Who's growing Quince?

I’ve only eaten a quince once or twice in my life, and enjoyed it cooked. I planted a quince rootstock in my mixed fruiting windbreak for my orchard this past spring. Sadly, it was one of the only casualties. Alas, I will replant this spring and graft over to one of the recommended varieties in this thread. I’ve read that the neglected quince was once very popular throughout early America.
I’ve heard they’re fireblight magnets, any other major disease issues I should be aware of?

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Hey @Austro_PawPaw,

P.S. Myagkoplodnaya is same as “Mellow” that One Green World offers (i was debating picking one of this year).
I see the they claim its a strong grower while OGW says it grows slow/small tree ("Myagkoplodnaya is a strong grower. " vs “A more dwarfing tree than most Quince, it should grow to only 8-10 ft. in height.”)…

https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?id=1648414

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I might try to double my quince trees to 10 this year as Claribel and a few other relatively new varieties (at least USDA/Corvalis varieties like Limon/SekerGevrek/Claribel/etc that are new to RainTree past 2 years) seemed cool and possible resistant to a disease/fungus/rust.
I always have read about Karp’s and its matching limb/sport mutation ‘Valdivia’s Yellow’ Quince:
I never knew Valdivia’s Yellow was really SUPER yellow fleshed! (took me a while to find this photo):

I asked for some cuttings from USDA this year so I’ll probably graft 2 and have hopefully at least 1 success … but does any nursery offer them too (I’d prefer to have one already a year or 2 old)?
I couldn’t find at least. Really Cool! but probably not a great grower for me in the East Coast/PA. Think i always read Karp’s is very disease-prone and tip-bearer (I would have figured this out myself too but Raintree mislabled my Karp’s, looks more like disease-prone Portugal as i said earlier in this thread :frowning: … But Im willing to give Valdivia a chance since I still get fruit off my more diseased trees)

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I used to grow 7 or 8 varieties of quince but I had an argument with fireblight a few years ago and fireblight convinced me to quit growing them.

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We don’t really get fireblight here in the PNWet but we do get rust on quince. Compost tea or serenade works on it. They are extremely productive and tasty, so it is worth the work for me.
John S
PDX OR

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I recommend all you quince-curious types to try quince jelly from Trappist to see if you really like it.

To me, the stuff is cloyingly sweet and too perfumey.

It might be good for marinating meats or as an alternative to barbeque sauce, like plum jelly.

Maybe I just haven’t had the right cultivar? I will not be devoting limited space in my orchard for quince.

Check it out:

https://www.monasterygreetings.com/product/Trappist-Preserves-Quince-Jelly-by-the-case/Trappist_Preserves_Single_Flavor_Cases?setCV3Theme=mobile

I thought that it is the variety “Mellow” in the US but i wasnt 100% sure.

Thx!

And yes, the Valdivias Yellow Quince looks fantastic.

Sadly its not available here in eruope.

I might try get more Quince trees later (Like Ayva and Isfahan, Sweet Quinces)

Although quince juice is the first ingredient listed on the Trappist jelly jar, sugar AND corn syrup are also listed. Commercial preparations of tart fruits tend to be highly sweet for broad appeal. Not a good flavor test for quince in general.

Edit 3Jan: Fruit juice used to make jelly is often not pure when water is used as part of the juice extraction process, diluting the flavor.

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I really like quince but don’t really care for quince jelly. When I first got a bunch of fruit to try from Larry, I made a batch of quince jelly. With the solids I made quince butter. I much preferred the quince butter. The jelly is pretty though.

I’m not much of a jelly guy to begin with though, there’s just more substance in jams and such.

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Same!

Dont like the consistency of Jelly … most of the times it just flips away from the knife or the spoon when i want too spread it, oops!

Anway, quince butter / jam is really good though i also like to eat the quinces raw.

My quince “Myagkoplodnaya” has broken out of dormancy.

Really strange … it was the only plant that did that. (Unheated room, not much light)

15cm of new growth within 2 weeks.

Now i have moved it to a spot with more light so that i can grow even more.

It deserves the description “strong grower” ^^

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I’m not too surprised… My outdoor ones in Philly have surprisingly have started to push bud last week (some varieties a bit more green than others, but all of them have at least a little green showing). Usually they are much later than my peaches/plums (well at least the blooms are much later so at least the “extreme warm and back to cold weather” shouldn’t affect them flower/fruit-wise). Asian Plums are about to bloom (Outdoor Peaches kinda about to push bloom/buds… Euro plums seem a bit more dormant). Most dormant things for me are the quinces, persimmon and asian pears and maybe medlar.
I need to keep my shed door open, so my potted figs don’t start waking up if it gets too warm there hehe.

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I have found a german nursery which has “rare” Quince varieties for sale. (Rare for europeans … the ones with * are rare and the ones with ** are super rare)

http://www.bs13.baumschule-walsetal.de/obstgehoelze/15-mispel-und-quitten

Here are the uncommon ones:

Cd. Obloga AR232 Usb
Ekmek
Gamboa
Kaunching
Krymskaya
Limon
Maslenka Rannaya
Pineapple
Trentholm
Valdivia Yellow
Van Deman

and many more …

I ordered a container grown, 2 year old Kaunching Quince … i read that this one is good!

Might order more Quince trees from them in the future.

Pineapple is perhaps the most common one in the US — It’s a Luther Burbank creation.

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Yeah, but not in europe.

Thats what makes this nursery interesting.

They have some really nice varieties that i dont see elsewhere here.

I think this is a trick that is used since ingredients are listed by weight. If you have a fruit as first ingredient and then one sugar after it, you know most of that jelly is fruit. But if you see fruit listed as first ingredient and two types of sugar, there is most likely way more sugar than fruit.

Example:
Blueberries, Sugar, Pectin could be 55% fruit & 45% sugar
Blueberries, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Pectin could be 35% fruit & 30% sugar & 30% corn syrup.

Blueberries are still the most in each jelly but there is much more fruit in the first kind. I never buy a jam/jelly that has two types of sugar listed.

These are the best fruit spreads I’ve ever been able to find at grocery. They cost more but are mostly fruit!
http://www.mountainfruit.com/index.php#flavors

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Here are also some very interesting varieties available in europe.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fshop.baumschuleritthaler.de%2Fbesonderes-Obst%2FQuitten%2FL1dJTkFSQk9SX0xJU1Q_RklMVEVSPTgyMzYyJk1BWFJFQz0xMDAmU09SVD0xJlBBR0U9MSZNSUQ9ODIzNjI.html%3FUID%3D10CF1C56195D445F47C7ACB88EC749641543AB05B96A0B

I would like to have the Ingenheimer Giant Quince in the future.

But for now i cant buy more and iam happy with those 3 that i got.

My Quince (Myagkoplodnaya - Mellow) grew alot during those 2 weeks.

I hope that it will grow like this when its been planted. :slight_smile:

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Myagkoplodnaya translates as soft-fruited.

We grow several varieties of quince on out small farm. Most are now 5 years old so are producing enough to see their characteristics. Here are some notes:
Aromatanaya is our earliest one and very productive, but is very prone to fireblight. We had to remove several two years ago after a bad fireblight year.
Mellow is very pale in color and not very productive. I haven’t tasted that kind because it looks somewhat unappealing. It is a weaker grower than the others.
Smyrna has not been that productive either and is not that good for fresh eating. It is on our worst soil though, so I am not sure it has a fair chance.
Crimea is our favorite. Strong grower, consistent shape, tasty, productive. It is on the late maturing side.

We have Limon but is just one plant, very large but has not fruited yet. We also have Kaunching but they are only 2 years and have not fruited yet.

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