To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Quince Varieties
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:08:32 -0600
I am extremely puzzled about quinces. I picked fruit off a tree in Tifton
GA that had belonged to Major Collins. The tree looked perfectly healthy to
me, I was sure no expert back then 20 years ago, but I think I'd have
noticed if it had died back from blight and then recovered. And here in
Cookeville TN I am well acquainted with 3 probably identical 15 years old
quince bushes that came as sprouts from NY and may be only rootstocks, but
they crop some, and they get a little blight and survive it fine without
anyone spraying or pruning the blight off. Down in the deep crevasse of
Hidden Springs in very humid conditions with very poor air circulation,
Hector's smallish but middle aged trees of Cook's Jumbo and 2-4 other
varieties are all at least alive. Annie, his daughter, said that they have
their problems, but fire blight doesn't seem to be all that important. The
trees are not cared for, are not pruned to stimulate new growth as they
should be, and at least one of them has thread blight, which would cut
production in any fruit tree due to premature leaf loss year after year.
Yet they are far from dead. I have seen Asian pears there a few rows away
that were being eaten alive by FB.
Is this a matter of varieties? Did Hector have others that died of
blight? Are they protected from it by simply growing slowly, ie nitrogen
deprived? (Pretty lush soil down there actually, not acid soil as quinces
are said to prefer.) Do we not happen to have the race of FB that most
damages quince? I'd certainly like to hear more from others who have tried
quinces in the FB riddled east. Donna