Is there any variety/varieties that the fruit can be eaten like an apple or pear?
Iām definitely hoping they can tolerate it. Which do you have?
Last year my Havran had coddling moth and they never grew larger than a walnut
Crimea is my favorite variety and can be eaten fresh. Itās still denser than an apple but that didnāt stop my dog from even eating one 
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Crimea Crimea Crimea.
Smyrna is not for fresh eating but I found it held up to rust quite well and was my best producer.
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Thank you! Thatās good to know, I have a quince tree about 4 feet tall that I would like to graft into but wasnāt sure what varieties are best as for eating fresh and also best in flavor.
Iām putting in some flowering Quince from Fruitwood this year. Iāll try fruiting Quince when I find a spot for them another year, so I can test a tree or two.
This was a variety the USDA said was possibly fireblight resistant (Vernaia).
OGW had it at some point on their Unique Collections page:
Hoping it roots, that would be interesting. But i should have a few very small sticks to graft as well soon.
@armyofda12mnkeys May I ask where the USDA lists Vernaia as possibly resistant to fireblight? I have not mastered searching their database yet.
Via the NAFEX listserv of old, that was one of the cultivars brought in through Jerry Lehman and he stated at the time that Vernaia and the other two were very susceptible to fireblight, but great for cider. The others were PY98-1 and Granitnaia.
Iām interested in any information since my PY98-1 do not have any visible strikes, but Jerry stated he had to prune these varieties constantly.
Most of mine never were able to fruit yet before I moved and had to start a new row of them. I remember Smyrna and Crimea, Smyrna was pretty standard and not for fresh eating but I found it to be the most reliable and disease resistant compared to the others so I kept it. Crimea I loved a lot. I feel like I had the odd fruit or so from a few other varieties but I donāt remember which was which. Theyāre all pretty similar. I do spray once per year with Immunox after petal fall, as I used to get bad rust on them and always had to prune them back hard (hence not tasting many yet). One spray of immunox a season and I havenāt seen any rust on them since I started doing that. I also planted them away from my apples because they were catching it from the quince. Or vice versa. The problem is gone now so hopefully theyāll get some size!
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Two of the USDA ones. Not sure what their names are.
So this is what USDA told me (PS they also mention that the Bulgarian quinces i orig wanted maybe isnāt resistant). Im guessing the nursery they mention is maybe OGW.
āPlease be aware that our Bulgarian quince are from a seeds from a breeding project in Bulgaria, and have not proven to be fire blight resistant here. We were given a quince, Vernaia, last year that did show fire blight resistance at a nursery in Oregon. It will probably be a few years before we have enough material to distribute but you can find it for sale at One Green World and possibly other nurseries.ā
-Jane O.
-Curatorial Assistant
I guess they donāt directly list FB resistance on the main page (but other things like I see these listed: RUST, FABRAEA LEAFSPOT, POWDERY MILDEW RESISTANT):
https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/20721500/catalogs/cydacc.html
PS they said above they canāt provide Vernaia in above email. But in a followup email before they shipped, they said there was basically a couple small branches they could prune off so they sent me that (very small sticks, Iād prob use a cleft graft on those on a very small rootstock tip or a Z graft).
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āEkmekā is another variety that can be eaten fresh.
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Do you know by any chance who might sell scions of this variety?
Thanks
This is really interesting information and I have a follow up post since itās nice today and Iāve been able to closely examine every quince Iāve got. I regret not grabbing vernaia. I think there was information on the bulgarian ones showing fb resistance from USDA but of course itās a different environment than here in the midwest/ great lakes.
yeh, i thought the Bulgarian stuff was FB resistant as well.
Maybe they are for some reason in Bulgaria, but not at USDA Corvalis? (not sure what could affect that, weather, different strain?)
From my own trees that survived crappy locations in the yard, Claribel, SekerGeverek, Limon, Ekmekā¦ the one that got the most FB with the leaves turning brown and then large branches becoming very brown/dry (i assume thats FB) is SekerGeverek.
I took some of its branches and soaked them in water, and been using that to water some seed/seedlings in a pot to see if that helps give the seedlings the disease to help cull any non-FB-resistant ones (genetic resistance). I assume the disease survives in the leaves/branches and can be spread this way. Anyone can confirm/not confirm?
or can trees be given resistance, not genetically, but by giving them the disease earlier like how we get vaccines as children?
is Vernaia the same as āVranjaā?
Just curious if its a mispelling when coming overseas (where the j became an i). prob not, just thought id ask.
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Quince cultivar Ekmek is in the inventory of Dan England:
https://www.nuttrees.net/Englandās%20Orchard%20and%20Nursery%20-%20Scion%20list%202024.pdf
Heās a famer, not a website developer, so you might have to click to accept an unsecure connection to get to his website. Heās very positively reviewed.
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Here is the Vernaia graft i did today.
Very small cleft grafts so donāt need to make a tongue on thin scion ā¦ prefer grafting tape, then black tape on thin scions like this (vs rubber band first, then grafting tape)ā¦
didnāt show last step buddy tape surrounding entire scion.
Also found 2 ticks on me while grafting!, prob hanging out on the bag pot or rootstocks.
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