Tree fruit
How to grow quince
Cydonia oblonga
Quince is a small, self-fertile tree that crops well in the UK given a warm, sunny, sheltered spot and deep soil that stays moist in summer. Plant bare-root between November and March. It flowers in May, late enough to miss most frosts, and the fruit is picked hard and golden in October for cooking. Summer moisture decides the size of the crop, and a blight-resistant variety such as Serbian Gold avoids the leaf disease that spoils many trees in wet years.
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy
- Position
- Full sun, sheltered, warm
- Soil
- Deep, moisture-retentive
- Ideal pH
- 6.0 to 7.0
- Water
- Moderate, likes damp ground
- Feeding
- Moderate feeder
Sowing and planting quince
WhenPlant Nov to Mar; blossom May; harvest Oct, before the first frost
Starting off
Plant bare-root Nov to Mar, pot-grown in spring with summer watering. Named varieties (Vranja, Meech's Prolific, Serbian Gold) are grafted onto Quince A; take 25 cm hardwood cuttings in Nov or layer a low branch in spring for own-root plants. Self-fertile, one tree crops alone.
Spacing and planting
Quince A rootstock makes a 4 to 5 m tree, Quince C 3 to 4 m; keep 5 m from buildings and 3 m from paths (the fruit drops). Hole 60 cm wide, union 10 cm above soil, stake 3 years. Fine on Quince C in a 50 cm pot for a few years, then plant out.
Varieties worth growing
- Vranja
- Large, pear-shaped, strongly scented fruit and the best flavour for jelly and membrillo. Needs a warm spot to ripen fully.
- Meech's Prolific
- Starts cropping young and bears heavily, with big blossom and medium-sized fruit that keeps well.
- Serbian Gold
- Also sold as Leskovac. Apple-shaped fruit and good resistance to quince leaf blight, so the one to plant in wetter districts.
- Champion
- Round, mild-flavoured fruit that ripens a little earlier than Vranja, useful further north.
- Krymsk
- Also sold as Aromatnaya. Softer and sweeter than other quinces when fully ripe, and the nearest to one you can eat raw.
Quince month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Winter prune lightly: dead, crossing and crowded branches, and suckers from the base.
- February
Finish pruning. Plant bare-root trees and stake them.
- March
Feed, then mulch 8 cm deep while the soil is moist. Last bare-root planting.
- April
Leaves open. Water trees planted this winter in dry weeks.
- May
Blossom, large and pale pink. Nothing to do but enjoy it.
- June
Water in a dry June as the fruit sets. Check the tie on young trees.
- July
Keep watering in dry weather. Watch for the first leaf blight spots after wet spells.
- August
Water in drought. Prop any branch bending under the weight of fruit.
- September
Fruit swells and begins to turn from green to yellow. Leave it on the tree.
- October
Pick when golden and scented, before a hard frost. Store in trays, not touching, away from apples.
- November
Rake up and bin fallen leaves. Plant bare-root trees. Take 25 cm hardwood cuttings.
- December
Start winter pruning in dry weather. Check stored fruit and use any that are marked.
Feeding quince
A moderate feeder for which water matters more than fertiliser. A balanced feed in March under a thick mulch is all an established tree needs.
A moderate spring feed; mulch to hold moisture.
Feeding plan
At planting, once
5 g per litre of root-ball volume, touching the roots: 50 g for a tree from a 10 litre pot, or enough to coat the damp roots of a bare-root tree.
March
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
70 to 110 g/m² scattered under the canopy and raked in. A young tree with a 1 m² planting circle takes 70 to 110 g; a tree with a canopy 2 m across covers about 3 m² and takes 210 to 330 g.
March, straight after feeding
Garden compost
An 8 cm mulch out to the edge of the canopy, kept clear of the trunk. This is the step that prevents summer fruit drop.
Pot-grown trees, March
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
2 g per litre of compost as a top-dress: about 100 g for a 50 cm pot holding 50 litres. Repeat once in late May if growth is pale, staying within the label's 2 to 4 g per litre.
