Which Fruit Trees?

[JaneandtheLaundry]

I only have a smallish newbuild garden (11x5m) and want a nice fruit tree that doesn't take over the space but screens us a bit from the people at the bottom of the garden.

I thought maybe nectarine, but I'm unsure how much fruit they bear after 2-3 years and how long it takes to get to full height. I am also not sure where to buy a decent one that will actually take to the garden, without paying silly amounts of delivery. None of our local nurseries do them.

The garden is currently just grass.

I'm not sure if I like all plums, actually. I love nectarines and have extremely bad luck buying them from the supermarket (which is why I was hoping to grow them but they sound too tricky for this climate). I think I'd like to grow a plum fruit that was similar to a nectarine rather than a shapeless squashy one. I like peaches, too, but again from this thread it looks like they won't fruit reliably.

I'm also not sure on the shape of the plum tree, they seem a bit... hedgy? when I've seen them at PYO farms. I want something that looks like a proper tree, that the kids can climb when they're bigger... does that limit me to apple/cherry? Maybe I should abandon the fruit and go for something else after all! It's such a minefield.

There are also nut trees OP! I'm just looking into them, so have no advice I'm afraid, but might be another option.
On a side note, MIL has the most delicious victoria plum tree and we get buckets of fruit from it each year. Its very large, but not sure how easy it would be to climb. We always use ladders.

She also has what I assume are Mirabelle plums as part of a hedge, so they are low enough to pick. I know you want a tree, but that might be an option in addition to a tree.

Our plum trees have never grown big and robust enough for children to climb. An elderly Bramley a couple of gardens over is a decent climbing tree but it's about 40 years old.

The wishes for fruit you can reach and a tree big enough for children to climb do sound rather mutually exclusive.

Yes it's definitely a dichotomy. I'm just remembering some cherry blossom trees at our old estate, they were planted in 2004 and by 2020 they were just right for kids to climb them a bit without any potentially dangerous falls. I think they were about 4m high total but it's more the way the trunk/branches grow that make a tree climbable. I think apple or cherry are most likely to work.

Pear Beth.

The size depends on what rootstock it's grown on.

There's nothing in this world, nothing, like a freshly picked ripe fig from your own fig tree.

Then we have a fruit cage for everything else or the birds will get the fruit before we do. Raspberries, strawberry, all types of currant, thornless blackberry, blueberries. I don’t net my raspberries,strawberries, blackberries and have no bird problems. But the blackbirds took all my Worcesters this year.

Pear, quince, medlar are all “proper” trees.

Not very climbable though. Branches are too bendy.

A mature cherry is a great tree for climbing but very, very tall

Thanks all. I'm not going to rush into a decision because I want to get this exactly right so I'm researching the suggested nurseries and what they have available now. I didn't know there were so many rootstocks (or what they all meant) until today!

Too fulla figs to enthuse about tree climbing. 🌳

Definitely don’t plant a peach or a nectarine. There’s a disease called leaf curl they always get which is ugly and sometimes kills the tree. An apricot is worth considering. We have the variety Tomcot and they are amazing and as big and juicy as nectarines. However we don’t get fruit every year because they flower so early sometimes it’s too cold for pollinating insects. One year we had 15kg of fruit though. This is in London.

If your soil is clay you need to avoid the very dwarfing rootstocks because they won’t cope with heavy soil. You need Colt for cherries, MM106 for apples. No fruit tree is going to grow quickly enough to be climbable by your kids in the next 10 years or so, but it’s true that plums aren’t suitable for this even when mature.

🤣 That's fair. I've never experienced a fig that wasn't in a biscuit (although I am extremely partial to fig rolls).

@IceandIndigo one of the care rules I was reading for nectarines was to keep them out of heavy winter rain (covered, I suppose?) to avoid leaf curl. Are you saying that it's basically inevitable? I was already fairly sure from this thread that nectarines weren't happening but that basically does it for them. Victoria plums, Stella cherries or Katy apples on a smaller (but not too dwarf) rootstock are looking like a better bet.

@JaneandtheLaundry yes unless you can keep nectarine or peach trees protected from the rain they are certain to get leaf curl in our climate. Some varieties may claim resistance but I’ve heard they’re not.

Victoria plums are popular but also quite disease prone. The modern varieties Avalon or Jubilee are similar but much better.

For apples Sunset is another good variety for gardens. Stella cherry a good choice but be aware cherries can get quite large, even on the less vigorous rootstocks.