Using a common technique called grafting, artist
Sam Van Aken is developing a tree that bears a variety of different fruits.
Sam Van Aken envisions a tree with blooms of pink, purple, fuchsia and red
that bears 40 different kinds of fruit.
But this tree isn't just a figment of his
imagination — he's hard at work making "Tree of 40
Fruit" a reality.
"I'm an artist. So the whole project
really began with this idea of creating a tree that would blossom in these
different colors and would bear these multitude of fruit," he told NPR.
Van Aken, an associate professor in
Syracuse University's art department, isn't creating this tree through genetic engineering. Instead, he's using a
technique that's thousands of years old: grafting.
Grafting involves collecting young shoots or
cuttings from trees and then inserting these budding branches into strategic
points on a base tree.
These grafts are taped into place and allowed to
bond with the tree, drawing water and nutrients from it like any other
branch.
If the grafts take to the tree, they'll start to
grow again in the spring.
According to Van Aken, grafting is often
successful because of the similar chromosomal structure of stone fruit
trees.
Stone fruits are those with a pit in the
middle that surrounds the seed. Examples include apples, peaches, cherries and
plums.
Van Aken has created 16 hybridized fruit trees
that are located throughout the country. The trees' branches are composed of a
variety of mostly antique and native stone fruit varieties.
He plans to place his first tree in an urban
setting at Thomas Point in Portland, Maine.
Van Aken has worked with 250 varieties of stone
fruit and says his project has really become "about preserving some of these
antique and heirloom varieties" of fruit.
Currently, his trees are being sold to create an
heirloom fruit orchard, and he plans to create a field guide with pictures and
descriptions of each type of tree.
"Through the orchard — which would be open to
growers, nurseries and the general public — I hope to reintroduce many of these
forgotten varieties," he said.
Grafting fruit trees isn't a new practice.
The TomTato — a plant that produces both cherry
tomatoes and potatoes — can be purchased by any gardener.
Also, many commercial fruit trees are grafted
for mass production. Farmers choose a tree that will grow well in their climate
and then other trees' seedlings are are grafted onto the base tree’s
branches.
And in San Francisco, guerilla gardeners are grafting fruit-bearing
tree limbs onto fruitless trees along city sidewalks.
By Laura
Moss at MNN
Update from Nat Geo:
Sam Van Aken, an artist and professor at Syracuse University, uses "chip grafting" to create trees that each bear 40 different varieties of stone fruits, or fruits with pits.
The grafting process involves slicing a bit of a branch with a bud from a tree of one of the varieties and inserting it into a slit in a branch on the "working tree," then wrapping the wound with tape until it heals and the bud starts to grow into a new branch.
Over several years he adds slices of branches from other varieties to the working tree. In the spring the "Tree of 40 Fruit" has blossoms in many hues of pink and purple, and in the summer it begins to bear the fruits in sequence—Van Aken says it's both a work of art and a time line of the varieties' blossoming and fruiting.
He's created more than a dozen of the trees that have been planted at sites such as museums around the U.S., which he sees as a way to spread diversity on a small scale.
Related:
Water Lilies: Beautiful Blooms On The Water
Keukenhof: The Garden of Europe
The Socatra Dragon Blood Tree
Sri Lanka’s Sirilak Garden: History And Spices
Air Bonsai Lets You Make Your Own Floating Tree
A Japanese Company Is Building The World's First Autonomous Farm
Update from Nat Geo:
Sam Van Aken, an artist and professor at Syracuse University, uses "chip grafting" to create trees that each bear 40 different varieties of stone fruits, or fruits with pits.
The grafting process involves slicing a bit of a branch with a bud from a tree of one of the varieties and inserting it into a slit in a branch on the "working tree," then wrapping the wound with tape until it heals and the bud starts to grow into a new branch.
Over several years he adds slices of branches from other varieties to the working tree. In the spring the "Tree of 40 Fruit" has blossoms in many hues of pink and purple, and in the summer it begins to bear the fruits in sequence—Van Aken says it's both a work of art and a time line of the varieties' blossoming and fruiting.
He's created more than a dozen of the trees that have been planted at sites such as museums around the U.S., which he sees as a way to spread diversity on a small scale.
Related:
Water Lilies: Beautiful Blooms On The Water
Keukenhof: The Garden of Europe
The Socatra Dragon Blood Tree
Sri Lanka’s Sirilak Garden: History And Spices
Air Bonsai Lets You Make Your Own Floating Tree
A Japanese Company Is Building The World's First Autonomous Farm
