It is possible with the magic of grafting to grow "fruit salad trees" which bear many different types of fruit (within the same genus) and in the case of the genus Prunus, one could if one were inclined, graft a total of 430 different species onto a single tree and they would survive happily alongside each other, flowering and providing fruit at different times of year.
Genus Prunus
The genus Prunus can also be classified as stonefruit and includes the following list:
- plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds.
I am wondering now if almonds are actually fruits? We throw away the flesh of their fruit (perhaps because we have forgotten what to do with it?) and only eat the soft centre of their seeds, so we call them nuts but is that really what they are?
Anyway, it seems to me this particular genus offers the best variety of flavours and I am extremely excited in this moment dreaming of the giant multi-coloured Prunus tree growing outside our future Earthship home.
Genus Citrus
The genus Citrus is another one you could get inventive with, grafting together different varieties of oranges, clementines, lemons, limes, grapefruit, kumquat & bergamot on a single tree.
With all the greens, yellows & oranges this tree would be a spectacular sight to behold at harvest time and unlike the Prunus which gives fruit during the Summer months, the Citrus makes its offering during the Winter.
Genus Malus (apples)
Apples will not permit for other fruits to be added. Only other varieties of apple. And the same goes for pears (genus Pyrus). But if one is familiar with their apples & pears it would still be possible to create a pretty glorious tree, rich in colour & variety.
With these four trees alone (prunus, citrus, malus & pyrus) one could survive the entire year without ever wanting more!
Except perhaps bananas which we will grow in the greenhouse section of our Earthship.
The only other one which interested me was the walnut tree which will happily grow with pecan, a similar yet vastly different tasting nut.
Why am I suddenly interested in this?
I am excited about this subject today because we have a small and useless plum tree in our garden. It bears minimal fruit and they are not very tasty. Many times I almost hacked it down but thought better of it in the end and only yesterday did I finally understand why when I stumbled upon some information relating to fruit tree grafting.
So I think you can guess what my plan is now.
The tree is small enough that we could dig it up when we leave this area, so now is the time to graft together the Prunus collection of my dreams!
It will have three varieties of plum:
- Classic red (good for jams)
- Reine Claude (the best tasting plum in the world!)
- Mirabelle (yellow & tender)
It will also have:
- cherries
- peaches
- nectarines
- apricots
- almonds
All of which grow around here and it will be very simple to snip a few branches off the local trees.
This is the perfect time of year for grafting, just before the new growth arrives, so there isn't one moment to waste!
With that said I know nothing about grafting so I am now looking at how one goes about doing it in a way which does not damage the tree.
While I may be at risk of sounding vague here, I feel a kind of energy around things sometimes, like they are important for the future. And with this subject I feel it intensely.
I wonder if multi-variety fruit trees were not common to us in the past, forgotten now like so many other things?
Will update you with another report when the baby plum tree begins its upgrade!
Love & Light everyone π±
