What pears are quince compatible?

It is very interesting topic. I am planning on grafting quince on unknown pear seedling. I don’t have any other closer quince’s relatives that I can graft onto except the pear tree. I don’t think I want whole lot of quince fruits just few branchesful of quince fruits are more than enough to satisfy my need. However, I have heard the incompatible issue of quince on pears. In attempt to resolve this issue, I grafted a section of ohfx333 rootstock onto the pear seedling (not sure the pear seedling likes this or not yet). I did some reading that the ohfx333 has some quince blood, hopefully it will compatible with the pear seedling on one end and compatible with the quince on the other end. I want to know if anyone here had tried this approach and what was the outcome??

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Unfortunately the whole article at that link is not available. If you dig up a dwarfing stock you will see the roots themselves are much smaller than a full sized stock, so there is no way that an interstem will make a pear on quince act like a pear on a normal pear stock. My guess is what the article is calling “vigorous” is relative to other cultivars on quince it is more vigorous; they still are very dwarfing compared to e.g. seedling pears.

In other words, for a backyard grower any pear interstem compatible with quince should be fine. I have just grabbed random things, this year it was Urbaniste it looks like.

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The bulgarian quince that developed rust in this post Who's growing Quince? later proved incompatible grafted to pear and died. Delayed failure is to be expected with quince grafted to pear

Thanks that was very helpful, I should have considered the context that article was written in.

Has anyone on the list ever grown a quince tree (made root stock) from seed? I didn’t read every post so I may have missed something about that. I picked a few varieties from NCGR Corv and I’m wondering if sprouting some seeds is a worthwhile project?

I don’t have the patience since they grow so well as trees from cuttings. I’m already pretty old, so decades out is pretty iffy.
John S
PDX OR

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A very good updated link from ars grin on quince compatability NCGR-Corvallis: Pyrus Catalog
Remember i usually graft my interstem and graft my top scion at the same time. I’m getting a lot of questions on that lately. Here is an interstem from 2017 i grafted and posted photos of in 2018 just to show how i graft both
71D46CEA-45B6-4B48-B8AB-D96A0252660C 35E5ADCC-EE8D-43D6-936E-C5786D038276

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Mentioned this on another thread but seems more relevant here. An old book of mine stated that Duchess “does well” specifically on the Provence quince rootstock. Info is from 1978 so not sure about the accuracy

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In Kansas I abandoned my quince projects. Quince roots do not get deep enough to handle droughts in my area. Additionally rust is a big problem with quince that I feel is growing quickly. Quince might become a problem so close to my pear orchard. Quince rust is to be avoided as it effects fruit. Quince gets fireblight and becomes a problem.

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Cydonia oblonga is what’s usually used as a rootstock. Has anyone here tried grafting on C.speciosa, (Japanese Flowering Quince)? I’m going to try grafting a few pears to it, maybe even apples. It would probably have even lower vigor , more suckers and less disease issues.

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I have grafted pears onto both Japanese flowering quince and aronia. Aronia worked better and doesn’t have painful thorns.

We don’t have fireblight here or the extreme droughts and drying winds that one might find in Kansas. I manage rust with compost tea.

John S
PDX OR

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Does anyone have any experience grafting pear to Quince C rootstock?

I have the following choices of pear cultivars (compatible with quince) available for grafting to Quince C this spring:

Concorde
Conference
Comice
Magness
Sierra

I’m curious about forum members opinions on which of the above choices might be the best as an interstock or as a single variety to grow on Quince C?

Which would be the most vigorous of the above varieties?

Which would be the most precocious of the above varieties?

These trees will likely be espaliered, if that makes any difference.

Perhaps our resident pear expert @clarkinks might have some insights on this subject. Any comments or feedback greatly appreciated.

@tbg9b

Maybe @scottfsmith might have some extra insight. My opinion would be Quince A and Quince c rootstocks should be similar in terms of compatibility. See that list above.

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@clarkinks

Do you have any idea of Concorde, Conference
Comice, or Sierra which might bear the earliest?

I know Magness is slow to come into production.

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@tbg9b

My experience has been magness is much faster to produce than those you mentioned. I dont know about Sierra fruiting, but i do grow all the others at this time. If you want a fast producing good tasting pear try harrow sweet.

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Hard to source the Harrow series of pear trees in BC. Our provincial govt doesn’t make it easy to import many varieties. Apples even have restrictions on shipping within BC.

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@tbg9b

Since they were developed in Canada that is surprising.

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@clarkinks

Yes, very surprising. Unfortunately, none of the Harrow series are sold at the retail level in BC. I found one retailer in Ontario willing to ship Harrow Delight to BC, but it would have been outrageously expensive with all the extra fees they tack on. Many nurseries outside BC, will not even ship here.

15 lbs of fertilizer in a medium flat rate box from San Diego to Prince George BC is not too bad. But a plant?! I could personally fly it there with permits in hand for less money, round trip.

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Yes.

Comice would be the best interstock. It’s used here commercially on quince C.

i can’t speak to Magness and Sierra

But here Domice would likely be most vigorous. And conference most precocious.

Concorde is often recommended above conference for hobby growers. It’s a conference x Doyenné du Comice cross. And seems to have better disease resistance.

all of the above is based on EU data/experience since your on the other side of the world your experience may vary.

also graft compatibility is not absolute. There have been some mentions of incompatibility between conference and quince C but also quite often no interstem is used without problem.

Possibly virus/disease status and climate/culture has some influence on incompatibility.

i’f seen 2 tree’s where i think incompatibility did not lead to death of the graft union. but “runting” of the tree to the point where it grows only spurs. And overfruits by a factor 10.

Generally, the safest long term option would be to use comice or buerre hardy interstems on quince roots. But if you don’t there is also a large chance it will be fine. Or fine at least for a few years.

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