common quince

Photo: Pancrace Bessa — Public domain · source

Survives zone 5 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ MUST BE COOKED — hard and sour raw; superb as jelly/membrillo.

Hardiness

Zone 5–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Oct

Mature size

Small tree 4–6 m

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Transcaucasia and northern Iran — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, southern Russia, Turkmenistan and northern Turkey, on rocky slopes and wood margins. In cultivation for some four thousand years and naturalised far beyond that range.

Status

Cultivated

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

Slow to moderate

Spacing

450 cm (177 in) apart — about 20 m² (218 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, oval to broadly ovate 6–10 cm, and untoothed — an entire margin is the quickest way to tell quince from apple and pear, both of which are toothed. Dull green above, thickly white-woolly beneath.

Root system

Shallow and plate-like, most of it in the top 40–50 cm. That is why quince is unusually sensitive to dry soil and needs steady watering, and equally why quince used as a pear rootstock produces a small tree that must be staked for life.

Fruit description

A large pome 7–12 cm, pear- or apple-shaped depending on cultivar, downy when young and clear golden-yellow when ripe, with a perfume strong enough to scent a room. Raw it is hard, dry, gritty and mouth-puckering; cooking turns the flesh soft, deep pink to ruby, and richly aromatic — the basis of membrillo, quince jelly and the Portuguese marmelada that gave marmalade its name.

Propagation

Hardwood cuttings root readily, which is unusual among the pome fruits and is exactly why quince is used as a clonal rootstock for pears. Named cultivars are also budded or grafted. Seed germinates after cold stratification but does not come true.

Pollination

SELF-FERTILE

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.