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["Kieran and/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

There are 3 Cydonia quince in a friend's backyard here in Cookeville TN that crop ok with no care.  Much to my surprise they cropped heavier the year after I'd taken a bunch of cuttings to stick in the ground for rootstocks.  That winter I read that quinces crop on new wood so you have to keep them growing.  Though they get some fireblight they don't die of it or seem very badly damaged.  I think if you manage them with plenty of P and K but only a minimum of N, (ie, plenty of organic matter) they ought to do ok for you.  I note that Meech's Prolific is in Corvallis from Hidden Springs with the comment that it's more disease resistant than most.  Hidden Springs has it and some others in the field that don't crop, I don't know if it's the thread blight I saw on them or some other factor.  I don't know how long they have had Thread blight either, but I have got it too and it's a nuisance that I don't know how to fight.  There seems to be very little known about it.  Hidden Springs has dropped quinces from their catalog they tell me, but you could get cuttings from Corvallis.  Quinces are said to like clay soils and plenty of moisture, if your soil is dry and excessively well drained they won't grow as well.  They are said to be one of the few fruits you can grow in waterlogged soils.    Donna