! I thgink it is probably a MM106 which possibily had a Ballarina type grafted onto it, the rootstock took off in one direction & the rank apple in another. Interestingly the MM106 grafts on uprights take as one would expect, but on the possible ballarina side the grafts only take on horizontals. I guess it is the weird way the hormones go in a tree with few side breaks.

I have NO idea what the old tree is on, a seedling i'd guess as it is ancient.

The main requirement, I feel is a rootstock that works in your soil. If you have an existing tree you don't esp like but which is healthy so much the better !

[hailtryfan]

or via the scion exchange group on Yahoo groups.

I joined that group a little while ago. I've got only got a few varieties to trade (Sunset, Egremont Russet, Scrumptious, Discovery, Ellison's Orange) but I'm really looking forward to a swap and to get grafting early next year

Thinking of making a few family apple trees myself but as experiments and possibly presents for people rather than grwig myself.

[Mell]

I think the are appriciated, but you may need to act as support so one cultivar does not try to dominate !

[hailtryfan]

One family tree I am keen to create is one with Suntan grafted on. It's a late flowerer so was going to pair it up with Braeburn (i'm in Essex so the fruit might ripen in a good summer) and one other. Couldn't decide on another pairing for it though!

[Mell]

How about an early one like Red Joaneting or Mollie's Delicious both in a compatible pollination group (not that I ever worry about that !)

[hailtryfan]

Interesting, never heard of either of them!

I'll try and find some to taste at an apple day I'm going to this weekend

[Mell]

If you find Red Joaneting , be suspicious, it fruits REALLY early, July & does not keep ! you might just find Mollie D, August Sept.

I have a suspect Red Joaneting or something of that ilk, I might be able to get a little extra scion, ancient tree & my graft did not produce loads, but by 2011 there should be plenty !

[hailtryfan]

A July apple would be good. Especially as Suntan is mid late and Braeburn late. That would make a nicely balanced family tree

My earliest at the mo is Scrumptious (Sep)

Kind of you to offer scions. I'll send you a message on the scion group in the new year. Maybe we can swap something

[womble]

I've just put "grafting apple family tree" into google and your site came up first Mel

Where do I find some very basic info about how to do this. Cut this, stick this into this? I have a big old tree in the garden which would be perfect to stick other varieties on.

[Mell]

I've just put "grafting apple family tree" into google and your site came up first Mel

Hope i have this multi quote right !

No surprise there did you see the picture with the ten different ones on & the goblet tree ? Those are my collegues and they are fantastic !

Where do I find some very basic info about how to do this. Cut this, stick this into this? I have a big old tree in the garden which would be perfect to stick other varieties on.

Have you done any grafting before ? If you are doing it on areally old tree my advice is to cut the area you want to graft on to back this year and let it throw up lots of new shoots then graft onto them next year. With my old tree I cut the top off completly it was a bit of a butchereing really, but this is risky as the tree may overheat the following year, a more conservative approch would be to cut one majot branch off at a time, being sure the tree weight remains balanced, I'm lucky in that one of my son's friends is a tree surgeon and does the major work for me.

If the tree is young enough not to be too high to graft onto you could graft this year onto young upright growth, or again cut back & allow new growth to get hold over the next years... trees can't be rushed

The recieved wisdom is that you graft ontop year old upright growth (but as I mentioned I have had sucess with horizontals ) You can also use rind grafting techniques into older wood. I wasn't sucessful with that on my old tree, but perhaps it was just too old or I was very bad at that technique ! Worth a try if you have spare scion though, nothing much to lose.

I'll try grafting anything because so much of what I do is rescue , I can't always be sure the tree will be there next time I visit, so out of season, old wood you name it I'll try it ! Mostly it works

If you have not grafted before there are some good videos on youtube on grafting & rind grafting by Stephen Hayes rind graft here YouTube - Fruitwise apple tree grafting guide, rind grafting from there you can find all the others. His rind grafts are on much much younger trees than I tried ! As I said if it fails new growth will come up from there.

I'm also a real cheap skate so I don't use any fancy grafting tapes etc. I like a good stanley knife, masking tape and I make my own wax sealer.

Hope this helps, if I can assist further just ask & I'll try.