Trees Minefield

[Newcomer]

To all those gardeing gurus out there,
Hi All,
I am hoping someone out there can help. I am new to gardening and growing fruit and veg. I have decided to buy a victoria plum tree for the garden. It is going in the middle of the lawn (best place for it not to get snipped by over enthusiastic neighbours, or squahed by flying footballs from the other side!) I'd rather have a dwarf, or short tree (about 6 to 8 feet), but not suffer a loss of fruit. I have been looking at various places to buy the tree, and I am now bewildered by the options!

What would be the best tree to go for? I have heard of Pixie rootstocks, and St Julien?
Where (if anyone has the knowledge) might be the best place to buy it? I am not made of dosh, but I'd rather soend a bit more to get a crop this year if I can.
How best should i look after my tree? We used to have one in the garden when I was small, but it got diseased and had to come out. I wasn't really into gardening then, so I have no idea what I am doing.

Any help anyone can offer would be most gratefully received.

[FB.]

The quality of your soil - depth, richness and amount of rainfall - will make a very big difference to how well trees grow.
On my soil, dwarf rootstocks die. Only the most vigorous rootstocks (e.g. apple: M25, MM111 and pear: Pyrus) stand half a chance on my soil.

Personally, I would never recommend a dwarf rootstock for anything other than patio containers and definitely not for a free-standing tree, since the small/weak roots may not be able to support the topweight (resulting in leaning or fallen tree).
Dwarfs are like having a pet where you have to do most of the work (feeding, watering, weeding), rather than a semi-vigorous or vigorous rootstock where the tree is strong enough to fend for itself.

Most likely, you find that St.Julien A rootstock is what you need - but we can't be sure without knowing your location (pop it in your profile, eh? ).

Also try this tree size estimator, which considers the variety, rootstock and soil:

> Link <

Also this plum-related link from the same site, where plum varieties are listed and on each page is a table of approximate size vs rootstock is shown:
> Link <

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