
04-30-2015, 07:20 PM
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Location: PA
2,113 posts, read 2,272,215 times
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Does anyone have one of these, or has anyone tried to plant one?
I am getting rid of some non-productive plants in my yard because I would rather use the space to grow some edibles. I was looking for dwarf fruit trees and I came across something called a fruit cocktail or fruit salad tree. Supposedly, several different types of fruit can grow on the same tree. Is this too good to be true, or has anyone had success with this sort of tree?
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04-30-2015, 11:31 PM
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Location: San Antonio
12,112 posts, read 14,245,707 times
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I bought a fruit cocktail tree two years ago and let me just describe it as deer food. Lol!!
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04-30-2015, 11:33 PM
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Location: Out there somewhere...a traveling man.
43,071 posts, read 57,852,601 times
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They're hybrid citrus trees, called cocktail trees. They have 2-3 different type of fruit stems grafted onto a hardy root stock, usually it's a lemon stock or sour orange stock. Some are very successful for a few years, some are not and revert back to their main root stock, thereby you end up with a lemon or sour orange tree.
They're generally considered novelty trees. They were very popular a few years back but because of it's un-dependable success rate their popularity has dramatically dropped off.
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05-01-2015, 05:36 AM
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Location: Floribama
18,553 posts, read 40,076,174 times
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There's different types. I've seen some that are different types of apples grafted onto the same tree, or apples, cherries, and plums growing from same tree, etc. No idea how well they perform, I've always been skeptical.
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05-01-2015, 07:07 AM
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Location: North West Arkansas (zone 6b)
2,778 posts, read 2,915,935 times
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as long as the fruits are from the same family it should work. so "stone fruits" (peach, nectarine, apricot, plum), "apple" etc.
Cherry and plums on the same tree won't live.
On a side note, there is a site selling a tomato plant that has been grafted with a potato plant. It's the same plant family, so it works... and saves space.
Grafting is not too hard. You can probably succesfully create your own fruit tree. Just start with root stock that is healthy in your area.
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07-08-2019, 08:39 AM
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Location: San Antonio Tx
Reputation: 10
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In California (NW of LA) I had a "Dwarf" Citrus Cocktail tree. It was a Meyer Lemon Tree with Navel, Mandarin and Valencia oranges as well as limes grafted to it. It was still growing strong 9 years after I planted it and it was around 9 feet tall. The people that purchased my house loved it and I assume it's still there. With the heat and humidity, I don't know if it would grow in San Antonio, but if I had a place to grow one, and could find one here, I would definitely give it a shot again. I enjoyed having the variety of fruit.
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07-09-2019, 08:44 AM
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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, originally from SF Bay Area
40,516 posts, read 72,348,287 times
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I do grafting, and currently have an apple tree with 5 varieties, and an apple with pears on it. In the past I have done peaches and nectarines, apricots and plums. It's a fun process, every gardening enthusiast should try it.
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07-09-2019, 01:07 PM
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3,212 posts, read 2,575,156 times
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I had one, it went back to its root stock, doesn't even produce that well. I'm considering taking it down, but birds nest in it, so I haven't yet.
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07-09-2019, 05:41 PM
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Location: SoCal
20,162 posts, read 11,427,423 times
Reputation: 16963
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
I do grafting, and currently have an apple tree with 5 varieties, and an apple with pears on it. In the past I have done peaches and nectarines, apricots and plums. It's a fun process, every gardening enthusiast should try it.
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I saw one artist in New York grafted 40 different fruit to a tree. Sound like fun, maybe I should try it.
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