Pseudocydonia Species, Chinese Quince

My Chinese Quince has yet to fruit, even after 4 years in the ground and reaching a height of about 8 to 10 feet. Each year it has produ...Read Moreced increasing numbers of flowers but no fruit. This past spring, there were abundant blossoms but again no fruit. I am wondering if the very frequent rainstorms this spring, as well as a few late though light frosts prevented pollination and fruiting. My other quince, the variety “Portuguese” was planted at the same time and has produced heavy crops every year. I am in San Rafael, CA, where we have mostly warm summers and some fog influence.

An interesting relative of quince from China. Actually more closely related to the flowering quinces in genus Chaenomeles. The small to...Read More medium-sized trees sport peeling, fluted bark which is orange and grey in the Spring and fades to white and grey by Winter. Probably the most attractive bark on any temperate fruiting tree. Pink flowers in Spring become absolutely massive fruits which ripen right around first frost. The largest fruit I measured was 7 inches long and 5 inches wide - like a small papaya, but grown in Connecticut! Fruits can be used similarly to true quince, but are larger, harder, and a bit harsher/less floral. They are eaten in their native range. The plant is easy to distinguish from true quince by the bark and serrated leaves. A popular flowering/fruiting bonsai. The biggest issue with this species is disease. Very prone to fireblight in the warm, moist US south, and can be damaged by cold weather in the Northeast. Best sited in a protected location in cold climates. A rare tree that's worth growing!

A full grown Chinese Quince tree has been at my mom's house here in Virginia since before we moved in, over ten years ago.

...Read More It produces boatloads of fruit, and has beautiful bark and foliage. The tree gets no attention or watering whatsoever and does great every year.

Last year I made some really great jelly. This season I've collected over 25 fruit (weighing almost a pound each) and have already made a really great cobbler. Sometime this week I'll be making some more jelly, and I also plan on more cobbler and trying to make bread as well.

The fruit is extremely sour no matter how you cook it, and very hard to work with, but I love them. After a few good frosts they soften a tiny bit and loose some of their astringent quality making them somewhat palatable raw.

I disagree that these trees need consistent watering -- there is a row at Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm in Sebastopol CA that survived...Read More (at minimum) from the time of Burbank's death in 1926 until the present day (2004) that have had NO IRRIGATION in all that time!

Note re bark: Bark is lovely, mottled, in shades of greyish brown reminscent of shapes found in giraffes' markings.

Note re fruit: The jelly prepared from these fruits is vastly superior in taste to the "European" or "Van Daamen" type quince and of a gorgeous ruby red color!