When to prune quince trees?
- Botanical name
- Cydonia oblonga
- Family
- Rosaceae
Quince trees are pruned from November to February. They are planted from October to March. They are harvested from October to November.
Quince trees are woody perennials. The edible part is the fruit.
The quince bears at the tips of last year's shoots. Shortening them cuts off the crop of the coming year. A bearing tree is therefore cut very little, and the crown is trained open on a clear trunk.
Quince is not eaten raw. The fruit is used cooked, and the seeds come out first, because they are poisonous. A ripe quince turns from pale yellow to gold and gives off a strong scent.
The fruit does not ripen without sun, so a quince needs a warm place in full sun. A sheltered position at the same time protects the blossom, which a late spring frost can destroy. When frost is forecast a tree in flower is covered with fleece.
Quince trees through the year
- pruning
- planting
- harvest
In short
Growing conditions
Are quince trees toxic to cats and dogs?
Yes. Toxic to people and animals, toxic parts: seeds.
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- Colonies of small aphids sit on the shoot tips and the underside of the leaves. The leaf curls and puckers, and sticky honeydew is left on everything below. The viruses they carry are more dangerous than the feeding itself.
- Prevention
- Go easy on nitrogen, because soft sappy growth is what aphids are looking for. Encourage the predators (ladybirds, lacewings, parasitic wasps). Use a reflective mulch, which puts them off settling, and a strong jet of water to knock the colony off the tips.
- What to do
- Potassium soap works on contact and only while it is wet, so it has to reach the underside of the leaf. On drought-loving plants and in heat it can scorch, so apply it in the evening.
- Signs
- A brown rot spreading across the fruit, with light brown cushions of spores on it, often in concentric rings. The fruit drops or stays on the branch as a dried mummy.
- Prevention
- The fungus overwinters in mummified fruit and in cankered wounds in the bark, so collect and remove every rotten and mummified fruit and cut out affected twigs. The infection enters through a wound, so a net against birds takes away the main door. In a cluster it passes from one fruit to the fruit it touches.
- What to do
- For the home garden there are no fungicides against brown rot. What is left is picking off and removing the mummies as they appear and choosing less susceptible varieties.
- Signs
- The blossoms wilt and blacken suddenly at flowering, the shoots dry up and curl like a shepherd's crook, as if the tree had been scorched. In wet weather a white slime oozes from the infection. Peel the bark at the edge of the infection and the wood under it is foxy red brown. Sunken dead patches form on the branches.
- Prevention
- The disease attacks the pome fruit: apple, pear and quince. Remove late, secondary blossoms before they open.
- What to do
- There are no products. Cut the infected parts out at once: peel the bark, look for the red brown staining and cut back to healthy wood well below it, on thicker branches a good deal further. Disinfect the tools between every cut. Burn what you cut off or take it away from the garden. In some countries the disease is under official control, so report a suspicion to the plant health service.
- Signs
- A white, floury coating spreads over the leaves, first on the lower and older ones. The leaf under it yellows and dries up. The fruit stays small, because the plant loses leaf surface.
- Prevention
- Plant resistant varieties, leave an airy spacing and sun, and clear the debris at the end of the season. Unlike most fungi it is not helped by wet foliage, since it spreads in heat and high air humidity, in a dry summer too.
- What to do
- Oil products meant for powdery mildew on the squash family work on contact. They do not cure a leaf that is already affected, but they stop the spread to healthy ones. On herbs cut the affected shoots back instead, since the new growth comes clean. On ornamental perennials what is left is spacing and moisture.
- Signs
- On the leaves and the fruit there are dark spots. In a wet summer the spots run together, the leaves drop early and the fruit stays small and cracked.
- Prevention
- The fungus overwinters on fallen leaves and on dead shoots. Rake up and carry away the diseased leaves as they fall, and cut out the dead shoots in winter. There are differences between varieties: in a wet year 'Serbian Gold' and 'Aromatnaya' held up better, in that they did get the spots but did not shed their leaves.
- What to do
- For a tree whose fruit is eaten there is nothing for the home garden. What is left is cleared leaves and the choice of variety.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Rosaceae).
Sources about the plant: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, Oregon State University, Penn State Extension, Royal Horticultural Society, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: Clemson Cooperative Extension, EPPO Global Database, KGZS, UF/IFAS Extension, University of Maryland Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Utah State University Extension.