71 year old Japanese farmer grows 11 kinds of citrus on a single tree

A Japanese farmer has created a special tree that produces eleven different kinds of lemons in the same tree. He is not finished yet, wants to add more varieties of citrus in a year.

This amazing tree grew out of shortage of space. Manabu Fukushima, 71, of Onga, Fukuoka, Japan combines his natural horticultural skills with the help of his neighbors to produce this tree. It bears 11 distinct citrus species found in Japan; most of the varieties were contributed by his neighbors.

Mr. Fukushima is not satisfied with this achievement; he wants to add more varieties by next year provided he could get them without any difficulty. He is able to achieve this unique tree by a method called “graft” method commonly used by gardeners.

This method is achieved by adding branches from a different plant variety to an existing tree. The graft then becomes a part of the tree in time and it bears fruit within three years growth but it needs lot of attention and caring from the gardener, and Mr. Fukushima has done an incredible job. Since Japanese are famous for Bonsai gardening, this can be easily expected from them.

This tree of Mr. Fukushima is 30 years old and bears distinctive Japanese citrus fruits like Dekopon, Hassaku Orange, Iyoyan, Amanatsu and Banpeiyu (a variety of Pummelo). Mr. Fukushima says harvesting the fruits is very fun for him.

His tree has become a local tourist attraction.

Others also have done this graft method but not up to the scale of Fukushima, maybe after this other gardeners might be inspired to do the same.