[bigsprouts]

hi guys and gals cive given up on the cherry tree idea can i train a plum tree on a fan about 6 feet tall by 9 feet wide? must be a fan because of space

[muntjac]

in a werd ,,,,, yes ..... 12 rod fan should be ideal  

[gobs]

Ohhh, I need help with something.

[gobs]

Seriously, Bigsprout, all sorts of trees can be trained into all sorts of fancy shapes, but that requires time and effort from your part and it is not commonly done with certain trees for such practical reasons.

How much space you've got, what's the location like, how much time can you give to maintaining the shape, how much do you want to spend, what is your favorite fruit, how much produce you would consider satisfactory and needed for your personal use?

Plum: stone fruit, yet again, fruits on young growth, laboursome on a fan, methinks...

Would you consider a family tree, already trained(expensive) or step-over apples?

[splodger]

the main problem with training plums and other stone fruits - into fans etc - is the fact that you are restricted with pruning - because of the suseptibility to disease.

it makes training more difficult, you need to be more precise and very patient - imho it's not worth it with plum -
if you want something more unusual - peach trains to a fan very well - as do figs and pears

[bigsprouts]

gobs i just want to try something different and dont have much room and am only allowed small trees on my site looks like i will have to try peach then trained to a fan say 12 feet by six or seven feet tall

[gobs]

If you are allowed 1or 2 small trees, then you could may be give a suitable corner to them, a 4-5 m tree is a small tree. And then you could get anything you like on a semi-dwarfing or dwarfing rootstock.

And still could keep the fan(or the place of it ) for something else that is more suited to it. The location must be sunny and southerly for a peach/nectarine, fig fan or you could build a frame for a grape.