That’s one fuzzy quince, but it looks like it rubs off easily.
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Yeah, some of the fuzz had fallen off in the bottom of the bag - it was getting a little tight so I switched to bigger bags. I think it rubbed off at contact points but the fruit seems fine.
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That’s good news that you have fruit. How many years until you started getting fruit?
In a humid Minnesota town with apple trees, my Pineapple Quince got several fire blight strikes this year.
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I’ve noticed the codling moths prefer softer fruit as well. That’s one of the reasons I’m growing quince. I agree that the harder the fruit, the less likely for pests to attack. So far, my only quince to fruit is the OGW “Crimea.” It is known for not requiring cooking, but I’d like to acquire more “cooking fruit.” I figured I’d throw that out to see if people have a list of hard/cooking quince. Any suggestions?
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Have no worries. Despite your ‘Krymskaya’ being eaten raw by some, it is still an excellent cooking variety and is in my opinion at its best when cooked. (Note: “Crimea” is just a proprietary marketing name for ‘Krymskaya’.)
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They went in ground in late summer 2023. One other variety produced a couple fruits last year, but none held this year. The late freeze was rough on a lot of my trees. They did all put on a ton of growth this year, so I’m hoping for a good small crop next year. Just enough to make some jam would be nice!
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I read a book on Orcharding that Quince was tip-bearing so heading back branches would result in having little to harvest.
However I’m reading a translated page about the variety I think is called “Aromatnya” in the USA and the translated text seems to be saying that it is spur bearing and bears on last year’s wood. Does this mean it is not “tip-bearing” so that I I can head back branches?
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My ‘Aromatnaya’ bears on the tips of its branches. Some of those are short side branches, so they could be interpreted as spurs…
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Has anyone had success grafting quince onto pear?
Thanks for the reminder on name- I questioned my memory of the non-TM version of my Krymskya. I’m one of those that likes the fruit fresh- sliced thin it’s tasty. It sounds like the vast majority of quince is quite hard until after codling moths are no longer active, but those hard / pest resistant cultivars are what I’m looking to add. That’s more for easier management than fruit quality. Any rock-hard but particularly tasty cultivars to recommend?
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I graft quince to pear. Perhaps you have similar thoughts to me about wanting a more vigorous and possibly drought tolerant quince?
So far, I have been using interstems of pear cultivars listed as quince-compatible. Short term, it has shown good success, but time will tell about long term compatibility.
I live in the mtn west of US, and have recently been transitioning to Callery pear as rootstock. It isn’t famous for being invasive here and a few others have recommended it for drought tolerance. I would love to skip the interstem process and stick quince right on the Callery pear, but I suspect that will fail.
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Grafting to quince compatible varieties is where I had my questions. Most say you can graft pear to quince, but not the other way around. I wondered if that was just the varieties that were not compatible. (I have too many deer to use small quince rootstocks on trees that are already small.)
Callery is great rootstock. I really like it myself, but some varieties really produce huge trees. I’ve got some that every couple years I have to cut near 40 foot down to about 20.
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If you like a good chutney, quince can made into a really nice chutney, (lots of natural pectin is a big bonus).
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It may be because grafting quince to pear isn’t very necessary. Quince is generally easy to propagate on its own roots, unlike pear.
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I grafted BT last year and it set one fruit this year from a half dozen flowers which dropped. Let us know how the fruit is.
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Quince rootstock isn’t dwarfing for Quince scions so far as I know. You’ll probably get a 15-25’ tree.
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I noticed that my SummerCrisp Pear (part Pyrus ussuriensis) came grafted to OHxF 97. The rootstock provides resistance to pear decline disease to which Pyrus ussuriensis is highly susceptible. It is also less susceptible than Provence Quince rootstock. OHxF 97 it is also more resistant to fire blight than Provence Quince rootstock. The fire blight resistance is not granted to any grafted cultivar.
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I’m trialing a cultivar of quince called ‘Cydora Robusta’ which was bred in Europe specifically for fireblight resistance. Fireblight doesn’t seem to be a thing in my climate, but I still like to have it as insurance in case conditions change in the future. My tree is only a couple years old now, so I haven’t gotten to try the fruit yet, but I’m hoping it’ll be at least as good as any other average quince.
Note: Cliff England offers scion from ‘Cydora Robusta’, but in his catalogue he dropped the “Cydora” from the name and has it labeled only as “Robusta”. I assume this is because “Cydora” looks so similar to “Cydonia” and he may have assumed it was just a misspelling and redundant to include. However, to my understanding, ‘Cydora Robusta’ is the official correct spelling based on European publications.
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I can’t speak for long term compatibility yet, but so far the ones I’ve tried are looking ok. The growth has been no more vigorous than on quince rootstock.
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thank you for mentioning that grocery store quince are probably Pineapple. I grew both of my trees from the seeds of that grocery store fruit. kept only the two plants out of a dozen or so that didn’t have sickly looking leaves!
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