What is a fruit cocktail tree

Imagine stepping into the bracing heat of a warm summer afternoon to harvest a variety of sweet, succulent fruits in your backyard!

The Fruit Cocktail Tree is a hybrid plant that offers up to 4 fruits in one tree – fruit you can use for cooking preserves, baking pies, or enjoying right off the branch.

This tree is a picturesque cultivar that perfectly fits in any small garden or landscaping concept. In the past, if you wanted a selection of self-cultivated and quick-growing fruits, you had to devote a good deal of space for several trees at once. Now, the Fruit Cocktail Tree makes it possible to plant one tree that can yield up to 4 fruits, saving both time and planting space!

You'll get a combination fruit that can include peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots from our most popular varieties, a surprise medley that can give you a harvest as soon as your first year.

In addition, Fruit Cocktail Trees are self-pollinating. They grow to about 10 feet tall, so you don’t have to lug any heavy ladders around your garden during harvest time. All you’ll need to collect a basket of mouth-watering fruit is a step stool or basket picker.

The Fruit Cocktail Tree is beautiful throughout spring, summer, and fall. It will burst into an abundance of blossoms that are gorgeous enough to make it a specimen tree in your front yard in the spring.

You can put on your gardening gloves and collect all the fruit you’ll need, even as soon as the first season with our larger sizes. Don't miss out - get your Fruit Cocktail Tree today!

By: Amy Grant

You know how fruit salad has multiple types of fruit in it, right? Pretty much pleases everyone since there is a variety of fruit. If you don’t like one type of fruit, you can spoon up only the fruit chunks you love. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a tree that would grow multiple types of fruit just like a fruit salad? Is there a fruit salad tree? Folks, we’re in luck. There is indeed such a thing as a fruit salad tree. What is a fruit salad tree? Read on to find out and all about fruit salad tree care.

What is a Fruit Salad Tree?

So, you love fruit and want to grow your own, but your gardening space is limited. Not enough room for multiple fruit trees? No problem. Fruit salad trees are the answer. They come in four different types and bear up to eight different fruits of the same family on the one tree. Sorry, it doesn’t work to have oranges and pears on the same tree.

The other great thing about fruit salad trees is that the fruit ripening is staggered so you don’t have a giant harvest ready all at once. How did this miracle come about? Grafting, an old method of asexual plant propagation, is being used in a newer way to accommodate multiple types of fruit on the same plant.

Grafting is used to add one or more new cultivars onto an existing fruit or nut tree. As mentioned, oranges and pears are too different and won’t graft on the same tree so different plants from the same family must be used in the grafting.

There are four different fruit salad trees available:

Stone fruit – gives you peaches, plums, nectarine, apricots, and peachcots (a cross between a peach and apricot)
Citrus – bears oranges, mandarins, tangelos, grapefruit, lemons, limes, and pomelos
Multi apple – puts out a variety of apples
Multi nashi – includes various Asian pear varieties

Growing Fruit Salad Trees

First, you need to correctly plant your fruit salad tree. Soak the tree overnight in a bucket of water. Gently loosen the roots. Dig a hole a bit wider than the root ball. If soil is heavy clay, add some gypsum. If it is sandy, amend with organic compost. Fill in the hole and water in well, tamping out any air pockets. Mulch around the tree to retain moisture and stake if necessary.

Fruit salad tree care is pretty much the same as that for any fruiting tree. Keep the tree moist at all times to avoid stress. Mulch around the tree to retain moisture. Reduce the amount of watering during the winter months as the tree goes dormant.

Fertilize the tree twice a year in the late winter and again in the late summer. Compost or aged animal manure work great or use a slow-release fertilizer mixed into the soil. Keep the fertilizer away from the trunk of the tree.

The fruit salad tree should be in full sun to part sun (except the citrus variety which needs full sun) in an area sheltered from wind. Trees can be grown in containers or directly in the ground and can even by espaliered to maximize space.

The first fruit should appear in six to eighteen months. These should be removed when still tiny to allow the framework of all the grafts to develop.

(5 in 1) FRUIT COCKTAIL TREE - 5 different FRUITS on one plant (COCKTAIL FRUIT TREE) (5 in 1) 5 Different types of Fruits from One Tree (bare-root). These are mature plants, with excellent Root System. The plants have been expertly bud grafted by hand. Pruning, Trimming and training has already been done to the plant so that you get a plant which will give you Fruits for a long time.

