plums?

[milly2306]

hi
looking to buy a couple of plum trees for my garden. just got a couple of questions if anyone can help

1) which variety is best for growing in north west
2) anyone know of any good deals on buying these?
many thanks
milly

[Migueli]

I think Victoria is suitable. At least mine is growing well and looks to be the healthiest out of the 4 fruit trees that I bought. I'm slightly north of your location.
Victoria is a self fertile variety.
Morrisons occasionally get Victoria Plum trees in stock. @ £4.99 it's not a lot to lose and it just might surprise you. I don't think it gives the rootstock but it does state 4 metres after 10 years.

[milly2306]

thanks, i'll try morrisons

[FB.]

4 metres after 10 years is likely to be St.Julien.A rootstock. With correct pruning, it is no problem to maintain Victoria at 2 metres - at least that's true of my Vic/SJA. Victoria seems to grow wider than it does high and it has a fairly "weeping" habit, due to the branches being long and thin and being pulled down by the weight of fruit.
Victoria is fairly prone to diseases of the wood; canker and silver leaf, so watch out for dieback of shoots/branches. My Vic is always a reliable cropper, regardless of the season and doesn't have (or need) a pollinator.
Apparently, Vic can become biennial if allowed to carry too much fruit (and it's long, thin branches may break under the strain of a heavy fruit load), but after the natural shedding of fruits in June, I thin my fruits (to remove damaged one's) when they're about 3/4" long; I can see the one's that have been "holed" by plum sawfly and so I snip those off and burn or crush them. It doesn't take long to do and the result is that I control the damage caused by plum sawfly, deter wasps attacking "holed" fruits and prevent biennial bearing.
After I've manually "thinned" the plums, 90% of the remainder develop into blemish-free plums of good quality.

I would not get more than one plum tree of the same variety. But if I ever got another, I'd get either "Early Laxton" (very early season, dual-purpose, self-fertile, compact growth) or "Marjorie's Seedling" (late season, dual-purpose, self-fertile, vigorous and disease resistant).

HTH
FB