About our different combo trees
Our multi-grafted apple trees are described below. The multi grafted pear trees are described at Station #26. We have many multi grafted trees in the fruit garden. Each has a label at its base identifying it as a multi grafted tree. Larry Crum has top worked many heritage varieties of apples on to our existing trees enabling us to grow many more cultivars. Each cultivar has its own label on the branch where it is grafted. Without having multi-grafted trees, we would have neither the space or the extra time to care for so many more trees.
An interesting example is a “MacIntosh” family tree where each of the many varieties now on the tree has MacIntosh as one of its parents. See if you can identify the MacIntosh flavor they have in common. We also have many red flesh apple varieties top worked on our large red fleshed apple tree. Usually only apples can be grafted on an apple tree but using the variety Winter Banana apple as an interstem Larry is experimenting with some success of grafting pears on an apple tree.
Larry Crum has also top worked pear trees. Both European and Asian pears can be grafted on the same tree although they have very different growth habits.
We also have a few “combo trees” where several varieties were budded on when the tree was started. An example is a Mirabelle Plum tree that has four different types of Mirabelle’s on the same tree. We also have a multiple variety cider apple tree. We have top worked several varieties of Pluerries on our Pluerry trees to also limit the number of trees in the orchard.
How to Prune a young multi grafted tree
It is important to select varieties with similar vigor to put on the same tree. The least vigorous variety should be the top branch on the tree and the most vigorous variety should be on the bottom. Understand that the more upright the angle of a branch the more vigorously it will grow. So if you want to make a branch more vigorous, tie it up. If you want a branch to be less vigorous, bend or tie it down. Whenever a variety is
vigorously taking over the tree, cut it back to a smaller side branch. If you don’t do this each year, your tree will quickly go from a multiple variety tree to a tree where one vigorous variety takes over all or most of the tree.
“Top working” a mature tree
Commercial orchardists often top work entire producing trees to a new more profitable variety. They use the vigor of the existing root system and get more production sooner than if they planted a new tree. Select main scaffold branches to top work so it takes many less grafts to convert your tree to a new variety. When adding a new graft, it helps to leave a small “nurse” branch below the branch you are top working, to support the growth of your newly grafted branch. Label each new graft. Be aware that the existing variety of the tree will continue to grow from every remaining bud and branch of the tree. While cleft grafts are often used, Larry Crum has had most success using a bark graft.
Usually it is possible to only graft apple varieties onto apple trees, pears on to pears etc but there is a notable exception: An extreme example is when someone grows a “prunus” tree with a plum, peach, apricot and almond on the same tree. While all these are compatible on a plum tree, the almond is so much more vigorous than the apricot that it will completely outgrow it, making it very difficult to maintain all the varieties in balance.
Our Multi-grafted trees
(Larry Crum has written these texts. He also top worked all of these varieties on to the trees.)
By Larry Crum
Our fruit orchard is unique in that it has a collection of heirloom/antique/heritage apple trees that are very rare, as apples that were once commercially popular, have given way to the red, sweet ones that populate our grocery stores. These grocery apples generally all have a similar flavor and are selected to appeal to the average shopper who “buys apples with their eyes”, to quote a famous pomologist. Here at the NW Fruit orchard we have a wide selection of heirloom apples that have a wide range of colors, tastes, shapes, and characteristics. We invite you to sample these different varieties and should you wish, we can graft a tree for you of your very own.
These multi-grafted trees have many different varieties that have been “top-worked” onto a single tree. Top working has the distinct advantage of producing fruit within 2 to 3 years, as opposed to grafting a scion onto a new rootstock, which may take 4-6 years before any substantial production is yielded.
