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Duo fruit trees- yes or no?

myclayjunglemyclayjungle Posts: 162
in Fruit & veg
I'm looking at planting duo fruit trees (2 types of apple, plum or pear on the one tree). Anyone have experience of growing these? Good, bad, things to look for or is it better to just buy regular fruit trees?
Coastal Suffolk/Essex Border- Clay soil
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Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    My gut feeling is that if they were any good, we'd all know someone who has one. 
    I've never ever met anyone who has one.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    We had one at work ... a ‘family tree’ with three varieties of apples. 
    In the first couple of years one of the grafts failed so that left two varieties ... one side grew much larger than the other and the tree became very lopsided. 
    It produced very few fruit as the vigorous side seemed to take all the nourishment.  I can’t remember what varieties they were but if I was limited for space and needed more than one apple tree I would go for cordon-trained trees rather than a family tree. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    I have two friends with family apple trees and they rave about them.  Not sure of the varieties, but both have three on each.  Lets you grow a few varieties if you don’t have space for an orchard 😀
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    And if you really want to take it to extremes, we learned about the ”tree of forty fruits” at college this week.  Trust the Americans to go large 🇺🇸


  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    Very pretty, @chicky - but I guess it would need lots of TLC and very careful pruning to maintain it looking like that...
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    Absolutely @Liriodendron - I think its creator has made it his life’s work 🤣.  Also should have said it is cherries, not apples
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    edited February 2021
    I seem to remember a feature years ago on GW with 200 varieties grafted onto one tree
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-24348394

    Devon.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    pansyface said:
    The tree of forty fruits?

    I bet the pigeons get them all.🙁
    if the bullfinches don't get all the flower buds
    Devon.
  • TeTe Posts: 193
    Are these trees grafted, and are they smaller than normal fruit trees?
    "There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true"
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    Yes grafted.  The size is dictated by the rootstock, so can be varied according to requirements 
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