I would like to get a Quince tree but don’t know what variety is best for my zone 8a And which one has better taste based on your option.
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I have only tasted two of my own quince so far, Crimea was edible fresh and a keeper and Smyrna was inedible fresh. I recommend choosing the sweeter Turkish or Central Asian varieties over the American ones.
Ekmek is the most popular Turkish variety and others I am adding are Kaunching and Kuganskaya which I have read many positive reviews on.
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Raintree sells Ekmek and OneGreenWorld sells Crimea, Kaunching, and Kuganskaya
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You should know that fireblight can be very bad on quince. They are not commonly grown in the southeast for that reason. They can also get quince rust. I had both problems in spades on mine so I pulled them. Quince rust can be controlled with sprays but fireblight is best avoided by culling sensitive things.
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That was going to be my next question! But Thanks for pointed out for me Scott, I guess I need to find something else instead.
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Good call. I was just coming back here to say my recommendations were on taste alone and not zone. I do get bad quince rust unless I spray my trees.
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I planted a Smyrna, which was about all I could find at the time, about six years ago.
Pretty blooms, haven’t seen any fireblight. But, also just a few fruits … and inedible off the tree, though don’t know if storage would change that. Planted for someone else—for ‘edible landscaping’. (Blueberries and honeyberries and gooseberries and serviceberry were ‘winners’…the other things I think were disappointments).
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What do you use to spray your trees with? How often do you spray them?
I’m just wondering if it’s worth it for me to get a plant and spray it. I’ll ready have some apples and pears that I might need to spray as well!
Thank you’ll
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I am an inexperienced grower that just started a couple of years ago, so I would seek knowledge elsewhere, however the year I did not spray at all all five of my quince trees were completely covered with rust galls and I had to hack the trees back severely. As far as spray goes, I spray all of me trees with a fall copper spray (not sure this is needed for quince, I just spray all my trees at once) and I use a few sprays in the spring of Pristine on all of my trees as well. I spray the quince whenever I do my spring sprays for the apples, even though the quince bloom later. I’m usually done spraying by the time they flower but this seems to be sufficient as I haven’t seen any disease on them ever since. I find Smyrna to be very productive for me although I really didn’t like the fruit compared to Crimea, I didn’t try processing it though. I like tart fruit but Smyrna is too astringent to eat raw. I would remove the tree since I don’t care for it compared to the others I can eat fresh, but it’s growing well and producing so I’m keeping it for now.
I am new at this so I don’t have a tailored spray program, but I haven’t had any disease issues so far this year on anything. I do get fireblight on my apples and pears but I have not seen it on any of my quince yet, despite being planted right next to the other pom fruits.
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Thank you for your response and for the information you have giving me. I just started growing fruits this year so I’m learning a lot from helpful members like you!
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