Quincemania

[Selymbria]

Hi everyone,

I love quince and planted a 2 year old bare rooted Vranja tree 5 years ago. It has done exceptionally well with absolutely no maintenance.

If all the flowers turn to quince, I will have over 200pounds of quince this year. Last year was about 150pounds.

Will keep posting pictures here tracking progress.

Here is one from today:

[veggiechicken]

Looks beautiful.
I bought one last year - it has little buds but not yet open.

[happyhumph]

Looks great - I'd love one but we're a bit exposed here so not sure how it would do.

[Snoop Puss]

^Ours is down in the floor of a very windy valley. Does OK. They're worth it for the blossom alone. Gorgeous.

[nickdub]

Looks great - I'd love one but we're a bit exposed here so not sure how it would do.

Quinces are a lot tougher than apples, so I reckon you'd find you can grow them no problem. Best to get a named variety, if you are going to use them for cooking.

[nickdub]

Your Quince tree looks to be in excellent health and growing well. If it was mine, I'd be inclined to clear the grass out completely from round the base of the trunk out to a radius of about 18".

[Selymbria]

Thank you all.

Is there anything I can do to prevent diseases to keep it healthy or is it too late to spray it with anything as it is blossoming?

[nickdub]

Thank you all.

Is there anything I can do to prevent diseases to keep it healthy or is it too late to spray it with anything as it is blossoming?

Quinces always seem very tough to me. I think they probably benefit form being relatively uncommon so that pest and disease don't have many hosts to build up on to become problems. The best insurance for a healthy tree is to keep it growing well with sensible feeding and watering if necessary, and to give it a bit of bare earth and a mulch over its roots, so it doesn't need to compete with the grass.

The other thing which is desirable on most fruit is to keep the center open by pruning out branches, so that more air and light can get in to what's left. I've not grown standard quinces myself, so I hesitate to give too much advice, but if your tree was an apple, I'd say prune out one branch near the middle.

[TrixC]

I also love quinces, and planted one last year, variety Isfahan. It was a two year old tree and produced masses of blossom, but no fruit set. This year it again has lots of blossom, anything I can do to encourage the fruit? My neighbour has a quince tree that fruits well, so I didn’t think pollination would be an issue.

[nickdub]

Quite likely your tree is a bit young to be producing fruit yet - I wouldn't worry about it as long as it s growing and getting bigger.

[Selymbria]

I also love quinces, and planted one last year, variety Isfahan. It was a two year old tree and produced masses of blossom, but no fruit set. This year it again has lots of blossom, anything I can do to encourage the fruit? My neighbour has a quince tree that fruits well, so I didn’t think pollination would be an issue.

Isfahan is the Iranian variety, mine is Serbian. Both should be ok with english weather except the ripening in september is not as good as in hotter climates. I do remember smaller fruits when my tree was younger.

[sparrow100]

I also love quinces, and planted one last year, variety Isfahan. It was a two year old tree and produced masses of blossom, but no fruit set. This year it again has lots of blossom, anything I can do to encourage the fruit? My neighbour has a quince tree that fruits well, so I didn’t think pollination would be an issue.

I bought a 2-year old Vranja a few years back. It didn't fruit till it was 5 or 6. Currently covered in blossom and I am looking forward to more crumbles and another bottle or two of brandy. Nom.

[TrixC]

Interesting, I would have just assumed it was too young to fruit, except my neighbour’s tree is similarly young, and his was covered in fruit last year. I think it might be on a more vigorous rootstock than mine - I opted for Quince C as I wanted a dwarf tree but it hasn’t grown much since I planted it so I’m a bit worried my soil isn’t good enough for this rootstock. Although, I know dwarfing rootstocks are normally more precocious... anyway, will see how it does this year, it’s covered in blossom at the minute and looks stunning.

[nickdub]

If the tree is not growing on as you would like a bit of extra compost or manure put on as a mulch will probably help. The other thing that can happen with dwarfing root-stocks is that they can't get enough water to support fruiting, if the soil is a bit dry. So if we have a spell without rain it would be a good idea to water it too,

[Fruitz]

I had no idea quince trees could fruit that much, 150lbs is impressive.

I purchased a 3 year old potted champion quince tree only a few weeks ago and it has now blossomed, not if i will get any fruit this year but not in a rush really.



It was sold to me as a half standard but the main stem is only 60cm high, hopefully the variety and the rootstock (quince A) listed are correct though as I've read that some of the varieties don't crop every year.