Freedom Tree Farms
Freedom Tree sells several types of multi-fruit trees Check them out. They also have a great video about grafting your own.
Two things you should know before you purchase a fruit cocktail (or graft your own):
- Make sure the varieties are right for your specific area. Check with your local agriculture extension office and/or master gardeners’ hotline to find out which peaches, for instance, are best for your zone
- Be aware that some fruit will out-produce others and may also take over the tree. In my case, it’s likely that I’ll have nothing but plums in a few short years, unless I prune carefully, diligently and often. A fruit cocktail tree, while all the fruit is one place, is not necessarily easier to care for than 4 (or more) separate fruit trees. You’ll likely choose a fruit cocktail because of limited space, NOT limited time.
Plums from the Fruit Cocktail Tree
This is year 5 of the fruit cocktail tree experiment. The tree is a dwarf, standing about 15 feet high. It’s supposed to have peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines. I have yet to see any apricots, but this year, I had a couple of nectarines and lots of plums – all dropped before maturity, but each year a little more happens. Last year, a couple of peaches appeared and then disappeared (probably taken captive by the guerilla squirrel brigade.) All is not lost, though, It’s been exciting and the tree is lovely all abloom in the spring.
The plums, though abundant this year, are all on the ground now and never fully matured. They look like giant blueberries. I’ve been pickling them so as not to waste anything. I’ve been waiting so long for this tree to produce… something!
The first couple of years, I wondered if the tree would really produce 4 different kinds of fruit, or if it would make some kind of new, alien fruit like a peachaplumacotarine. I would have been ok with that, but I’m glad to see that it’s trying to live up to it’s advertisement.