Gadenin日本語Get the appWinter, while the tree is bare
This is when the structure work happens. Once the hardest frosts are past and before the buds swell, go over the tree and remove what is dead, damaged, diseased or duplicated, cutting whole branches back to their origin. Do not shorten the shoot tips: quince flowers at the ends of last year's growth, and tipping the shoots removes the crop.
Clear the ground at the same time. Rake off any remaining leaf litter, pick off any mummified fruit still hanging in the branches and take both away from the tree. Leaf blight and brown rot both overwinter there, and this is the cheapest disease control available.
Finish by checking the physical things. Push the trunk and watch for a gap opening at the base, which means the shallow root plate is rocking. Check that ties are not cutting in, and spread two to three inches (5-8 cm) of mulch out to the branch tips, leaving a clear collar around the trunk.
Spring, from bud break to fruit set
Quince leafs out and flowers later than apple and pear, which is why its blossom usually escapes the frosts that catch them. The flowers are large, single and pale pink, opening at the tips of the new shoots. Note the date the first one opens; over a few years that single figure becomes the most useful line in your records for predicting your own picking date.
Do not spray anything while the tree is in flower. If your soil is thin or sandy, this is the one point in the year to give a light dressing of balanced fertilizer over the root area and water it in. On decent soil with an annual mulch, feed nothing.
Watch the shoot tips through warm wet spells. A tip that wilts and blackens into a hooked shape is fireblight and must come out at once, eighteen inches (45 cm) below the damage, with the blade disinfected between cuts. Waiting until winter lets it reach the trunk.
| Season | Main job | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Winter | Prune structurally; rake litter; mulch | Rocking trunk, mummified fruit, dead wood |
| Early spring | Feed only on thin soil | Buds swelling; ties cutting in |
| Flowering | Record the date; do not spray | Blackened hooked shoot tips |
| Early summer | Let the natural drop happen, then thin | First leaf spots; aphids on soft tips |
| Midsummer | Deep soak weekly, 1 in (25 mm) | Early leaf fall; curled leaf edges |
| Autumn | Pick as fruit turns gold | Bruising during picking; wet fruit into store |
| Late autumn | Rake every leaf and remove it | Rotten fruit on the ground |
Summer, the season that makes the crop
Early summer brings the natural fruit drop, when the tree sheds what it cannot carry. It looks like a disaster and is not. Once it has finished, thin by hand to one fruit per cluster with a hand's width between fruits, twisting each unwanted fruit off rather than pulling. Fewer fruit means larger fruit and less weight tearing at brittle wood in an autumn gale.
From then until the fruit stops swelling, water is the whole job. An established tree wants one inch (25 mm) a week from rain or hose, given as a single slow soak of ten to fifteen gallons (40-55 L) over the whole root spread. Frequent light watering is worse than none. Leaves curling upward at the edges and fruit that has stalled at half size are the signs you are behind.
Midsummer is also when leaf blight shows itself in a wet year, as dark red-brown spots that multiply until the leaves yellow and drop. Collect what falls rather than leaving it under the tree. Stop feeding entirely by midsummer; late nitrogen makes soft growth that neither hardens before winter nor sets fruit buds.
Autumn, picking and putting the year away
Quince comes off last of all the tree fruit, well after the apples are in. Wait until the skin has turned from green through yellow to an even deep gold, the gray down has rubbed away to a smooth waxy skin, and the scent carries several feet from the tree. The fruit stays hard when ripe; do not wait for softness.
Pick on a dry day, one fruit at a time, cupping and twisting upward so the stalk stays on. Lay each one down in a single cloth-lined layer and never tip fruit from one container to another. Quince bruises easily and every bruise browns and rots in store. Anything marked, split or stalkless goes straight to the kitchen instead.
Store in a cool, dark, airy place at 34 to 45F (1-7C), in a single layer, not touching, checked every couple of weeks. Store it alone: the perfume moves into apples, pears, butter, cheese and eggs kept in the same room and ruins them. Then rake up every leaf, remove any mummified fruit, and the year has closed on itself.
- Test before you pick Cut one fruit open. Dark brown seeds mean ripe; white or pale seeds mean it needs longer on the tree. This costs you a single fruit and settles the question.
- Pick over several visits The crop does not color evenly. Take the gold ones and leave the rest, coming back every week or so over about three weeks.
- Process the damaged fruit first Bruised or marked fruit will not keep. Cook it within a few days; the cores and pips are full of pectin, so keep them in the pan and lift them out before potting.
- Weigh and record the crop Note the picking dates and the total weight per tree, alongside the flowering date you wrote in spring. Many quinces crop heavily in alternate years, and only your own records will show whether yours does.
- Clear the ground before winter Rake and remove all fallen leaves, pick off hanging mummies and take everything away. This is the last job of the year and the first line of defense for the next one.
One page a year per tree is enough: flowering date, date of the natural drop, number of fruit after thinning, first leaf spots, picking dates and total weight. Within three years you will know your own tree's rhythm better than any general calendar can tell you.