echinosum wrote:
Merlin Wrote:
I have two very productive quince trees, however a large proportion of
the fruit is affected by a "problem". The skin has largish numbers of
tiny black / grey dots and when you cut (hack!) the fruit open the
inside is heavily veined with brown to such an extent that 50%+ of the
fruit mass is brown and because it's veined that makes 100% of the
fruit
mass useless.
Does anyone recognise this condition and can anyone put a name to it?
And ideally of course, I'd like to know what I can do to prevent it in
future.
Couple of checks, sorry if this insults your intelligence:
1) You have Cydonia (true quince - looks like a pear tree, with pinkish
white flowers in May) not Chaenomeles (Japanese "quince" - thorny shrub
with brightly coloured flowers, usually red but other colours
available, in late winter/early spring)
2) You picked the fruit before the serious frosts
snip
This is evidently not the same as you have, but it indicates that some
seemingly awful rusts in quince can be controlled, and in general a
systemic antifungal spray on newly emerging leaves before flowering
seems like a good idea if you have a rust problem.
Thanks! And I don't insult easily!
It is a genuine Quince, Champion IIRC. And yes, picked well before the
serious frosts.
And to follow up on the other helpful posts - thank you all:
It was a very dry year and I could believe that that was a contributory
factor. OTOH the tree produced masses of huge, and otherwise very good
looking, fruit. These are also established (maybe 10 years) trees.
Perhaps a very dry spell at a particular stage of development? There's
no way these trees couuld have had too much water this season!
The boron thought is an interesting one - as you say, can't do any harm
to provide a few extra nutrients anyway to eliminate the possiblity.
But quince fleck / black spot sounds a definite candidate. A very quick
google produced little but seemed to suggest that Fabraea maculata might
be the same thing.
http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville.../omfabrea.html
My spots are pin-pricks, not the blobs shown in these pictures. Has
anyone found other pointers to quince fleck / black spot?
Many thanks again to all who have chipped in!
Merl