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  • From: maxwelldm@eastlink.ca
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [nafex] Quince fruiting
  • Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2017 11:41:40 -0400

I have lost track of how this works, so forgive me if things go astray. I
know nothing about
the biology of quince trees. But I planted a 2 year-old Quince of Portugal
in my orchard in
Nova Scotia, (zone 5b), 6 years ago. It grew a good 3 ft. that first year,
No fruit in year 2,
(3'rd leaf). Next year, (4'th leaf) produced 12 one pound fruits. Following
year 24 lb. of fruit,
next year 36 lb, and this past year 42 lb.. No diseases of any sort, no
insect attack of any
sort. Just grows and fruits in abundance.

An interesting sidelight on this is that it was apparently usual for
farmsteads (at least locally)
to have one or two quince trees planted near the house, to supply the pectin
for fall canning
activities. I am aware of a couple of old farms locally where the old quince
trees, (no longer
named) continue to grow adjacent to the 100 year-old farmhouse, so it is
obviously not
unusual. I do not believe we have CAR in this area. (We do have heavy scab
pressure,
being right on the water. But the quince seems completely immune to apple
scab.)

Now, to the question of what flower buds look like. I have no "book
knowledge", but have
gone out to look at my tree. It is very apparent that there are no clear
flower buds, in the
manner of apples. (On an apple tree, it is obvious what is a vergatative
bud, and what will be
a flower this spring). I do not know whether there is some means of
including pictures in this
listserv, but if it is felt to be useful, if somebody wants to give me
guidance, I can post a
picture. But, basically, my interpretation, (and again, I emphasize that I
know nothing, and
can only go on my own observations and interpretation), is that the Google
entry is actually
pretty accurate. I have looked at a spur where a fruit developed last year -
a short (2") stub,
with the scar where the fruit dehisced, at the end. This stub has a dormant
bud towards the
base,, followed by 3 short "sprouts" towards the distal end, each with 3 or 4
buds, with 2 of
these buds being closely grouped at the tips. There is nothing which looks
clearly like a
flower vs, fruit bud - all the buds are small and fairly tightly applied to
the stem. But I am
reasonable sure that what happens in the spring is that one of the two buds
at the terninal
end of each of these twigs grows for a couple of inches, then produces a
flower bud, which
then blooms, terminating the growth on that particular twig. The other
adjacent bud may or
may not also grow out, and if it does do so, it does not terminate in a
blossom, but makes a
new branch. So, my observation would suggest that there really are no flower
buds visible on
the the previous year's growth, and that the flowers are produced in the
spring from new
wood which has grown in the very early part of the seqason, (ie. on the
current year's
growth).



  • [nafex] Quince fruiting, maxwelldm, 01/17/2017

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