Help ; 5-in-1 orchard trees . what's your opinion ???

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Does anyone have experience with these trees?
http://www.houseofwesley.com/detail.asp?pid=6123
They have Apple; Fruit Cocktail; and Pear.
From this or any other nursery? Are they a better
idea than separate trees? I am trying to maximize
the orchard space we have on our 6/10th an acre.
Do they have special needs?
Thanks
Karen

 

[jerryse]

I have some experience with these. Not impressed with them. We had a 5 in 1 apple when I was growing up and it did fine. This was mid 60's.
More recently I have a 2 in 1 plum. 1 limb died back and now it is 1 variety. The cheaper nursery fruit cocktail tree my brother bought turned out to be a peach rootstock. Not even grafted. You must know how to identify the grafts when pruning or you will prune off a variety. Apricot on a fruit cocktail tree will likely breakoff in a few seasons do to delayed incompatibility. No experience with 5 in 1 pear. Generally speaking pears graft easily and should be ok if truly grafted. House of Wesley in Bloomington IL ? If so save your money. Their catalog trees are very small and need to be pampered to get established. My brothers tree came from there. Best value buy potted single variety dwarf trees locally. You get a bigger tree grown in a pot and no transplant shock like bare root trees. Big box stores often have these in the $15-$20. range.

 

[alldembirds]

almost all the fruit trees you buy are fruit trees grafted onto another rootstock, The 5 in 1 really wont be any different than most others, It will have more graft points and that will make it more sensitive. I wouldnt personally get one but I have more than enough room for trees.

 

[DurhamDuck]

No experience with these or how hardy they are, but there is such a thing (in the apple world) as columnar tree. Look them up, very odd trees, basically a column, a straight line going up with apples on that line, no branches. You can even grow them in pots, they are so small.

 

[3riverschick]

Thank you all for the advice. I think I will stick with some dwarfs. I was going to get semi-dwarfs.
But I think I will get Dwarfs instead and summer trim them to keep them short. BTW, has anyone's
cherry trees blossomed yet in 5B zone? I sure hope our buds weren't frozen by that late April
wind-chill we had over a week ago! The 60 yr. old apple trees have finally had it. The old snow and
cider apple trees are no more. Time to cut them down. Sad to say.

When we first moved here
20 years ago, they produced a plethora of smaller apples. One year I made 14 apple pies from
them to freeze. Yum! I just love the taste and texture of Snow apples!

Best,
Karen in western PA

 

[DurhamDuck]

Have you cut them down yet? If you want to save them, you can make cuttings. Just cut a small piece- 6 to 12 inches- of young branch, stick it in some rooting formula and then immediately into water or soil, depending on the method. Look it up on youtube or other places. I am planning on doing that in case our old apple tree dies. If I knew what variety it was (and could replace it), I wouldn't bother, but I don't want to lose it.

 

[alldembirds]

it the trees are not completely dead you can go buy a rootstock at a nursery and graft the buds directly to it. It will essentially be the same tree

 

[DurhamDuck]

Quote:

Great minds think (somewhat) alike LOL

 

[alldembirds]

Great minds think (somewhat) alike LOL

your idea jogged my memory I was just recently researching how to do this to cherry trees

 

[marktoo]

I recently (2013) put in a few fruit trees, 2 of which were 4 in 1 types but unfortunately it is to early to offer much advice. 2 of the scions off of the 4 in 1 Asian pear broke off in a wind storm the first year, something grew back right at the graft but it is difficult to tell if it is scion or root stock till I get some fruit. This guy here....http://www.davewilson.com/home-gardens ....has some rather radical ideas ideas for home orchards. Although I am loosely following his ideas it is much too soon to offer advice based on my experience.