Signs to watch
Fruit drop and small fruit in a dry summer
Drought
Mulch and water
Yellow young leaves on chalk
Iron lockout
Sulphur, acidic mulch, seaweed
Pale leaves, short growth
Nitrogen short
Balanced spring feed
Pests, diseases and problems
Small dark red-brown spots on the leaves from early summer, which merge until the leaf browns and falls; fruit spotted and misshapen
Quince leaf blight, a fungus that overwinters on fallen leaves and on dead shoot tips, and spreads in wet weather
Rake up and bin every fallen leaf in autumn, prune out dead shoot tips in winter, and keep the centre of the tree open so that it dries quickly after rain. Serbian Gold resists it well.
Fruit rots brown on the tree with rings of buff pustules
Brown rot entering through bird pecks, cracks or codling moth holes
Remove affected fruit promptly and do not leave any hanging on the tree or lying beneath it over winter.
White powdery coating on young leaves and shoot tips
Powdery mildew, encouraged by dry soil at the roots
Water deeply in dry spells, mulch in spring, and prune out badly affected shoot tips.
Fruit cracks open in late summer
Heavy rain or watering after a long dry spell
Mulch 8 cm deep in spring and water every week or two through a dry summer so that growth stays even. Use cracked fruit first; it will not store.
A hole in the fruit with brown droppings, and a tunnel to the core
Codling moth caterpillar
Hang a pheromone trap in the tree from May to catch the males, and cut the damage out when cooking. It is rarely bad enough on quince to need more.
Blossom and shoots wilt, blacken and hang as if burnt, with the leaves staying on
Fireblight, a bacterial disease of the apple family that is uncommon but serious
Cut affected branches back at least 30 cm into healthy wood, disinfecting the blades between cuts, and bin or burn the prunings.
Pruning and harvest
Pruning and care
Winter-prune Nov to Feb, lightly: open the centre, remove crossing and dead wood, shorten leaders by a third while young, and cut suckers from the base. It fruits on spur tips and last year's shoot tips, so avoid wholesale shortening. No summer pruning. Mulch 8 cm deep in spring and water in a dry June when the fruit sets.
Harvest and storage
Pick in Oct when the skin turns from green to gold and the fruit smells strongly, before hard frost; handle gently and keep the bloom. First crop 3 to 5 years; 10 to 20 kg from a mature tree. Store 6 to 8 weeks at 2 to 4 °C away from apples (the scent taints them), then cook, jelly, membrillo, or a slice in an apple pie.
Good to knowNeeds a warm spot to ripen the aromatic fruit; usually self-fertile.
Growing quince in pots
A quince on Quince C rootstock will grow in a 50 cm pot of loam-based compost for a few years, but it is a tree for the ground in the long run and should be planted out once it fills the pot. Quince resents drying out more than most fruit trees, so a pot-grown tree needs watering every day or two from June to September and a mulch of compost on the surface. Stand it in the warmest, most sheltered corner you have, stake it firmly because the head is heavy when in fruit, and replace the top 5 cm of compost every March.
Quince: common questions
Can you eat quince raw?
Not pleasantly in most cases: quinces ripened in the UK stay hard, dry and astringent, and are grown for cooking. Long, slow cooking turns the flesh soft, pink and fragrant. Krymsk is the exception that can be sliced and eaten raw when fully ripe after a warm summer.
Why are the leaves on my quince tree turning brown and falling off?
Quince leaf blight is the usual cause when leaves spot, brown and drop from midsummer, especially after a wet spring. Collect and bin the fallen leaves, prune out dead shoot tips in winter and thin the centre of the tree for air. If the tree browns in a dry summer with no spotting, it needs water.
Is flowering quince the same as a quince tree?
No. The fruiting quince is Cydonia oblonga, a small tree with large pale pink flowers in May. Flowering or Japanese quince is Chaenomeles, a thorny shrub with red, pink or white flowers in early spring. Its small hard fruits can be made into jelly too, but it is a different plant, grown and pruned differently.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.