An art professor from Syracuse University in the US, Van Aken grew up on a family farm
before pursuing a career as an artist, and has combined his knowledge of the two to develop his
incredible Tree of 40 Fruit .


In 2008, Van Aken learned that an orchard at the New York State Agricultural Experiment
Station was about to be shut down due to a lack of funding. This single orchard grew a great
number of heirloom, antique, and native varieties of stone fruit, and some of these were 150 to
200 years old. To lose this orchard would render many of these rare and old varieties of fruit
extinct, so to preserve them, Van Aken bought the orchard, and spent the following years figuring
out how to graft parts of the trees onto a single fruit tree.
Working with a pool of over 250 varieties of stone fruit, Van Aken developed a timeline of when
each of them blossom in relationship to each other and started grafting a few onto a working
tree’s root structure. Once the working tree was about two years old, Van Aken used a technique
called chip grafting to add more varieties on as separate branches. This technique involves taking
a sliver off a fruit tree that includes the bud, and inserting that into an incision in the working
tree. It's then taped into place, and left to sit and heal over winter. If all goes well, the branch
will be pruned back to encourage it to grow as a normal branch on the working tree.
After about five years and several grafted branches, Van Aken's first Tree of 40 Fruit was
complete.
Aken’s Tree of 40 Fruit looks like a normal tree for most of the year, but in spring it reveals a
stunning patchwork of pink, white, red and purple blossoms, which turn into an array of plums,
peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and almonds during the summer months, all of which are
rare and unique varieties.
Not only is it a beautiful specimen, but it’s also helping to preserve the diversity of the world’s
stone fruit. Stone fruits are selected for commercial growing based first and foremost on how long
they keep, then how large they grow, then how they look, and lastly how they taste. This means
that there are thousands of stone fruit varieties in the world, but only a very select few are
considered commercially viable, even if they aren't the best tasting, or most nutritious ones.
Van Aken has grown 16 Trees of 40 Fruit so far, and they’ve been planted in museums,
community centres, and private art collections around the US. He now plans to grow a small orchard
of these trees in a city setting.
Of course, the obvious question that remains is what happens to all the fruit that gets harvested
from these trees? Van Aken told Lauren Salkeld at Epicurious:
"I've been told by people that have [a tree] at their home that it provides the
perfect amount and perfect variety of fruit. So rather than having one variety
that produces more than you know what to do with, it provides good amounts of
each of the 40 varieties. Since all of these fruit ripen at different times, from July
through October, you also aren't inundated."



Source:http://pda.sciencealert.com.au/news/20142107-25892.html

Wao! We were taught dis topic budding and grafting but "practical stuff" is not given yet we r expected to know it. SMH for naija republic of theory!

Lovely. My dad planted a mango tree in the compound that produces three species of mango through this same process of budding and grafting but 40? Wow!

Gee001: Lovely. My dad planted a mango tree in the compound that produces three species of mango through this same process of budding and grafting but 40? Wow!

pishure or...............

Ceasar1: Wow! This is simply sensational. 40 different fruits, that's explains the numerous colorful flowers. Technology is a ‘god’ on it's own. For sure I'd be waiting for the 'animal invention’. HeHeHe..

. The animal version would be mind blowing

I graft black pear;avacado and mangoes . I freely teach

my grafted mango

happybrother: my grafted mango

Bros, the pic no show

Ademat7: Wao! We were taught dis topic budding and grafting but "practical stuff" is not given yet we r expected to know it. SMH for naija republic of theory!

Our teachers no sabi the practical.

fm7070:

Our teachers no sabi the practical.

Its the same problem in all edu-sector in Nigeria. Imagine Plant propagation that takes one semester here takes only 21hourd of study in Australia.

happybrother:
Its the same problem in all edu-sector in Nigeria. Imagine Plant propagation that takes one semester here takes only 21hourd of study in Australia.

That 21 Hours of Study is spread across a Semester too oga. A 2 Unit Course over an 11 Week Semester, will come to less than 20 Hours of Study((- Exam and/or Test Time).

happybrother:

teach me pls

Awesome!!! Pls what is the condition of the tree now?