North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

Michele wrote:
Has anyone found a fireblight tolerant/resistant good quality quince?

I'd love to grow one if I thought it would stand a chance against
fireblight.

Scott wrote:
I have fought fireblight on my quince for 8 years and have had enough, they
> are getting chopped down once the harvest is in this year.  This is with
> agrimycin etc sprays.  I had three varieties and all were bad (one already
> died from the infection).  They also were the primary source of later season
> fireblight on my apples.
>
> So, Pinapple, Smyrna, and Aromatnaya were no good and more generally if you
> have blight problems already I would stay away from quince: they can greatly
> worsen the situation since they will be a reservoir of the disease.
>
Scott and Michele,
Another topic worth searching archives for, both this list and Pomona.
 In short, quince can be grown under fireblight pressure, with some
caveats:

We picked our first quince on Saturday, from an orchard (mostly apple
and pear) unmanaged for fireblight the last few years.  We are losing
limbs to a few apple and pear trees, due to blight.  The quince we
have are untouched, not a trace.  Note the quince we are growing is
the round ornamental one, genus Chaenomeles.  The pear shaped, larger
fruited ones are Cydonia.
We used Chaenomeles quince in many ways as Cydonia are used, though
not all for they are quite a bit more sour.  Hidden Spring Nursery,
NAFEX members, offer some selections that do well against blight, so
check with them.  We particularly like their Toyo Nishiki, a Japanese
Chaenomeles with multiple color flowers and a very heavy yielder.  Our
bush probably has over a bushel of fruit this year.

And don't give up on Cydonia completely, there is fireblight tolerant
material around, though not much.  I have seen old trees in GA and in
PA that are not sprayed and that crop regularly.  But also a younger
one here in NE TN that died to the ground after a few years.  The NCGR
quince collection, in Corvallis, OR, is managed by Joseph Postman,
another NAFEXer.  He may know of blight resistant Cydonia quince, but
as a of a few years ago, he was unaware of that information.  But
contact him to encourage him to be on the lookout for such material.

Richard Moyer
SW VA
Selling Chaenomeles quince at market tomorrow