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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Jerry, 

    I will be using quince from a local Cydonia that doesn't seem to have a problem with fireblight.  And if Hidden Springs isn't losing quinces to FB either, I think I'll do ok.  The one difference I suspect between you and me in this is that most of what I'll be putting on quince will be FBR enough that infection won't go down into the the rootstock from above.  I'll bet you had some good quality but susceptible varieties.  You'd be able to get away with more of them up where you are.  I'm going to try Duchess on it too, will probably use an interstem to keep from losing the rootstock when the Duchess succumbs.  I have read that it and Anjou were widely grown in Tenn till the blight got so bad.  I'll bet you another difference is that you probably have MUCH better soil than I do, and that would make pears more susc to blight.     

    I'm not wanting to get rid of ALL the cedars, I think I can just graft some to CAR/CQR res varieties.  They give us some nice green scenery in winter. What's my other choice for volunteer evergreens in winter?  Fast growing  pine trees that can do a lot of damage when it's time to remove them from the landscape.  At least the cedars are pretty well behaved, apart from the diseases they carry.  Besides, it will be great fun to see what else I can do with a grafting knife.  (I've wanted one of those dwarf "Little Gem" magnolias for a long time.) The big problem is the BIG cedars.  Even if we took those out, I can only do that up to the property line, and would have to leave the rest.  I thought I'd dealt with the cedar problem by planting only CAR res apples, had no idea that CQR was even more insidious.  It got quite a few of the Chestnut Crab fruit this year, didn't touch any other apples.  And I guess there's not much hope of quince fruit if I don't either get the rust under control or spray.  Hey, can I spray copper or sulfur to prevent rust on the fruit crop?  Those two don't bother me, just the chemicals.  Donna