Cocktail/Multigrafted trees - Garcinia, Plinia, Eugenia

[nofspeppers]

I've got limited space so I've been grafting many types to one tree over the last couple years. Currently have an apple, a stone fruit, and some citrus trees. Was hoping to do something similar to make a garcinia "cocktail" tree, a plinia "cocktail" tree, and a eugenia "cocktail" tree.

But would love to have some input on which varieties would be best for each respective rootstock? Or any other suggestions since I'm not that familiar with them. I'm in 7b so they'd live in big pots and them come inside for winter.

Also going to be in Orlando for the week, if anyone has any nurseries within driving distance please recommend!

[elouicious]

Welcome to the forum nofspeppers!

I feel your struggle and also share the desire to create cocktail trees, unfortunately it is not as simple as with stone fruit or citrus for the species you described-

Plinia is probably the easiest- I currently have a tree with three varieties (four if you count the rootstock) on a Sabara rootstock- This is often recommended for grafting as they apparently have a very strong root system. The problem is getting scions of a sufficient size, many people are hesitant to trim their trees as fruit appears on old growth but if you are patient you will find some.

Eugenia is probably the most difficult- people on here have many stories of even different varieties of the same species being rejected. (i.e. Cherry of the Rio Grande Varietals) I think barring some exceptions, cross species Eugenia grafting fails.

Garcinia is probably the least well known. Commercial grafting of G. mangostana is performed in many tropical areas but to my knowledge mostly G. mangostana or G. cowa are used as rootstocks. The main advantage of grafting Garcinia is the incredibly long juvenile period can be bypassed. See NissanVersa's grafted G. brasiliensis to see how a small tree of 2-3 years old can bear fruit. Other than that I think there will be few and far between experiences with grafting Garcinia

If you decide to go down this rabbit hole please share your experiences! Much of this stuff is just now being figured out and the more reports the better

[K-Rimes]

I've been pretty obsessed with cocktailing trees the last few years. Below are some of them I've been working on. I'll add a few more photos here as I find them. Eugenia don't play nice with each other for cocktailing, as I've experienced. Even something that is supposedly the same species - involcrata x calycina failed. I don't think I'm bad at grafting, so, I think it's a compatibility issue. Discovering this, I just make cocktails of the same species together but of different "cultivars" or seedlings from different collectors as it is. I need to find a photo of my 4 type CORG and 3 type calycina. They've all healed nicely and are quite big. I do this mostly for cross pollination, but also so I can sample other varieties (they fruit in the 2nd year after grafting) to see how the varieties stack up.

See below:

Santa Barbara peach rootstock with: apriums, cherries, pluots, plums, necatplums, peaches and nectarines



Jaboticaba with 15 types or something, I should probably count


A plum rootstock with the same list above (different location)


Apple tree with 11 types



8 type citrus on inedible pomelo rootstock, I need to fill in the middle still as it water sprouts

[K-Rimes]

CORG with: Ben's Beaut, Robert Scott, Garnet, and my own type. I have an el dorado seedling I grew from Marcos beside it usually, so I could toss that on if I wanted. I will be tacking on Scarlet from FFF soon.


Calycina with Nate's and Achetadomestica and my own (FFF sourced seedling)


Healed Garnet CORG graft


Healed Robert Scott and Ben's Beaut on CORG

[nofspeppers]

Welcome to the forum nofspeppers!

I feel your struggle and also share the desire to create cocktail trees, unfortunately it is not as simple as with stone fruit or citrus for the species you described-

Plinia is probably the easiest- I currently have a tree with three varieties (four if you count the rootstock) on a Sabara rootstock- This is often recommended for grafting as they apparently have a very strong root system. The problem is getting scions of a sufficient size, many people are hesitant to trim their trees as fruit appears on old growth but if you are patient you will find some.

Eugenia is probably the most difficult- people on here have many stories of even different varieties of the same species being rejected. (i.e. Cherry of the Rio Grande Varietals) I think barring some exceptions, cross species Eugenia grafting fails.

Garcinia is probably the least well known. Commercial grafting of G. mangostana is performed in many tropical areas but to my knowledge mostly G. mangostana or G. cowa are used as rootstocks. The main advantage of grafting Garcinia is the incredibly long juvenile period can be bypassed. See NissanVersa's grafted G. brasiliensis to see how a small tree of 2-3 years old can bear fruit. Other than that I think there will be few and far between experiences with grafting Garcinia

If you decide to go down this rabbit hole please share your experiences! Much of this stuff is just now being figured out and the more reports the better

Thanks, this was exactly the kind of info I was hoping for! Quite disappointing that Eugenias don't play nice with each other, especially since I see so many different varieties out there. I will say that I've seen videos from Adam (flying fox fruits) where he's mentioned grafting garcinias onto his g.brasilenses as a rootstock. But I don't know anyone else who does this, but I hope other garcinia grafting might work out well.

[nofspeppers]

I've been pretty obsessed with cocktailing trees the last few years. Below are some of them I've been working on. I'll add a few more photos here as I find them. Eugenia don't play nice with each other for cocktailing, as I've experienced. Even something that is supposedly the same species - involcrata x calycina failed. I don't think I'm bad at grafting, so, I think it's a compatibility issue. Discovering this, I just make cocktails of the same species together but of different "cultivars" or seedlings from different collectors as it is. I need to find a photo of my 4 type CORG and 3 type calycina. They've all healed nicely and are quite big. I do this mostly for cross pollination, but also so I can sample other varieties (they fruit in the 2nd year after grafting) to see how the varieties stack up.

See below:

Santa Barbara peach rootstock with: apriums, cherries, pluots, plums, necatplums, peaches and nectarines



Jaboticaba with 15 types or something, I should probably count


A plum rootstock with the same list above (different location)


Apple tree with 11 types



8 type citrus on inedible pomelo rootstock, I need to fill in the middle still as it water sprouts

Those are some good looking trees! I assume CORG is Cherry of the Rio Grande? I didn't realize there were so many different phenotypes?

[K-Rimes]

Another cocktail project, pineapple guava.

Those are some good looking trees! I assume CORG is Cherry of the Rio Grande? I didn't realize there were so many different phenotypes?

Yep, eugenia involcrata. There aren't really that many "selected" CORGs other than scarlet and Ben's Beaut. I just name each cultivar after the collector I get it from. At this point, every seedling is a potential new cultivar so I'll keep sampling them when possible.

I think grafting eugenias is a very wise endeavour to ensure adequate cross-pollination and superior fruit set. The same is true for any fruiting plant really, so you may as well get to it!