Kitchen Garden Forum

My very old quince tree gives a good crop every year, but a large number of them go rotten before they are ripe. At present (Feb) it has quite a few rotten/shrivelled fruits still on the branches, some of which come down in the wind and some I can get down by shaking the tree. What I am asking is do these "rotten remainers" transmit "disease" (?) to the new fruits in the summer and would it be better to try and get them all down s.a.p. Thanks for any advice.

Dear John,
what you are seeing is called brown rot. To minimise it for future years you should remove all the dead fruit that you see now and remove all fallen fruit promptly. Dispose of both and the leaves either by the green bin or burying them. Do not try to compost the fruit or fallen leaves. You may see wilted branches in the spring which are wilted and dying. Try to remove these as well as they are caused by the same fungus. A mulch around the tree may also prevent spores from the ground carrying back up into the tree to infect again. Moth and bird damage also provide entry points for the fungus so try to prevent these as well.
Regards Sally Wright.

Thank you Sally, I will do as you suggest and try and get them all down. (Bit difficult as the tree is 25ft high! Is Bob-a-Job week due?) I do put all fallen fruit into the Council bin.
Regards, John

Here was me worrying abut how to get the last of the rotten quinces off the tree, and now some old girl called Doris is doing it for me. Ain't life sweet!