Produces 5 different kinds of FRUITS on one tree-Purple plum, Red Nectarine, Yellow Peach, yellow Nectarine, Red Plum

10-15 ft tall, fully grown. The plant shipped is around 2 ft tall (after trimming)

Hardy in zones 5-9, Full sun. Will produce Fruits in 2 years

shipping for orders received from California might be delayed, and we can't ship any 3 gallon plants to California.The plants may be shipped in smaller pots/plastic bags for the safety of the plants.

Most plants go dormant in Fall and winter and will lose most of their leaves. Looking dead and dry is VERY NORMAL. They will flush out in spring.

Note: The plant is shipped in its pot, firmly secured with several layers of clear tape, thereby avoiding any shuffling and moving during transit. The plant reaches you with minimal damage- very safe and secure. We have been shipping plants like this for several years (plant are sometimes shipped in smaller pots for safety and ease of shipping). Most plants go dormant in fall and winter and will lose most of their leaves - looking dead and dry - very normal. They will flush out in spring.

We cannot ship some plants and some sizes to California due to restrictions placed by the Department of Agriculture.

Produces 5 different kinds of FRUITS on one tree-Purple plum, Red Nectarine, Yellow Peach, yellow Nectarine, Red Plum

10-15 ft tall, fully grown. The plant shipped is around 2 ft tall (after trimming)

Hardy in zones 5-9, Full sun. Will produce Fruits in 2 years

shipping for orders received from California might be delayed, and we can't ship any 3 gallon plants to California.
The plants may be shipped in smaller pots/plastic bags for the safety of the plants.

Most plants go dormant in Fall and winter and will lose most of their leaves. Looking dead and dry is VERY NORMAL. They will flush out in spring.

We cannot ship some plants and some sizes to California due to restrictions placed by the Department of Agriculture.

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Like many words, we don't really know the origin of "cocktail" except that it first appeared in print in The Balance and Columbian Repository from Hudson, N.Y., in 1806. When a mixture of fruits appeared as a rum or bourbon-soaked appetizer or salad, it was thought that since all salads had greens or lettuce, and this fruit salad had neither, it should be called more of an aperitif or "cocktail," and fruit cocktail was born.

Gardeners can grow their own fruit cocktail all on one tree. The thought of peaches, nectarines and apricots all on a single tree is possible through the age-old science of asexual plant propagation, or grafting. Of course the grafted fruits have to be related so they can all grow from the same mother tree. The so-called stone fruits can create a single tree with apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines, all on separate branches of the same tree. In a similar fashion, you can get trees grafted with four or five varieties of apples, or a tree with multiple varieties of pears.

These fruit cocktail trees are more than a novelty. By combining multiple varieties of apples or pears, you let a single tree cross-pollinate the different varieties so you can have a mini orchard in the space of a single tree. Even better, many fruit cocktail trees are dwarfed so you can grow one even in a tiny space or a large container. Several companies offer fruit cocktail trees, such as Burgess (www.eburgess.com) or Grandpa's Orchard (www.grandpasorchard.com).

If your tree is bare-rooted, soak the roots in water overnight. Gently spread the roots apart and fan them out. Dig a planting hole that is slightly wider than the root ball. If your soil is heavy clay or otherwise in poor shape, you may want to dig in some compost. Fill the soil in around the roots, tamp down and water well. Many growers make the mistake of filling the planting hole with rich soil or fertilizer, or well-composted manure. This can actually harm the tree. You want the tree roots to grow out from the planting hole and extend deep into the surrounding earth. This makes for strong roots and prevents trees from falling over. You can add a mulch of straw or leaf mold out to the drip line of the tree. You may need to stake the tree to keep it from blowing over or becoming disfigured by the wind.

Once your fruit cocktail tree is up and growing, pay attention to how each variety grows. If some branches or varieties grow too fast or vigorously, you can cut them back in the summer. Take care not to prune too much when the tree is dormant; this will just invigorate the branches. Let the weaker-growing varieties catch up during summer growth. Aim to maintain a good balance of each variety in the tree. Water regularly during hot, dry seasons, but do not let the roots sit in damp soil too long. After a year or two, you can apply an organic slow-release fertilizer twice a year in late winter and late summer.

Plant a single tree with several varieties of fruit on it, and you can soon enjoy your own fruit cocktail. Whether you choose to add bourbon or rum is up to you.