Hi! I purchased a combo 'Pear' tree from Raintree Nursery last year, It has been in the ground for only one year. They sent me a beautifully grafted tree with five types of European pears. The Barlett and the Seckel bloomed the very first year, but produced no fruit. I gather they take about six years to produce fruit, so patience is in order. Good luck. I'll just have to wait and see. Many growers and orchardists on this site graft their own trees to save money and also they have the expertise that grafting takes. To buy the trees is very expensive, mine was over $60.00 not including shipping. I'm sure someone on this site will help you far better than I. Good Luck! Mrs. G

Entirely possible, and a lot of fun, to build your own "Frankentree". I have an apple with about two dozen varieties on it and a pear with nine. (Note that there are no apples on the pear and vice versa.)

As far as stone fruit are concerned many are compatible with a common rootstock. Apricot, plum, peach and almond may all be grafted to discreet branches off of such a rootstock. I believe cherries need their own rootstocks, but don't really know.

It does take some planning and some trial and error but it's definitely worth doing, I think. Plenty of people here who would help you through the mechanics of grafting and in some of the specifics of locating and managing different branches.

Primary management need is pruning to keep all branches about the same size. It's also best to put the least vigorous cultivar on the south side so it doesn't get shaded out. These aren't plant and forget trees.

I have 3 trees to relate: Before I knew anything about trees, I planted a fruit cocktail tree (5 in 1) from Stark Bros, and took a laissez-faire approach. It quickly became a plum tree with a very ugly graft line, but is still alive and well 8 years later. I also planted a 2 in 1 pear tree, but that succumbed to fire blight before it fruited. Now, I have a 4-in-1 fire blight resistant pear, which is doing great in 3rd leaf, but has not yet fruited. It is a challenge to balance the different grafts and maintain an open center. I did not do a great job with the crotch angles when it was new. I bought from Raintree for about $50 plus a lot of shipping.

Be sure to check that the rootstock will work in Dallas. Many of those combo trees originate in California, & have less than optimum rootstocks for here.

Thanks to all for the response.

I'm a beginner but up for learning, I come from a Farming family :-).

We recently bought our home and for the first time we are going to plant a tree.

Calloways folks told me that the nursery is Ran-Pro Farms, Tyler, TX.

Any one have idea about yield from these cocktail trees.

Thanks

I haven't heard of ran pro. The Bartlett is sure to die of fireblight, and might infect the rest of the tree. Apples are iffy if your soil is alkaline, cotton root rot is all over this area.

The cocktail trees might work if you're willing to spend time on them. I'm lazy, I'd mail order a tomcot apricot, Celeste fig, and either a fuyu or eureka or giombo persimmon

there is a big difference between Tyler and Dallas.

Thanks again for all the responses.

I did some research on this forum, there are quite bit of experts on horticulture. Calloways offers life time warranty on the trees but of course lost time is lost. I plan to try a cocktail Apple for this year and see how it grows.

My experience with cocktail trees is that the deer kill one or two varieties. On single variety they may leave enough for the tree to survive. I've tried grafting but have a 100% failure rate.

I don't know but I have noticed no one talks abought a tree that is producing multiple fruits.Looks like someone would have a tree that is producing well??????

I will second fruitnuts advice. Make sure to give the southern exposyure to the least vigorous variety. Also, keep on top of pruning to keep all varieties in balance.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning a Multiple Budded Fruit Tree

I purchase a 4 in one fruit salad tree (peach, nectarine, apricot and plum). Last year was the fourth year and I got loads of what appeared to be peaches. No other fruit.

hi Charlie,

The Peach type fruit you are getting is from all the branches of the tree or only in the branch that is grafted for Peach.

Just curious, does the peach you get from the tree taste good?

Doan's nursery in Belt line road in Irving has many cocktail fruit trees. I would suggest to check this nursery for fruit trees, flowering plants and tropical plants.

Be prepared to wait to get help and also make sure that you are getting the right plants because many of the plants don't have labels/pricing. I also noticed that many fruit trees are from California growers, so not sure how they would grow in DFW. Moreover, they do not give any kind of warranty to the trees.