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Advice cos I’d love a plum tree! Hello everyone I have clay but flat ‘lawn’ I want to grow a big plum tree in it. Because I love plums and for some privacy. The garden Center has StJulien A Rostock and said no one wants big plum trees because you can’t reach the plums. Is this true? Anyone got a tall plum tree? How do you reach the plums? Or just share with the birds? Ideally my tree would have plenty of leafy canopy at about 3m for privacy. The St Julien A says it grows to 3.5m. Technically that might be ok but would it really grow that tall? It might not grow for me. Any comments tips ideas for alternatives gratefully received.




Answers

 

welcome to GoY.
the trend has been for smaller trees to make reaching the plums at harvest time easier. A taller tree would require you to have ladders to get to the top.
Usually if the label says it will get to 3.5 m then it will.

modern plum varieties are usually sold on 'dwarfing' root stock which keeps the ultimate size of the tree down.
Unless there are plum trees in nearby gardens you will need either a self pollinating one [Victoria] or another variety that is a pollinating partner. Victoria fruit better with a pollinating partner but will produce fruit if on its own.

Another thing to consider is how big your garden is and how close to house foundations the tree will be? These need to be taken into account and if it is for your privacy please think about the impact on your neighbours and their property.

Do you have other garden requirements as a large tree in time will create a lot of shade that will affect what else you can grow in the borders [if you have them].

29 Mar, 2021

 

My daughter has a large Victoria plum tree and it is large, must be at least 15 feet high or more and the top plums feed the birds

It was not intended to be that tall, it was sold as dwarfing, but too late now, luckily they have a large garden so it's in keeping with it's surrounds

The only way to reach the top plums would be on a ladder, BUT plum branches are notorious for being brittle & breaking so leaning a ladder into a plum tree could be a hazard in itself

There is also the past problem to consider with a larger tree, spraying against plum moth for instance

Having said all that fresh ripe plums are superb, ask any wasp ;-)

29 Mar, 2021

 

Have you the possibility of raising the height of the fence etc that is causing your lack of privacy? If so you could perhaps fix trellis to increase the height and grow something like a clematis up it - you could then still have your plum on a smaller rootstock - win - win.

29 Mar, 2021

How do I say thanks?

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