Compact fruit tree recommendations

Hello all,

I'm still quietly plotting my new garden, particularly things I can be doing when I (hopefully) move in, as that will probably be October/November.

I do fancy putting in a couple of fruit trees. However, it's not a big garden and they will have to go near the south end of the garden so that they are well away from the house and the garden retaining walls. I think I'll be wanting something on dwarfing rootstock so they don't cast too much shade (though a bit will be good as I think the garden could be too hot in summer) and don't take up too much space.

There are just so many choices and I don't know what to go for! Ideally, I'd like something that will give decent harvests (for a single person, not needing to feed the nation!) within a couple of years as this isn't going to be my forever garden. I'd prefer something that doesn't need too much fussing over, and obviously, taste is very important! I'll probably get a separate fig tree in a container (my previous one died while being babysat by my mother) and rather fancy trying a peach in the greenhouse, but need to do a bit more reading on that.

I'd love to hear your suggestions about the trees you have in the ground or would like to have. I'd love a greengage but couldn't find anyone selling them on sufficiently dwarfing rootstock, so maybe a nice dessert plum? Any good apple recommendations? I'd like a cherry, and don't think a small one would be too much of a hassle to net from the birds, provided I didn't accidentally trap them very often (my Mum stopped netting her fruit bushes for this reason). Dessert cherries and sour cherries both appeal. I don't fancy a pear tree so much, but maybe that's just because I'm used to mealy supermarket pears?

What does the hive mind suggest?

This little mind has already decided never to growing peaches/nectarines/cherries/kiwi fruit again.
They need too much care - peaches & nectarines succumb to peach leaf curl unless they're kept out of the rain and, when they do fruit the squirrels/birds take them.
Cherries = birds and netting a tree, whatever its size isn't easy.
Kiwis are just rampant thugs.

As for the rest, plums take a few years to fruit, my greengage has never fruited.
Apples are the most reliable, followed by pears.
Don't believe the fake pictures of tons of fruit on a Minarette fruit tree.
Some dwarf trees have dwarf fruit that isn't worth eating - found that out with a dwarf peach.

I'm with VC on the peach/nectarines- I really struggled with mine. I've had a couple. Even with undercover, hand pollinating etc for it the get peach leaf curl and eventually giving up and putting in the bin.

Cherries- I've tried the sour variety but netted trees look awful. Plums even the small fruiting I believe are quite big? Birds have taken all mine. Didn't even taste a plum this year.

Personally I'd go for apples and pears...or even a crab apple if you fancy making jelly?

I only have experience with apples and would recommend getting a couple of varieties to extend the harvest season. This is what I'd go for if starting from scratch: something early like Discovery or Scrumptious, then a mid-season like Greensleeves or Red Windsor and also a late, well storing variety like Red Falstaff, Fiesta or Honeycrisp. You could be eating apples from August to January! We have Scrumptious (first year cropping so not much fruit) and Red Falstaff (very prolific!). It's worth getting scab resistant varieties instead, our trees get it every year.

Here are some links with good information on varieties and rootstocks:

https://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/helpde...pple-trees
https://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/rootstocks.aspx

My fruit trees are on M9 rootstock...2.5mtrs at maturity.

I am also a fan falstaff.

I lost all my cherries but sweet and sour to a fungus, I lost all my apples 6 in total to wasps, the drilled into them. I have some dwarf apple and pears that I bought last year from internet they actually came from France, they are called patio trees and are in tubs, no fruit this year but I wasn’t expecting any. I plant to move them into bigger pots later this year and hopefully next year we get some returns on investments. I also have 2 apple and 1 cherry thatI got from Aldi earlier in the year for €10 for all 3, they are in pots also waiting to go into raised beds with the hazelnuts.