A backyard gardener’s hand graft on a tree made him a Guinness world record holder. Why? The tree can bear 10 different types of fruit.
All about the hand graft record tree
Hussam Saraf, a suburban home gardener in Victoria, Australia won the Guinness world record for ‘most types of fruit on a single tree’. He arrived from Iraq in 2009 and has been passionate about gardening since his childhood days. The multicultural office of a public school’s backyard is now the home of a tree that is bearing 10 different kinds of fruits. “The previous record was five fruits grafted onto one tree, so I decided to graft 10. But I was waiting to hear back and they told me my application was rejected because they needed five different species, not varieties,” said Hussam. The record tree started as a nectarine tree from the seed. However, it gradually grew with graftings of other trees on its branches.“Every branch is a unique tree by itself,” he explained.
The previous record-holding tree had five grafted fruits- cherry, apricot, nectarine, peach, and plum. It was held by Luis H Carrasco from Chile for about two decades. Hence, Hussam’s first application of grafting yellow and white nectarines, yellow and white peaches, yellow and blood plums, almonds, apricots, and cherries tied him with Carrasco as it was counted as five fruits. “I told them he had nectarine and peach which they counted as two when it should have been one. So they said OK, changed the previous guy to four, and me to five,” added Hussam.
More on the grafts
Hussam tried again and his record tree was officially accepted with graftings of apricot, plum, cherry, almond, and peach. According to Hussam, his hand graft record tree represents peaceful coexistence. After all, “the colors, shapes and different leaves and fruits on the branches of his creation a metaphor for a diverse society, respect, and acceptance”.
Here’s a detailed list of Hussam’s fruits of labor:
- White Nectarine (White Satin) – grafted 05/4/2019
- Blood Plum (Satsuma) – grafted 07/05/2020
- Peachcot (Peachcot) – grafted 02/10/2020
- Yellow Plum (Gulf Gold) – grafted 13/10/2020
- White Peach (Tropical Snow) – grafted 06/11/2020
- Yellow Peach (Florida Prince) – grafted 09/4/2021
- Apricot (Glengarry) – grafted 10/4/2021
- Almond (Prunus Amygdalus) – grafted 05/10/2021
- Cherry (Stella) – grafted 05/10/2021
- Yellow Nectarine (Sunwright) – grafted 06/10/2021
‘I can’ attitude is the way forward
Five years ago, the private garden became open to the public, welcoming enthusiasts who came to get advice and recommendations. “And if I don’t eat the fruits, I give it to my neighbors. Relatives, friends come to the garden and taste it. They like the taste. It’s not just a garden, it’s a community,” said Hussain. “I saw this tree as our multicultural community’s tree, the cultures we have here – religions, traditions, all come together as one. My multicultural work and gardening work I see as one, I’m grafting it all together,” he added.
Hussam is also getting kids excited about gardening and teaching them to aim high. “The kids are excited, they’ve followed it on Instagram … the young generation is all on Insta. I wanted to give them an example to aim high. Don’t say it’s too hard; you can do it if you put in the hard work and have a target. Never say ‘I can’t do it,” he said. “I hope people will come from Bendigo, Melbourne, interstate just to see the tree. To have something big like this recognized by the Guinness World Records, it’ll bring money to the town … and I wanted to prove I could do it,” he added.
