Replacement for another sickly prunus - mulberry size

[chrisdb]

When I first moved into this house I planted two plums and a cherry. The cherry started leaking sap in year two and went, then the Guinevere plum died last year, and this year my final original prunus, the Yellow Pershore, is leaking sap like crazy, losing leaves, and looking very much like it's not long for this world. It's sad since it grew so well until this year, but I doubt it's going to survive. The original source of the infections was probably an old and sickly damson in the hedge that I chopped down a while ago.

Two cherries I added later, a Morello and a Celeste, still survive, but I'm a bit nervous now about adding more prunus, so I'm looking for alternatives that aren't members of that family. I also have three pears, three apples and a medlar, so I'm not sure about more pome fruit either (maybe a quince or a second medlar, since I do love medlars and my current one isn't very productive, but there's a lot to be said for variety).

Given the short list of non-pome, non-stone fruit trees, I'm thinking about planting a mulberry, but I'm concerned about the size. Maximum height and spread in excess of 8 meters are quoted, and I simply don't have room for that. Any replacement has to be at most 3 - 4m tall and wide, and the advice in books is that mulberries weep sap easily and should be lightly pruned. Does anyone have experience trying to keep a mulberry as a small-ish, bushy tree while also getting decent fruiting? Is it possible, excluding the Charlotte Russe variety which hasn't had great taste reviews on this forum? If not, any other suggestions that fruit reliably in the UK without shelter (e.g. not a fig)?

[veggiechicken]

My fig fruits outside without shelter so don't discount them. I'm trying a persimmon - no idea how it will fruit!

[nickdub]

Sounds like you've had some bad luck with the plums - they can be finicky bloody things sometimes, I've had a couple of good sized 10+ year old trees die on me for no obvious reasons, whereas other plum trees nearby are still growing fine.

Without knowing the exact cause of the problems its a bit tricky to make concrete suggestions. I would say though that round where I live we have a local variety of plum, "Blaisdon Red" which grows like a weed, even in local hedges, it rarely if ever gets ill and bears v heavy crops - I'm pretty sure one of those would be thug enough to fight off any infections, it can also be used as a root-stock for budding choicer types on to.

As a more fancy alternative but still stone fruit you could try an apricot. If you went for this more expensive route probably digging out all the soil and barrowing it away from a decent sized hole and replacing it with topsoil from another site would be a wise precaution. Also a some sort of temporary plastic cover for the Spring to keep the young leaves dry.

PS none of the mulberries I've ever tasted, have struck me as worth growing as fruit - but that's just personal preference

[chrisdb]

Do you get much? I have a colleague who lovingly wheels his figs under cover over winter, prunes off the ones thsat won't ripen etc, and only seems to get a handful a year. He loves them, but unless you can measure the yield in kilos it doesn't seem worth it to me.

Are you growing oriental persimmon? The hybrids with American persimmon are supposed to be more tolerant of our cool climate, but they also grow bigger than diospyrus kaki does.