White quince

[treeman]

Potted about 25 years
23cm

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[Thymetraveller]

[Daluke]

Looks good. You going to keep the sucker?

[Bonbon]

Beautiful tree and moody photography too.

[treeman]

Looks good. You going to keep the sucker?

Probably. As you can see with this and the red one, these Chinese flowering quinces refuse to branch even after thirty years so I'll take all the lines I can get. I'm going to try cutting two years of growth off the red one to see if that stimulates ramification of some kind. However at least the trunk is 30mm thick now.

[treeman]

The white quince 6 years later...
I have found that if you have a build up of root knot nematodes in your quince the following seems to work..
Trim the roots well and wash all the soil off under pressure. Cut off all the galls you can find regardless of their size. Soak the root ball and the lower part of the trunk in a solution of 1 part lime sulphur to 30 parts water for about 15 minutes. Drain, dry off and plant into a soil which you are sure is not contaminated. Last year and from now, on I prepare my mix for the quinces in summer before potting and solarize in plastic bags in the hot sun until the soil in the bag gets almost too hot to touch. I will then be nematode free. I have been plagued by them for years. If they are not controlled they can kill a prized plant eventually. If you don't have nematode trouble you are very lucky!

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[KIRKY]

Gorgeous little Quince Mike thanks for sharing. Re the nematodes do they attack all species or just some?
Is there anything to stop them if you find them on your roots. Would you be able to water them with anything like you do for curl crumb?
Cheers
Kirky

[treeman]

Gorgeous little Quince Mike thanks for sharing. Re the nematodes do they attack all species or just some?
Is there anything to stop them if you find them on your roots. Would you be able to water them with anything like you do for curl crumb?
Cheers
Kirky

They mainly attack flowering quince but I have seem them on Pyracantha a couple of times and a few other things.
There is no ''nematocide'' available to the home gardener anymore. No pesticide will touch them.

[GavinG]

Thanks for the tip, Mike. They can also infest Crab Apples.

Gavin

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Do you use a black plastic bag (so it heats up more) or a clear plastic bag (direct sunlight onto the soil to cleanse)?

Also, am I correct in assuming it's only necessary to treat the organic component(s) - e.g.: pine bark? No need to treat the inorganic (pumice, scoria, sand, zeolite, etc.)?

[Daluke]

Mike, with the solarisation, is all the “beneficial” bacteria killed too?

What spreads the nematodes - is just reusing soil or unhygienic tools etc?

[treeman]

Do you use a black plastic bag (so it heats up more) or a clear plastic bag (direct sunlight onto the soil to cleanse)?

Also, am I correct in assuming it's only necessary to treat the organic component(s) - e.g.: pine bark? No need to treat the inorganic (pumice, scoria, sand, zeolite, etc.)?

You should assume that all material is infested (except maybe perlite or other manufactured things)
Use a clear plastic bag, moisten the material so it's evenly moist but not dripping wet. Lay it out in the full sun on a hot day and spread it out flat so the mix is about 50-100mm thick and fold over the top of the bag to seal in the heat. @ Daluke, It will not kill beneficial bacteria if it remains below 60 degrees or so. I let it get as hot as it wants. Probably a lot more than 60 because sometimes I can't put my hand in it for more than a few seconds. It does not seem to kill weed seeds though. 50 degrees for a couple of hours will kill nematodes. There is always enough bacteria on the roots to repopulate the mix. Nematodes are spread by unclean tools, hands, pots, and soil which contains them. I run my tools over a flame for a couple of seconds before I cut the roots of a healthy quince.

[treeman]

Thanks for the tip, Mike. They can also infest Crab Apples.

Gavin

I was just reading about that this morning. Apparently some apple root stocks are susceptible but it's not common. You want to watch for woolly aphid on apples. They can also cause knots and galls. The same treatment should work but they might be easily re-infested if the roots are to their liking. Luckily I seem to have avoided those so far. I use seedling crabapple for the stock.