These quinces were picked more than a month ago and stored, but they have not kept at all well. The whole fruit when cut open shows brown markings and many of the fruits also developed the typical areas of brown rot on the outside. I don’t think it was a question of leaving the fruit too long before picking them, as this discolouration on the exterior and interior was occurring by early October. We had a very heavy crop this year, with many very large fruit (often weighing around 14 ozs) but many also looked lumpy and distorted rather than having a classic quince shape. The tree itself seems healthy, and a photo of the leaves (taken yesterday and posted below) shows that they look healthy too and do not seem to be suffering from quince leaf blight. This tree grows about 20 ft away from several apple trees of various types that have also cropped very heavily this year. They have been largely bug free but have suffered a bit from brown rot.
Does anyone knew what might be causing this problem and if there is anything we can do by way of treatment? In any event, I intend to rake up and burn the leaves that fall and any fruit that remain on the ground.
Janet Wolfinden
I have had the same problem with Quince Vranja. Quince Meeches Prolific have been OK so far.
Foliage looks healthy. The cut fruits just look as though they have been kept too long and have deteriorated. Could they have been picked too late for this year’s unusual conditions – October was very warm. The season started late but by September was deceptively early.
I know many people were caught out with picking times for pears, Williams’ is always a problem and this variety was a disaster for many. It required much earlier picking this year. Commercial growers usually pick Conference mid-September for storage and were advised to harvest early.
Same comment applies to apples and I think it will be a bad storage year for private gardeners. I suggest many varieties were picked too late and have matured early in warm garden sheds. Air temperatures are still high.
I had the same problem. I put it down to the unusual weather conditions in October with both Vranja and Sobu. Oddly the last batch of Vranja I picked kept much better than the first ones, which matured a couple of weeks after the heatwave which confirms my suspicions that the high temperatures may have been to blame.
Looks like bitter pit in apples and pears caused by calcium deficiency. It results in a brown corky break-down of the flesh and reduces storage life. Next year try calcium chloride spray as well as summer (not dormant) pruning and liming soil if pH is low. I have grown apples and other fruit in southern Australia and now live in rural Tasmania where I unsuccessfully compete with the wildlife (brush tail possums and wallabies) for any produce from my garden. Aside from their depredations, we have a wonderful climate for horticulture here – cold enough for apples, blueberries and gooseberries and warm enough for lemons, loquats and grapes and without some of the pests and diseases from the old world, but obviously with some of our own.