Weeping plum tree - advice needed

[silverman166]

As a newbie, both to the forum and growing fruit, I'm in need of advice, please.
I've got a small garden in South Yorkshire and am looking to grow a plum tree, as an ornamental as well as productive tree, in a site which receives a good few hours of sun each day (when we get any!)
I thought a tree with a weeping habit would suit, and would be interested to know if there are any eating plum trees with this natural habit which don't grow too large, say to cover 6 to 7 feet diameter max., with a plain stem of about 6 feet height.
I'd be looking to purchase a single tree of fruiting size if possible, so it would need to be self-fertile (assuming not all are?) and would be interested to know where such a tree could be obtained. Am I correct in thinking bare-rooted trees are preferable? (At the required height, I imagine that would be the only option?)
I should also add that I'll be away on hols from Wed 25th Aug for 5 weeks, and if anyone can reply before departure, albeit at short notice, I'll be able to respond to any further questions that may need answering, otherwise it'll be early October.

Thanks in anticipation.

[chris]

I think you'd need a St Julien A rootstock, from what I've gathered from here... not sure of the size though, I'm sure the fruit god, FB will be around shortly though..

actually - have a read through this in the meantime, it may offer a bit more insight into pruning to keep it in check...? Plums: pruning / RHS Gardening Advice

[FB.]

Victoria is a very spreading-weeping tree.
It is possible to "train" almost any tree into a weeping shape, by weighing-down or tying-down the soft young branches for a year or two.
Weeping shapes reduce vigour by slowing sapflow, but it increases fruitfulness - tying down branches is a popular way of slowing down tree growth and improving cropping.

Victoria plum is easy to find in most nurseries, cheap to buy, popular, fairly reliable, self-fertile, multi-purpose plum.......but the flavour and disease resistance are nothing special, it is prone to biennial bearing and, due to their early flowering, many plum trees lose their whole crop of fruit/flowers to late frosts.

If you want a tall stem, you'll need fairly strong/vigorous roots to anchor that topweight on windy days, so St.Julien A rootstock would be preferable to Pixy rootstock, even though Pixy would normally be used for a tree with about 7-8ft spread.

What you'll probably need to do, is either buy a ready grown "standard" tree (standard = 6ft trunk), otherwise you'll need to buy a "maiden" tree or "feathered maiden" and spend a few years training it. Buying a bush-trained tree (which is how most plum trees seem to be sold nowadays) will end up needing a lot of work to get it to grow a new 6ft trunk.

If you buy a "maiden", during the early years you'd need to encourage the stem to grow upwards and not allow it to bend over. You'd need to gradually trim off any side branches than form on the main trunk to encourage it to keep going upwards, until it starts to form side branches at the level you need.

For the best results with specialised shape-training, and for more reliable cropping, I'd prefer an apple tree on MM106 rootstock (perhaps stronger roots if the soil is poor).

[chris]

Good grief, either that was a mad guess, or I'm actually beginning to absorb some information from you, FB