Planting and caring for quince is not particularly difficult. Having chosen your favorite varieties, over time you will be able to propagate the quince yourself and breed it on your site. You can make a lot of tasty things from quince: jam, compote, jam, marmalade. Having stuffed duck or chicken with chopped fruits, the dish is baked in the oven, it turns out very tasty. In addition, quince is very useful, even in ancient times the fruits were used to treat cough, anemia, diabetes, chronic gastritis.
In addition to its taste and medicinal properties, the culture also has decorative properties. During flowering, it is simply impossible to take your eyes off the blossoming buds! High-yielding mature trees. One can collect up to 100 kg of fruit, which is perfectly stored until the end of February. These are just a few properties and qualities of quince, for which you can fall in love with it and plant it on your site.
Quince varieties
There are about 400 of them, they are all classified into five groups, these are quince:
- apple-shaped, so named for the fact that its fruits resemble apples;
- pear-shaped, as the name implies, the fruits are pear-shaped;
- Portuguese has a pear-shaped ribbed fruit;
- pyramidal is so named because it has a crown of this shape;
- marble - decorative, the surface of its leaves is decorated with white and yellow spots.
Quince is self-fertile, so you need to plant more than two trees of different varieties. This could be:
- "Late Butter". This variety has good winter hardiness and rich yields. Fruits are apple-shaped, small. They are not eaten fresh, as they have a sour taste and tart, but the fruits are excellent when processed. Rootstocks are grown from quince seeds of this variety to obtain winter-hardy varieties with large fruits.
- "Anzherskaya from Gorin". This is a fast growing variety from which you can get a stable harvest. Fruits can be stored for up to two months and are good for processing.
- "Muscat" grown in Moldova, Ukraine, in the North Caucasus. The variety is winter-hardy and drought-resistant, has a high resistance to diseases. The tree of "Nutmeg" quince can be planted even on dense soils, here it will also grow well.
- "Skorospelka" Will appeal to those who want to get early harvests. But the fruits fall off the tree rather quickly, so they need to be picked on time.
- "Moscow Susova" - a winter-hardy variety, it is resistant to many diseases and pests, grows well in almost any soil.
Planting quince
Agrotechnology of growing quince is similar to the cultivation of pears and apples, but the former is less demanding on the soil. If there is enough sun and warmth, it grows on almost any, even turf. You need to plant quince on October 10-15, or in the spring - in mid-April.
A planting pit 1 meter wide and 60 cm deep is made two weeks before. The upper fertile layer must be set aside to one side, it is mixed with three buckets of humus, a glass of complex mineral fertilizer is added. This nutrient mixture is divided into 2 parts - the first is poured into the bottom of the pit and laid out in the form of a pea. From above, spreading the roots, plant a tree. If it is 1-2 years old, it will take root well. From above, the roots are covered with the second part of the nutrient earthy mixture. If the planting of the quince took place within the specified time frame, you need to immediately prune. To do this, the shoots are shortened by half or by a third. Slices must be covered with garden varnish or other means on natural drying oil. If planting is done later than October 15th, then pruning should be postponed until spring. When choosing a place, you need to take into account that this thermophilic plant will feel good where there is enough sunlight. Better to sink it on the south side of the site. Since the root system of quince is superficial, the culture grows well on soils with a fairly high level of groundwater.
Pruning quince
It is important to form a tree correctly in the first years of its life. To do this, the main branches are shortened by a third, while dry, weak, and also some strong ones are removed so that they do not compete with the main ones.
Annual pruning is done in early spring, but if by the end of summer the tree has given a large annual growth, then in August the ends of these branches are pinched, but this must be done before frost, otherwise in winter the branches may die due to the fact that they do not have time to grow ligneous.
Quince care
This plant loves moisture, therefore 6 waterings are made from spring to autumn, and more in dry summers.
- The first watering is done in the spring before flowering.
- The second is after him.
- 3rd - after a part of the ovaries has fallen off.
- 4th - when the shoots start to grow.
- Fifth - 3 weeks after the fourth.
- 6th - during the period of fruit growth.
Watering should be abundant, otherwise they will not bring the desired results, since moisture will not be able to wet the bulk of the roots.
The first feeding after winter is given in early spring. During this period, the plant needs mineral and organic fertilizers. In the summer, top dressing is done with a complete mineral fertilizer, which contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. In the fall, mineral and organic fertilizers are applied in such an amount that the plant has enough nutrients until spring.
Some varieties of quince begin to bear fruit in September, this process continues until November. In order for it to mature, they are left on the tree for as long as possible, with the exception of those varieties that are prone to shedding. So that the branches do not break due to abundant harvests, supports must be placed under them in advance.
If you want to keep the fruits as long as possible, sprinkle with flour, put them in a box, then put them in a cool room.
How to propagate quince?
This is done vegetatively - by layering, grafting, cuttings; seeds. They must be sown in the spring after preliminary stratification carried out for 60 days or in the fall. But most often quince is propagated by grafting, grafting hawthorn or quince of another variety on seedlings. This procedure is carried out from early June to mid-July. In the fall, they need to be cut with pruning shears, and planted in the spring in a greenhouse for rooting.
To propagate quince by layering, take shoots 1- or 2-year-old. They are separated from the mother bush and planted in a permanent place. They are formed in this way: On the first tier, 3-4 of the strongest skeletal branches are left, in the second - 2.
For more information on how to plant quince, see this video:
