Rootstocks

[TrixC]

I want to plant some fruit trees in my allotment - probably a cherry fan, a freestanding plum and a couple of cordon pears. My soil is London clay so I've been told to go for semi vigorous rootstocks eg Colt or Quince/St Julien A. However I really want the trees to stay compact - I already inherited an enormous apple tree - and wouldn't want them to get even to the minimum size quoted for these rootstocks. If I'm looking for healthy small trees, am I definitely best to go with the rootstocks mentioned?

[Kirk]

Colt is reported as getting up to 5 mters or 15/16 feet, I have a cherry on colt and it is not really manageable. I get nothing off it the birds get everything.

Gisela 5 is the smallest and is reported as 3 meters (10 feet).
Gisela 6 is a bit bigger then G5 but it is said to be less fussy about the soil says 3-4 meters so not that much over G5.

Pears seems that Quince C is the smallest at 2.5 to 3 (10 foot again) meters.

Plums seem a bit "odd" in that it looks like you have 3 options Pixy, Krymsk-1 and Plumina. The descriptions all seem to say thay are similar to Pixy. I notice that none are specifically "dwarfing", 3 meters, 10 feet, appears to be the sort of "normal" for the shortest rootstock for something other then apple.

[TrixC]

What sort of soil do you have though? I've been led to believe that in my clay soil the trees won't grow as large as the quoted heights, I'm wondering if anyone has experience of this.

[chrisdb]

So far I've found quince A to be a lot less than vigorous in my garden - mine seem to struggle to go anywhere fast. What I've heard is that how big pears on Quince get depends a lot on the soil and whether they like the conditions. If I did it again I'd go with Pyrodwarf instead. There's a lot less you can do about a stunted plant than a slightly too vigorous plant.

I'd think that for cordons it doesn't matter as much anyway since you will be doing pruning to keep them that way. Similarly to the case for apples, since MM106 can produce 4m trees but is commonly used for much smaller cordons and espaliers. You can do cordons with Quince A, so maybe it would be possibly with Pyrodwarf? At the very least I'd go for quince A instead of quince C.

As for cherries, I have a cherry on Gisela 5 and it is a weedy, sickly tree constantly losing the battle against one affliction or another. Since my wife loves cherries and netting is essential, I'm now trying Celeste on Colt, since it is advertised as a naturally dwarf variety:

Celeste cherry trees for sale | Buy online | Friendly advice

Unusually amongst cherries, Celeste is naturally compact, making it ideal for small gardens and growing in patio containers. We find that even on the semi-vigorous Colt rootstock it will still remain a fairly small tree, typically reaching 2m-3m.

In general I personally have sworn off very dwarfing rootstocks. They're just too much work, since the only way to make a plant that wants to be a tree small is to weaken it to the point where it needs constant coddling to be happy. I prefer to plant healthier trees which can look after themselves, even if it means that they take up more space, and if space is at a premium then either prune it into the shape I want or pick something that is happier being small.

[TrixC]

Thanks Chris, that's an incredibly helpful comment. I think I'll go for the semi vigorous rootstocks and trust in my pruning skills (currently absent but soon to be mastered ) to keep them under control.