David

I've been considering the subject of multi-grafting an American persimmon for quite some time and have been going over all sorts of strategies.

Initially, I thought it would be a good idea to plant multiple saplings (each a different cultivar) into the same hole only 5" apart from one another hoping that they will, eventually, fuse (inosculate) together into a single trunk when they have all expanded to fill-in the space between each other. I, ultimately, decided against this strategy upon the advice of Jerry Lehman who suggested that the trunks would not likely fuse and would become diseased, etc. I don't know, but I think that this might not be the best solution. But what if this was done when the trunks were only 1" wide, if that, and placed flushed against eachother (bare-root)?

Then I looked into 'approach grafting'. But the principle is the same, because Jerry recommended that Diospyros virginiana trunks, in particular, do not heal well when wounded - but if saplings, I would think it would be the same as if grafted (that heals...).

Well, having just read your reply to the above post, I'm thinking about waiting until my 'Meader' is large enough and then, maybe attempting a multi graft onto it. Can you please give a detailed description of how you would do this. Would it be the same as with an apple tree? Do you mean that you would cut off each limb and do something of a rind graft onto each limb of a different variety. If this would work, I would raise my 4 small persimmon trees until the year that I can use scion wood from each to in-graft into the Meader. I look forward to hearing your views on this - if you can, please review the ideas that I mentioned above.

Thanks,
Steve

Then I researched

Initially, I thought it would be a good idea to plant multiple saplings (each a different cultivar) into the same hole only 5" apart from one another hoping that they will, eventually, fuse (inosculate) together into a single trunk when they have all expanded to fill-in the space between each other. I, ultimately, decided against this strategy upon the advice of Jerry Lehman who suggested that the trunks would not likely fuse and would become diseased, etc. I don't know, but I think that this might not be the best solution. But what if this was done when the trunks were only 1" wide, if that, and placed flushed against eachother (bare-root)?

Then I looked into 'approach grafting'. But the principle is the same, because Jerry recommended that Diospyros virginiana trunks, in particular, do not heal well when wounded - but if saplings, I would think it would be the same as if grafted (that heals...).

Well, having just read your reply to the above post, I'm thinking about waiting until my 'Meader' is large enough and then, maybe attempting a multi graft onto it. Can you please give a detailed description of how you would do this. Would it be the same as with an apple tree? Do you mean that you would cut off each limb and do something of a rind graft onto each limb of a different variety. If this would work, I would raise my 4 small persimmon trees until the year that I can use scion wood from each to in-graft into the Meader. I look forward to hearing your views on this - if you can, please review the ideas that I mentioned above.

Thanks,
Steve
What if 4 bare-root nursery-grafted saplings of the same height (less then 1" diameter) were wrapped flushed/tightly together with tape [so that there is no room in between each other were planting in the ground]? They would be wrapped around the base, midway up from ground level, and a third tape wrap at the top. Since they are young, wouldn't they have thin-enough bark exteriors that they would form a single trunk as they expand? I feel strongly about doing this... I don't want to make a mistake and cause the 4 to rot, instead of fusing, however. I've seen a wiki link that showed 4 trees of 4 cores growing next to each other showing that their 4 cores migrated to the center - cross-section/fire wood.