It probably is scab. If I dont spray that happens to most of mine.
You could be right. I googled it and they do get brown rot, but I couldn’t find any pics of it.
Our wild Serviceberry get rust here something awefull. Just as they get near ripening… they turn into spikey rust balls.
I have never seen a (no spray) apple get scab here. Not sure that even happens in the south east.
Of the 3… BR, rust, scab… hope it is scab that Medlars get… if it does not happen on apples here… hopefully not on medlar either.
TNHunter
I think that medlars are at their best when they’re juicy. When they dry up, they aren’t that great. I don’t get any diseases at all on the medlar. Never have up here for 25 years.
After I biocharred them, they seem to be more productive and taste way better. I’m still eating many of them every day. Delicious!
Serviceberry and quince get rust bad here in the PNWet. I spray them with compost tea and they recover.
John S
PDX OR
Another member identified it as rot and I had no reason to disagree. Doubtful it’s rust. I see that on my serviceberry as well and it’s easy to identify. Not sure about scab, but it could be. Haven’t really seen scab on anything else yet though.
2 Likes
Regarding the idea of grafting a virus-infected Medlar branch onto another Medlar tree to infect the whole tree with a “good flavor” virus: I received 1 report so far that grafting good-flavored Nottingham does not change the flavor of the tree to which it is grafted. However 1 is a terribly small sample size.
1 Like
We get scab on apples. I spray compost tea for it, but it’s not that bad, as I am not a commercial orchardist. The apples are just for my family. There is some brown rot, but not a lot. No rust on apples. I see it on quince and serviceberry.
John S
PDX OR
Thanks for that. And one wonders how patient that reporter had been. I expect it may take years, if it worked at all. Such an experiment might outlive me before the results could be sure.
@TNHunter I’ve been reading through this thread for the past couple of days and I’m curious of how your medlar trial has gone so far. I’m not far from you here in East TN (Blount Co), so I’m interested to see what you have seen with insects and fungal issues through the last couple of summers. I have limited space left in the orchard, but I’m definitely interested to give these a shot unless someone steers me otherwise!
Jonathan
2 Likes
@JDN … the older I get the more determined I get to grow only no spray, no fuss, low maintenance things… that grow well here.
I abandoned the thought of trying Medlars after growing one for one year.
After hearing more and more others saying they have to spray to get good fruit…
I replaced mine with a mulberry.
TNHunter
2 Likes
That’s good information. I feel the same way, though there are two trees that I will always spray in my orchard. I’m not terribly interested in adding more trees to the spray schedule unless they’re something truly special.
I definitely have to spray my Cox’s Orange Pippin, but the taste is worth it and I can’t find any local orchards that grow it. I also managed to get a scion of Isaac Newton’s actual apple tree (Flower of Kent, supposedly) using a connection with the RHS who has a connection with Woolsthorpe Manor via the National Trust. After all the trouble and hoops I had to jump through, I’m not interested in the “wait and see what attacks” method with this one!
Medlars certainly intrigue me, but they may just not be worth it.
3 Likes
im starting to replace some more high maintenence crops with stuff that grows with near 0 inputs as well. getting to be too much to prune and maintain. going to put more low spray apples/ pears and sell/ donate some to the food pantries. lots of folks struggling right now and very soon i will be up to my eyeballs in fruit as most of my 1st plantings are maturing… love my sour cherries but since disease found them its been a battle to keep them healthy. think ill cut them to the ground and let the suckers fill back in. it should break the disease cycle for 3/4 years before they become productive again. ill use the wood in my fire pit and smoker so it wont be wasted.
4 Likes
I definitely can appreciate the pragmatic sentiment. That’s one reason I like medlars; in northern Michigan the input is negligible. Same with many types of apples. Something such as a persimmon requires an undue amount of babying, and as of yet no fruit to show for it. Just illustrates some of the significant differences when growing various species of fruits in temperate climes.
3 Likes
@EliindaUP … we are getting opposite results.
Medlars and Service berry require spray to produce here… and persimmons grow like weeds with no attention.
I have started 7 or 8 pears and apples over the years that lived to year 3 or 4 … started blooming… and got wiped by Fire Blight.
I can see that persimmons are going to be a big success for me… but every nice clean apple that I produce here… seems like a small miracle. We cherish them.
TNHunter
3 Likes
Ah yes, Serviceberries grow like weeds around here. For some reason on our farm proper and in our immediate area they struggle to produce fruit, and they deal with witches broom. But most places around they thrive. There’s a beach I like to go to north of here where there’s about 50 very productive trees. A lot of the berries are a little smaller than dimes. It’s fun to taste all the differences in flavor between trees. You can certainly eat to your heart’s content; they’re not something we have really bothered ‘putting up’ for the winter.
1 Like
Yeah i think more north rust is less of an issue than it is once you hit long island and lower
3 Likes
This is my first year where my medlar has produced fruit, but here it is late November and the fruit is all still hard as a rock. When do these things ripen? I picked a few and brought them inside to see what would happen about 3 weeks ago and they just dried up, so the rest I’m leaving on the tree.
3 Likes
they grow really well here as well. ive been eatingoffmy not=rthline i planted 3 yrs. ago. was so full of fruit the branches were nearly to the ground. makes great jam but i like eating them fresh mixing them with the honeyberries ripening right next to them.
1 Like
solid podcast about medlars here:
or here:
3 Likes