Syracuse professor creates tree bearing 40 types of fruit

Wow this is just awesome A professor at Syracuse university has created a tree that grows 40 different kinds of fruit.

He does it with an ancient technique called grafting, where he slits a branch of a tree and plants other trees inside, bandages it up and the new tree takes root and starts producing other fruits.

That is pretty cool.

The mystical Truffala trees — made popular by Dr. Seuss via The Lorax — are not the only wondrous branchy forms that are worthy of storytelling fame.

Professor Sam Van Aken of Syracuse University has artfully grafted a tree that may appear unremarkable until the spring, when it blossoms with fruits of 40 different varieties, creating a magical facade worthy of standing next to a mighty Truffala tree.

The tree project began in 2008 as a part of an art project. In a previous interview with USA TODAY, Van Aken said there was always a ‘mysticism’ around grafting — the technique he used to produce the fruit-bearing tree.

college.usatoday.com...

how to graft a tree

I'll take one....or two..

a reply to: alienjuggalo

Plants are amazing. You can graft, clone, and otherwise copy so many plants that are around. The cool thing about grafting is that you can produce fruit from other species by grafting them in. Very creative of him! I'm guessing that the grafted fruit branches remain as the years go on. If that's the case, it is an efficient way to produce fruit that most people don't think of.

I'm wondering if a person living farther up North (45 Degrees North+[or farther North]) could graft things that don't "usually" survive the winter in their zone, and get the grafted branches to come back and produce fruit the next year? If that's the case, then a tree that survives the winter could produce food every year for the people raising it!

Nature is amazing. If they put as much research into nature as they did chemicals and warfare...

a reply to: InFriNiTee

It's done all the time, most garden rose varieties are quite tropical, and wouldn't survive up north on their own. Instead, they're grafted onto less impressive, hardier varieties.

Mangoes on a pear tree though? Why not! I wish the article had a list of the varieties grown, I believe there is a limit to how different the plants can be to successfully graft. Still, science is amazing, and anything is possible.

The colors of the trees in the video are so other-worldly reminding me of far off distant alien worlds. Fantastic.

I could imagine a seed which could be planted and somehow manifest itself as the best-producing fruit specific for the climate and soil conditions.

I want one

I do lots of cloning.

I have done some grafting.

I have raised and love Bonsai Trees.

But this, it's beyond anything I could imagine...Willy Wonka stuff.

There's a graft of potatoes and tomatoes called "fries and ketchup" out there too, among other things. That's an easy one to do yourself too, if you've got a green thumb.