Tree · Rosaceae
Quince
Cydonia oblonga
Patient and a little tart on the branch, quince pays back your care with fragrant golden fruit that shines in the kitchen.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 5–8
10–15 ft · 3–4.6 m
Overview
If you have never grown a fruit tree, quince is a kind place to start. It is an old-world tree that fed households long before apples and pears filled the orchard, and it stays comfortably small, rarely climbing past 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 m). Come late spring it wraps itself in soft pink blossoms, and by autumn it holds golden pomes whose scent can fill a whole room.
Think of quince as a tree for the cook in the family. Straight off the branch the fruit is hard and sharply tart, but a little time on the stove turns it tender, sweet, and a lovely deep rose. Its high pectin means it sets jelly and the Spanish paste called membrillo with ease, and it sits happily in the rose family, Rosaceae, next to apples, pears, and plums.
Growing one does ask for patience, and that is nothing to worry about. Quince settles in slowly and carries a single real weakness, a strong tendency toward fire blight, but both are manageable. Give it full sun, soil that drains, and air moving through the branches, prune with a gentle hand, and one tree can keep your kitchen in jelly for many years.
Care
The short version: give quince a sunny, well-drained spot, water it deeply while it roots in and while the fruit swells, prune for an open shape in late winter, and keep a friendly eye out for fire blight once the blossoms open.
Light
Quince gives its best fruit in full sun, where a long, bright day builds sugar and ripens the crop. It will put up with a little partial shade if that is what you have, though you will get fewer fruit and softer flavor in return.
Water
While your young tree is finding its feet, and again as the fruit plumps up, water it deeply about every 7 to 14 days, leaning on the weather to guide you. Let the top half of the soil dry out before the next drink. Once it is settled it can ride out a short dry spell without fuss, but steady moisture is what gives you the finest fruit.
Soil
Quince is easygoing about soil and asks mainly for good drainage. A fertile, well-drained loam on the slightly acidic side, around a pH of 6.0 to 7.0, suits it beautifully, and it will grow in many soil types as long as its roots never sit in water.
Temperature
This is a hardy tree with a wide comfort range, shrugging off winter lows near -20°F (-29°C) and summer highs up to 95°F (35°C). A proper temperate winter chill is actually part of what helps it bloom and fruit well, so the cold is a friend here.
Humidity
Ordinary outdoor humidity, somewhere in the 40% to 70% range, is all quince asks for. What counts far more is air drifting through the branches, since still, damp air is what tempts the fungal troubles this tree can be prone to.
Feeding
A balanced fertilizer or a gentle layer of compost in early spring covers everything quince needs for the year. Keep the nitrogen modest, because a rush of soft new growth is exactly the tender feast that fire blight loves.
Pruning
Prune in late winter while the tree is dormant, opening it into a vase-like shape so light and air can reach every branch. Take out suckers, crossing limbs, and dead wood, and if you spot fire-blight damage, cut well below the canker and wipe your blades clean between cuts. It is gentler work than it sounds.
Repotting
Quince belongs in open ground and rarely needs repotting. Choose a lasting spot with room to stretch, plant it once, and it will happily stay put for the long haul.
Size & spacing
A grown quince reaches about 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 m) tall and spreads 9 to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 m) across. Give it that whole footprint of open space from the start so light and air can move freely around every branch.
When to plant
Quince is tough in the cold, happy across zones 5 to 8, and it prefers to go in the ground while it is resting. Plant a bare-root or potted tree in early spring, or in fall if your winters stay gentle. Blossoms arrive in late spring, and the fruit colors up through autumn, ready to gather around October before the first hard frost.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Plant bare-root or container trees in early spring while dormant, or in fall in mild-winter regions.
- Harvest: Blooms late spring (April to May); fragrant golden pome fruit ripens in fall (about October) and is harvested before the first hard frost.
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 5–8
Temperature: down to -29°C
Troubleshooting
Almost every trouble quince runs into comes from a fungus or bacteria, and the good news is that fresh air, tidy cleanup, and well-timed pruning head off most of them. Fire blight is the one that can take a tree, so get to know it first. Find your symptom below, then step in early while the problem is still small.
Blossoms and shoot tips blacken and hook over
Quince is one of the most fire blight-prone trees you can plant, so this is the disease to know first, and it is still something you can manage. The bacteria slip into open flowers and soft new shoots during warm, wet spring days, and the tips blacken and bend into a shepherd's crook. Cut well below the trouble, about 20 to 30 cm under any visible canker, sterilize your tools between cuts, and ease off nitrogen so the tree stops offering up the tender growth the bacteria feed on.
Fix:
- Prune out blackened, shepherd's-crook shoots 20 to 30 cm below visible cankers, disinfect tools, avoid excess nitrogen, and consider bloom-time bactericide sprays.
Crusty, distorted patches spread across the young fruit
Quince rust is a fungus with an unusual habit, needing both quince and a nearby juniper or cedar to finish its life cycle. Its spores drift in while the tree is flowering and leave the fruit misshapen. Take out alternate juniper hosts within reach where you can, and shield the tree with a fungicide through bloom, and you will keep it in check.