Multi-Variety Tree #1
(Located W4, F20 Planted 2003 ) In this particular tree, we have grafted over 20 different varieties, some that ripen as early as mid-August, others that don’t ripen until late October. The varieties on Multi-Variety Tree 1 are in alphabetical order as follows:
Link to Varietals on Multi-Variety Tree #1
Multi-Variety Tree #2
(Located W4, G20 Planted 2003) The heirloom varieties on Multi Variety Tree 2 are as follows: Bardsey, Brown Russet, Centennial Crab, Cherry Cox, Duchess of Oldenburg, Hudson’s Golden Gem, Idared, Johnny Appleseed, Keepsake, Kingston Black, Lemon Pippin, Oliver, Opalescent, Pink Pearl, Porter, Ramsdell Sweet, Rhode Island Greening, Tolman Sweet, Williams, Willow Twig, Wynooche, and Zabergau Reinette,
This tree contains an amazing diversity of apples, with an enormous range of colors, shapes, and flavors. Browsing through these varieties is like looking backward in time to when these apples, practically unknown now, were the best and brightest of various regions of our country and the world.
Link to Varietals on Multi-Variety Tree #2
Multi-Variety Tree #3 – The McIntosh Family Tree
The MacIntosh Family Tree
By Larry Crum
(Located W4, F19 Planted 2003) This is our MacIntosh family tree. All the cultivars have McIntosh as a parent or are a parent of MacIntosh. Please join us on our Thursday workdays and participate in our effort to grow great fruit.
The McIntosh apple is one of the most popular apples in the US and is the National Apple of Canada, although it is practically, unknown outside of North America. The McIntosh style is typified by attractive dark red or (more often) crimson colors, and a crunchy bite, often with bright white flesh. The flavor is simple and direct, generally sweet but with refreshing acidity, and usually a hint of wine – often referred to as vinous.
These characteristics – the crimson color, white flesh, and vinous flavor (which fades in storage) are invariably apparent in its numerous offspring, making this one of the easiest apple styles to identify in taste tests. Indeed, McIntosh appears to have very strong genes because its offspring are invariably crimson colored with bright white flesh, regardless of the nature of the other parent. As a result, telling the offspring apart is a not that easy – the distinctive Mac flavor and general characteristics tends to overwhelm those of the other parent.
With the introduction of the Honey Crisp apple in the 1990s, this apple has become one of the most popular apples in the US. The University of Minnesota, which developed this apple, originally said that its parents were Honeygold and Macoun, and patented the apple and required a licensing fee from nurseries that sold the tree. (Subsequently, when its DNA was tested, it was determined that its actual parents were Keepsake and an unnamed variety MN1627).
Previous to the determination of the actual parents of Honey Crisp, Bill Davis and I were intrigued that the McIntosh apple had such a variety of offspring. Indeed, the parent of McIntosh, Snow (also known as Fameuse) was discovered in 1739. Thus, the McIntosh “line” would span 4 centuries. When we learned of this well-known “family” of apples, we decided to make a “McIntosh Family Tree”, and grafted onto a tree its parent, Snow, and a number of its descendants: viz, Macoun (McIntosh x Jersey Black), Empire (McIntosh x Red Delicious), Paula Red (McIntosh x Cortland), Melba (McIntosh x Liveland Raspberry), Early Cortland (McIntosh x Ben Davis), Jersey Black (McIntosh x Macoun), Spartan (McIntosh x Newtown Pippin), Liberty (Macoun x Purdue 54-12), and Shay (McIntosh x PRI 612-4).
As described and demonstrated in Fig. 2 above, it is seen that although McIntosh is only one parent, essentially all the apples that share McIntosh, or one of its daughters, as a parent all have dark red crimson colors and bright white flesh. These are the strong genetic characteristics of McIntosh. It is unusual for a family group (varieties with common ancestors) to have such strong similarities between the various members of the family. With all their similarities, these McIntosh descendants have their own unique appearance and taste. In the following, these various varieties are described in more detail. Should you have the opportunity to attend our Apple and Pear Day in early October, take the time to visit this tree and taste the various varieties and determine for yourself their uniqueness as well as their similarities.
Link to Varietals on Multi-Variety Tree #3 – The McIntosh Tree
Multi-Variety Tree #4
(Location W4, F19 planted 2003) We call this the Bill Davis tree in honor of our long time volunteer who started top working at our orchard to make multi variety trees. Among the varieties on this tree is a great red Jonagold we call Davis Red Jonagold.
Link to Varietals on Multi-Variety Tree #4
