Kitchen Garden Forum

I wonder if anyone can help me with information on how to improve a neglected quince tree?

We have one in the garden of our house in Bulgaria, it produces a small amount of fruit but I believe it could benefit from some pretty serious pruning.

There are a lot of shoots coming out from the base of the trunk and the branches are a tangled mess. I'm assuming that it would benefit from having the branches opened out and the shoots at the base removing - but I don't know how to proceed without damaging the tree.

We aren't in Bulgaria during the Winter, so any remedial work would have to be carried out in Spring, Summer or Autumn.

Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance!

Winter is the time to prune Quinces.If not possible,as per your post,then take a chance and prune the branches at the base of the trunk,they are probably suckers,and sort the tangled mess so that an open cup shape is formed letting in light .Maybe fruiting will be affected for a year but the tree will have been given a chance to thrive.

Many thanks for the info, Snooky.

I'll give it a go

I've got a very old quince tree, it was mature when we moved in 60 years ago. About 20 years ago it began to look a bit tangled and diseased and the fruit rotted early so I pruned it very heavily, taking just about every shoot off and leaving just four main trunks. I sprayed these with tar oil and today the tree has grown back healthily. I don't think you can buy tar oil in the UK, but probably can in Bulgaria. Armillatox might do the job.

Many thanks for that, JohnN. You give me hope