Fruit trees not bearing

Hi Everybody,

You can see from my introductory post that I have an allotment that is prone to flooding.

One of the things I have done on the lower half is to plant fruit trees as it is suggested that the roots help to dry it out.

There was an apple tree there originally (well more of a sapling) and having cleared away space for it to breathe amongst the brambles it is doing fine, I planted a second one which died, but I replaced that only this year and it is bearing fruit already.

But not so some of the other trees I have planted.

I planted a pair of plum trees, three years ago.  One died and the other has grown vigourously, but no sign of any fruit. I replaced the tree that died last year.

I also planted a pair of cherry trees roughly a year apart. The oldest has yet to bear any fruit, whilst the second of them does, though not a great deal, they are not the same variety.

Am I being a bit impatient in expecting fruit so soon or am I doing something wrong?

It doesn't help your current problem, but I was advised to get a quince for my plot as they like boggy ground. (I wasn't told it wouldn't set fruit till it was approx 5 years old though!)

As well as the points already brought up, the variable spring weather and lack of pollinating insects can also affect fruit set!  Not to mention that I believe you need a cold winter to encourage apples to fruit (I'm not 100% sure if this is true, but strangely, most of my apple trees are not so great this year except the Discovery)