I found one lone Crimea/Krymskaya fruit hanging in what I thought was a mislabeled failed graft. Turns out it was a successful graft that grew fast enough I couldn’t see the union. Anyway, couldn’t believe how juicy and tasty the fruit was fresh. Itd been through ~21 degrees F a couple of times and had only slight frost damage to boot. Pretty impressive. I knew they were good but Id eat those all day! Glad to see they ripened fine in my climate.
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I am happy with my little Aromatnaya tree so far. Under 5 feet tall and held 7 fruit. Doesn’t seem to need anything and is happy with heavy clay soil. One of the least needy fruit trees I have. The aroma of the first round of fruit was lacking. I wanted to make quince paste so I supplemented with some free quince from FB which isn’t too hard to find at a certain time in the year. The aroma was intoxicating. Hoping my tree has better aroma next batch. But I’m mostly making membrillo / quince paste which doesn’t really need it.
The Pineapple graft took, and got blighted to death, the rest of the tree untouched. So I’m appreciating the Aromatnaya low maintenance and disease free but want to try more types.
In January I would like to graft some other types onto the tree. Maybe one of those fresh eating types I’ve heard about like Crimea. I love the idea of a thinly sliced pear type thing to add to salads. If that doesn’t work I can always boil it down into membrillo
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I agree. It’s hard for me to get excited about the ones you can barely keep down when there are good tasting ones like these.
John S
PDX OR
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Down the street an un-named quince has been growing for years. Yesterday, while walking with the Better Half to the post office we encountered the couple who live there. I asked if I may scrounge any leftover fruit. With permission I got 6 fruits, two smaller still hanging on the tree.
Here we have had several freezes, none lower than 28°F. All those from the ground had fallen overnight since the owners had tossed all the other fruit the day before, were turning brown inside & smelled overripe. The 2 from branches were pristine within. I scrubbed the fuzz off, cut 'em up, cooked 'em slowly and added lemon slices & sugar to make my first ever marmalade. It set really stiff & the flavor was mild, nearly overpowered by lemon. Perfectly good for a first try. I’ll do several things differently next season, if the owners agree to me stripping the tree & sharing. (My 9 foot orchard ladder gets used this way regularly.)
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