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Post by billw on May 9, 2013 17:09:25 GMT -5
Our medlars are in their eighth year and gave us about two cups of fruit each last year. Interesting, but definitely not high yielding.
Our quinces are also in their eighth year and are the opposite story - about 16 feet tall and each gave us about 10 gallons of fruit last year. So far, we have used them for cooked fruit, pie, marmalade, membrillo, and pectin. I'm going to have to find more to do with them this year.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2013 17:23:01 GMT -5
Could I ask the variety?
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Post by billw on May 9, 2013 17:26:25 GMT -5
Medlar is Breda Giant. (Is anything else available?)
Quinces are Aromatnaya and Van Deman.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2013 23:03:56 GMT -5
I have planted an unnamed variety of medlar with much smaller seeds, which never germinated, although my Breda Giant have.
If you're interested in mailing quince seed out, later in the season, I can cover shipping and might have something worthwhile to barter.
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Post by MikeH on May 9, 2013 23:49:42 GMT -5
Medlar is Breda Giant. (Is anything else available?) Marron. It flowered last year as well but the fruit died in the drought.  and hopefully Royal. My Nottingham graft isn't looking as good.  |
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Post by steev on May 9, 2013 23:58:54 GMT -5
Interesting; as I've had no need to seed, to hear how they grow.
"Giant"? Well. all relative, I suppose; kind of like a giant Chihuahua.
I still think the fruit is much like a large rosehip, and at least as seedy and unproductive. I just don't live in so Wintry a climate for that to be that attractive, vitamin C-wise. Again. I think the tree is pretty enough that I will keep it. If an Ice-Age occurs, it may well be useful, but I think that, in my lifetime, it will be not much more than a pretty plant.
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Post by steev on May 10, 2013 0:10:46 GMT -5
The NCGR in Corvallis has a number of medlars, I believe. I have doubts as to the value of much planting of this fruit. I'm not saying it isn't worth having one or some, only that it isn't something for a crop. Quinces beat it all hollow, in terms of production and usefulness.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2013 22:43:52 GMT -5
Is it possible that the medlars are semi-self fertile and will be more productive in the presence of other varieties?
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Post by steev on May 11, 2013 1:24:48 GMT -5
My Breda Giant, ~7 years old, is still a small tree, ~6'. I'd say it's productive of its dry, unproductive fruit. I don't think lack of pollination is its problem. I think it's just not capable of producing a fruit as large as a quince, just as no rose will. I'll not rip it out, any more than I would the roses; they're pretty plants and a valuable source of vitamin C, if SHTF. However, I'll increase my quince plantings, because they are more productive. I'll also continue planting out more roses, because they're pretty. On down the road, I'd not be surprised if I planted more varieties of medlars, because they're also pretty, though not much more productive than roses, food-wise.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2013 13:16:24 GMT -5
I think it would be interesting to see what kind of grafting and breeding can be done on the medlars.
I like the rose hip tea and jellies, and the hips were once used to supplement vitamin c in WW2. The foliage also supposedly has vitamin c, and the more tender petals on some taste like green apples to me. They have countless, medicinal uses, provide shade and a protective wind barrier for more tender plants.
I wouldn't have thought to plant many of the things, which grow on the property where I am staying, but, if it can live, I will try to find a good use for it.
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Post by steev on May 13, 2013 1:26:27 GMT -5
Yellow rose petals mostly taste like coffee, to me.
As to what grows where you are: it's foolish to argue with success. Still, one must boldly go where one has no surety of success to find not what has been done, but what can be done.
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Post by billw on May 13, 2013 4:11:15 GMT -5
If you're interested in mailing quince seed out, later in the season, I can cover shipping and might have something worthwhile to barter. Sure thing. I'll have tons of it in November - just ping me around that time, as I'm liable to forget and toss the cores in the compost. |
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 23:12:43 GMT -5
;D Thank you very much.
I planted 3 packets of Esme quince, to get one sturdy seedling.
Your cores are probably better and give me more varieties.
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Post by templeton on May 18, 2013 7:54:04 GMT -5
to go off topic and back to medlars...
Mine has a couple of dozen fruit on it and lovely autumn colour. Given that this has been a dreadful year - drier than the height of the Howard Drought - with record low rainfall, and that the tree is growing on a dry slope surrounded by big tough ironbarks, it's remarkable it has produced any fruit at all. Steev may think it a curious oddity, I reckon it's a hero. The nearby olive produced 2 fruit, the fig died, the pomegranate is almost dead - medlars are survivors. Hats off.
T
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Post by steev on May 25, 2013 1:11:54 GMT -5
No, please. I don't want to disrespect medlar, as an organism in itself. I think I have noted that it is an attractive little tree and very undemanding (both excellent qualities, in my opinion). I only consider it less valuable as a fruit tree in comparison to quince, which is, I think, equally tough, but more fructiverous, in terms of what we may use. Again, I expect to plant more medlars, because they please me, as do my roses, not because I expect them to be very productive of food, although I am certainly aware of their potential, in a pinch, which is always in my mind, when I plant any perennial, given that it costs me not just the effort of it's planting, but it's irrigation.
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