Multi species grafting

General Fruit Growing
#3

Mostly for the novelty and to say you have a Guinness record, I guess…

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#4

I feel like it would be better to start with pear as a base, as there are more things that will graft directly to that:

  • European pear
  • Asian pear
  • Aronia
  • Shipova
  • Rowan (Euro. mountain ash)
  • Quince
  • Medlar
  • Service/June berries
  • Hawthorn
  • Winter Banana apple

That’s 10 without interstems just off the top of my head, and doesn’t count the many varieties of hawthorn separately, or include the pears or Mt Ashes that aren’t really important as fruit. As you suggested for apples, you can really get going once you add interstems.

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#5

I actually have been planning to do this with a quince rootstock that I planted recently. I will for sure graft to it: euro pear, asian pear, medlar, apple, crabapple, juneberry. Possibly others. Just doing it for fun and to see how well it will work.

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#6

I’ve tried grafting both apple and pear on a hawthorn. I got very few takes, and the ones that did formed a gnarly graft union then never woke up after the winter.

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#7

Europe pear, Asian pear, shipova, works on pear base. Does quince grow on pear or other way around? Hawthorn on pear did not survive more than 2 years. Have not try the rest on your list yet. Interested in trying though

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#8

I don’t know from personal experience, but I’ve seen quince for sale on pear rootstock and vice versa. As for hawthorn, I know it’s been used successfully for pear, but it’s possible that it won’t work the other way around. And it’s not a top choice, at least for North America. It also may depend on the particular pear and hawthorn.

Update: Just found this.

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#9

I have 2 different quince cultivar grafted on pear, they still alive after 2 years, gonna be 3 years coming spring if they are still alive. But they didn’t grow, an inch in two years . Feel they won’t make it anytime soon. If youknow the pear rootstock name please share. I love to find a tree that can grow different fruits that I just want occasional like quince , hawthorn etc

#10

Why would the red apples not be counted as a apple? I read there are some good tasting red apples. Namely rose mountain apple and the redlove series. Never tried them myself but people describe them as a lemonade or fruit punch tasting which I would not say is bad. As for apples there are over 7000 varieties so there is going to be a lot of duds.

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#11

How compatible is the apple and quince? Quince as rootstock or apple as rootstock?

I know apple and crabapple do not grow well on pear, stay alive for awhile but grow smaller every year.

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#12

Certain cultivars of pear graft well to quince, others don’t. Comice is best known for grafting well on quince. clarkinks made a great post on this topic here: What pears are quince compatible?

I don’t think apple and quince are very compatible from what I can find. I’m assuming using interstems would work to graft apple to quince though, quince rootstock->pear interstem->winter banana interstem->apple of your choosing

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#13

Fertility pear might be a good interstem to mate to the Winter Banana. I’ve fruited fertility on an apple tree before the grafted portion eventually died. I’ve also fruited Winter Banana apple on a European pear tree.

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#14

What’s unique about winter banana that allows this graft?

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#15

Oh they certainly are! I was just making an example that those apples are accepted as a different species vs those native to North America, as the wiki article I linked suggests.

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#16

And for the example of trying to get as many fruits growing as possible, allowing your “interstem” to grow fruiting branches would be beneficial.

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#17

Quince is a popular dwarf rootstock for Pears.

#18

It’s unique in that it is an apple variety that’s known to be compatible with pears. As to why that is, I would assume it has to do with genetics. Same reason Comice is compatible with quince whereas Bartlett isn’t, different genetic compatibilities. Beyond that I don’t know but would be interested to learn more.

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#19

Thanks for the info!

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#20

I believe @Auburn has weighed in on his experience with this in a few other threads.

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#21

I’m not sure how well grafting compatibility is understood, even by academia I certainly couldn’t tell you what makes some more widely compatible than others.

#22

That’s interesting about medlar. I’ve always been curious what it is like, but not curious enough to grow a whole tree of it. Does it need interstem to be grafted on an apple tree? Does anywhere even sell medlar scions? Has anyone ever even tried grafting it to apple?