Plum tree advice.

[SimpleSimon]

Afternoon.

I'd like to plant a few plum trees on my plot but it's the south end of the plot and I don't want them too big. Most seem to be on at Julian root stock which could reach 5.5m. That will shade the south end of my tunnel which isn't ideal. I know this would be in the future but still, I'd rather keep them small.

Any recommendations for types/suppliers? Don't mind paying a bit extra for a healthy tree that stays nice and compact. Probably want 3 of them.

Ta
Simon

[ameno]

You want them on VVA or Pixy rootstocks (VVA is slightly better, as it produces larger fruit, but otherwise they are basically the same).
Both grow roughly equivalent to an apple on M26, and can easily be kept to 7ft with yearly pruning (you can't realistically keep a plum any smaller than that)

As for where to buy one, I would recommend Keepers Nursery:
https://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/fruit-trees/plum-gage
Very good trees, for a fairly good price.

Don't buy from Chis Bowers. They're con-men.

As for varieties, a spread of cropping times would be best. Victoria is always a good one, and is mid-season. Majorie's Seedling is a good late variety. Don't really know about earlies. Or you could get something slightly different, like a gage, for the third tree.

[SimpleSimon]

Ta - that supplier looks good, so good in fact they've sold out of the ones that I wanted. 2 yo bush on vva rootstock is sold out on most of the plum types.

[ameno]

Blackmoor Nurseries do 2 year bushes on VVA for Victoria and Czar (only those two varieties, sadly), and are in stock:
https://www.blackmoor.co.uk/category/109

Otherwise, I'd just recommend getting 1 year maidens from Keepers.
I've had a little search, and everywhere else which does plums on VVA or Pixy is either also sold old, only selling really expensive potted trees, or else looks a bit... untrustworthy.
So if your only real options are buying 1 year trees now, or waiting until next autumn and buying 2 year trees, you'd be better off ordering the 1 year trees now.

Plums on VVA seem to crop pretty young, anyway. Both my Victoria and my Marjories Seeldling on that rootstock were bought as 2 year bushes and flowered in their first year, so if you get 1 year maidens now then they may well crop lightly in 2022.

[SimpleSimon]

Thanks. Victoria and Czar are 2 that I wanted anyway so I think I'll pick 2 up from there. Will get a 1 yo maiden of something else too.

[It never rains..it pours]

Have festooned the one here on st julian that need to keep smaller at 7ft, time will tell but so far so good. On our wet clay thought rather have a high tolerance root and sort the top

[Babru]

I've ordered a Blue Tit plum from Keepers, but when I was telling my friend about it, she said she'd had great crops with Czar, so sounds like a good choice.

[nickdub]

Czar is a good reliable cropper and was widely grown as a cooking plum, but was generally considered a bit coarse for eating fresh, if one had epicurean tastes....

[ameno]

Czar is a good reliable cropper and was widely grown as a cooking plum, but was generally considered a bit coarse for eating fresh, if one had epicurean tastes....

I have a Czar. It's actually very nice fresh, but you need to get it very ripe. It needs to be soft and the flesh inside should be golden. If it's still even slightly firm or the flesh inside has even a hint of green or even pale yellow to it then it's not very nice raw (they're perfect at that stage for cooking, though).

[Mark_Riga]

I've got a Victoria and a Czar. The Victoria has consistently had large crops but I've probably had less than 20 plums in total off the Czar in the last 10 years. Fairly sure the problem is wood pigeons eating the fruitlets soon after flowering and they started on the Victoria this year as well as nearly all my pear trees. One pear (the smallest) had a decent crop, the others nothing.