Fix:
- Remove nearby alternate juniper hosts where practical and apply protective fungicides during bloom.
Dark speckles on the leaves, then early leaf fall
Leaf blight is a fungal problem that wakes up in wet spells, dotting the leaves with dark spots and dropping them before autumn arrives. Gather and destroy the fallen leaves so the spores cannot overwinter around the base, thin the canopy so air moves better, and only reach for a fungicide if the tree is losing leaves badly.
Fix:
- Rake and destroy fallen leaves, improve air circulation, and apply fungicides if defoliation is severe.
A soft white dust settles over the leaves
Powdery mildew turns up as a pale, dusty film when the air is humid and hardly stirring, and happily it seldom causes any real harm. Open the canopy with a little pruning so air can pass through, and treat with a fungicide only if it starts covering much of the tree.
Fix:
- Prune for airflow and treat with fungicide if widespread.
Toxicity
The cooked flesh of quince is safe and lovely, and that soft, sweet part is what becomes jelly and membrillo. The one thing to mind sits inside the seeds, which hold cyanogenic compounds just like the pips of apples, cherries, and other rose-family fruit. Swallowed whole they usually pass through with no harm, but chewed in quantity they can release cyanide, so keep the cores away from pets and grazing animals and leave the pips out of the pot.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Safe for
People
Cats Mild
The flesh is no real worry, and a cat that nibbles a windfall will be perfectly fine. The care point is the seeds, since chewed pips can let out cyanide and bring on drooling, brick-red gums, and labored breathing if a cat swallows a fair number.
Dogs Mild
A dog would need to crunch through a good many seeds before running into trouble, since whole pips usually pass straight through. Watch for drooling, widened pupils, or heavier breathing after a dog chews into the cores, and keep fallen fruit gathered up.
Horses Mild
The thing to watch is windfall quince left in a pasture, because horses can swallow whole fruit and grind the seeds as they chew. Large amounts of crushed seed can bring weakness, quick breathing, and red gums, so clear dropped fruit from grazing ground.
Rabbits Mild
Keep cores and seeds out of a rabbit's reach, since the cyanogenic pips have no place in its diet. A small taste of the flesh, cooked or raw, will do no harm, but the seeds carry the risk.
Livestock Mild
Goats, sheep, and cattle can work through fallen fruit and the seeds tucked inside, and the seeds are where the cyanide hides. Pick up windfalls near grazing areas so the animals cannot gorge on a pile of seed.
Birds Mild
Backyard hens and other birds can peck the soft flesh with no trouble at all. It is the seeds to keep back, so avoid tossing cores or split fruit into the run.
People Cooked fruit safe
Cooked quince is a real kitchen treat, turning sweet and pink in jelly and membrillo with nothing to worry about. Just leave the seeds out, and teach children to spit out the hard pips rather than chew them.
Keep seeds and cores away from pets and children; the hard astringent flesh is eaten cooked, and jelly or membrillo made from the flesh is safe.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Only a small handful of quince varieties turn up in backyard orchards, and most earn their place by how beautifully they cook rather than how they taste fresh. Here are the names worth getting to know.
Pineapple
A well-loved California variety with tender flesh and a whisper of pineapple in its flavor, which is what makes it such a friendly choice for cooking.
Smyrna
Bears big, richly fragrant fruit that softens into something wonderful once it hits the pot.
Orange
Also sold as Apple quince, this dependable old favorite carries round orange-yellow fruit that home cooks have turned into jelly for generations.
Champion
Comes in late with large, pear-shaped fruit and a gentler, more delicate flavor than most.
How to propagate
Because quince seedlings will not grow true to their parent, gardeners multiply it by vegetative means instead. Each method below gives you a faithful copy of the tree you already like.
GraftingModerate
Named quince varieties are budded or grafted onto a rootstock rather than raised from seed, which keeps their qualities true. Quince returns the favor in the orchard too, often serving as a favorite dwarfing rootstock for pears.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Take hardwood cuttings from the resting tree in winter, and with a little patience they root and grow into faithful copies of the parent.
LayeringModerate
Pin a low branch down so it roots while still joined to the tree, or stool the plant to coax up several new shoots at once. This gentle, old approach is how nurseries have long built up their quince rootstock.
Myths
Quince and flowering quince are one and the same.
They share a name and little more. True quince is the small Cydonia oblonga tree grown for its large, fragrant golden fruit, while flowering quince is a different ornamental shrub, Chaenomeles, planted for showy spring color and small hard fruit. One earns its keep in the kitchen, the other in the flower border.
You can bite into quince raw, straight off the tree, like an apple.
Try most quince raw and you will meet hard, sour flesh that puckers the mouth. Cooking is the magic step, coaxing out the sweetness and a deep pink blush, and its high pectin is the very reason jelly and membrillo set so nicely.