250 varieties of fruit in an apple tree!

The Dhaka Times Desk A tree bears one species of fruit, and that is normal. But if one tree has 250 varieties of fruits then it is really surprising. An apple tree that bears 250 varieties of fruit!

This strange apple tree was found in the home garden of horticulturist Mr. Paul Burnett near Shichester, West Sussex, England.

Paul Burnett has spent more than two decades - some 26 years - in his garden at Sheedham, near Shichester in West Sussex, southern England, perfecting this plant. The tree now produces a new variety of apples every winter. He told the media that in addition to apples that can be eaten raw, this strange tree also produces rare apples suitable for cooking.

These include apples like the 'Withington Philbasket' first discovered in 1883 and the 'Eddy's Magnum' discovered in 1908! There are also numerous popularly recognized apples of various names and colors.

42-year-old Paul Barnett said, he started working in a nursery garden on a few acres of land. There he spent time with about 90 varieties of apple trees. He wanted his own apple trees, but he did not have the space to plant a large number of individual trees for such a large variety of apples.

So Paul Barnett started planting a 'family tree' with the aim of growing many varieties of apples in a small space. Every summer, Paul Burnett worked on budding a new variety of apple. The work of adding branches or pens was done during winter.

Paul Burnett used to cut off buds from another apple tree to make buds on his own tree. Then he would insert it into the bark of his 'family tree'. In this case, Paul Barnett followed the technique of grafting, but he also used small branches with multiple buds.

Over time these buds and branches become part of the main plant. Finally, the tree has started to produce various kinds of apples regularly.

Paul Barnett also said that the tree produces almost all types of apples suitable for eating raw, cooking and making juice. However, every year only a few of all varieties of apples come from the tree.

Catching all the apples of different colors and different shapes on the tree at the same time is a sight to behold!