Fruit Cocktail Trees

A submission from Doctor Walter Clark...

Years ago when I lectured and conducted "Can Cuttings", I would occasionally tell a group of Food Technology students that Fruit Cocktail came from a Fruit Cocktail tree...... Just like pears, plumbs and peaches do.... Well, now it's not that far fetched....... Read the attached article as: "light reading".

Reading time approx: 2 - minutes.

Grow your own Fruit Cocktail…

You want to pick a plum, peach and a pluot (stone fruit) from just one tree? Now you can.

If you have never thought of this idea, now you can consider it. Several local nurseries now have these types of trees in stock.

Cocktail trees sometimes call 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 consist of two main types. The first one is a tree with multiple varieties of one type of fruit. For example, you can have three types of cherries that have been budded onto one tree.

The second category is a tree with multiple fruit types, such as a nectarine, peach, plum and apricot on the same tree. However fruit combinations are limited.

“Generally, those of the same genus can be budded or grafted onto the same tree.” Says Ed Laivo, marketing manager at Davis Wilson Nursery in Hickman CA.

Fruits that belong in the citrus family typically can be grafted together. However, you can not combine a citrus, a malus, (apple), and a prunus, (stone fruit), It just will not work. It’s just that incompatibility factor.

These trees are produced by budding the different varieties onto rootstock. They usually have three or four branches with each branch producing a different fruit.

The prim reason for doing this is the lack of space in residential planting areas. “You can now have more varieties in less space.”

There are many combination. It’s a matter of finding one that matches you tastes. For example, if you want a peach, plum, and apricot in one, you may want to select a July Elberta peach, late Santa Rosa plum and a Blenheim apricot. Or you might want just peaches so you can get an early ripening variety along with a mid and late ripening variety to spread out the season where you don’t get a ton of peaches all in one or two weeks. This way your ripening season will run for around 10 – 12 weeks, (depending on your location).

One thing to consider in the over all growth of your tree is to never let one side out grow or dominate the others. If one variety is growing faster that toe others, cut it back. Alays keep the growing balanced. Prune the tree as you would any other fruit tree in the summer.