choosing what cultivar to graft

I have two sapling apple trees I planted one is a year in the ground this fall and the other two years. My yard is tiny so I want 3 way grafts however I also wanted a bunch of antique varieties so it seems I must do it myself. I am going to try grafting the 2 years in the ground tree this year. I also have a two years in the ground Asian plum I was going to graft.

I am wondering if I should attempt to graft fruit that ripens at about the same time so the tree does not become unbalanced when I pick half the tree or if I should graft a varieties that ripen all different seasons so the trees work is spread out.

My trees are a bardsey and an egremont russet apple both on dwarfing stock.

Hi Rose,
Welcome to Permies.com!

I don't have any specific recommendation, but websites like https://www.starkbros.com has tons of information on different varieties along with information on when they blossom. You should be able to find some that blossom at the same time.

**Edit, I missed the first time around that you wanted them NOT to blossom at the same time. Which that website can still help you do :)

Welcome to Permies!

I do not own a multigrafted tree but I did do some looking around before I settled on the trees that I put in the ground. The biggest issue that seems to resonate with people having the trees are the vigor of each graft.

You can orient the grafts towards the sunlight to try and balance out the vigor between the different grafts to try and balance them but it will require more attention than a regular fruit tree in order to not have a graft outcompete another.

As a person currently dealing with an overabundance of apples right now, I hear your concerns!

However, I was pretty sure that apples are a fruit that requires cross-pollination, and confirmed that here:
https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2017/Q4/apple-trees-bear-more-fruit-when-surrounded-by-good-neighbors.html

So first off, you need to have the grafts blossom times overlap even if the fruit ripens at earlier or later dates.

Secondly, have you thought about training the tree and grafts into an espalier form? I have a Japanese pear tree with at least 3 different varieties of fruit (pears also need to cross-pollinate), set up with 3 parallel wires and 3 branches going each direction off the main stem. It's right beside a path, so the controlled shape is really convenient. I bought it set up with the grafts as it was on sale and near my birthday... any excuse will do? The wires give the branches enough support even when loaded with fruit, that I'm not concerned.

In your situation, if you were going to try something like this, you could actually have 3 varieties that bloom early on one side of the tree, and three that bloom later on the other side. With the set up relatively short (top branch on mine is about 4 ft off the ground), if you don't spot the bees visiting, it's easy to hand pollinate (some years I have no choice.)

thank you for the replies. I think with 6 varieties in play they should have overlap bloom enough. I also will probably get a sargentii crabapple and a mary potter crab apple to beautify my patio so those would be additional pollen sources. My backyard has a flower patch so there are all these strange little wild bees out there to hopefully pollinate. i've decided lacking any evidence that it is bad to graft the apples by ripening time as it will look prettier to pick them all around the same time. one tree is a bit against a fence so it will be a little bit trained flat. i used to fiddle with bonsia when i was a child so clipping trees into a desired shape is just fun for me.