Last edited by shiny on November 12, 2026. View history
How to sow quince: Transplant grafted sapling or use cuttings
Sun requirement for quince: Plant in Full Sun
Quince is a deciduous tree in the Rosaceae family (which also includes apples and pears) that produces fruits of the same name that are apple or pear-shaped, 7-12 cm long, and golden-yellow when ripe. Immature fruit are green and covered in gray-white hair, most of which rubs off by the time the fruit is ripe. Quince can also be grown for ornamental purposes because of their striking white to red blossoms, twisted branches, and large leaves with fuzzy undersides. Some varieties are bred specifically for ornamental purposes and will not produce good fruit. Do not confuse Quince with Chinese Quince (Chaenomeles sinensis), which is a flowering ornamental that fruits poorly. Quince trees are cold-hardy to -23.3 °C and have a winter chilling requirement of 100-500 hours depending on the cultivar. Quince flowers are hermaphroditic and the trees are self-pollinating, but they will have higher fruit yields if another quince variety is planted nearby for cross-pollination. Fruit ripen on the tree in 5-6 months and snap easily from the branch when ripe. Quince will continue to ripen and soften after harvest. Ripe fruit are deeply fragrant but usually too hard and tart to eat fresh. When cooked, Quince has a slightly spicy, deeply rich flavor that pairs well with dried fruit or apples. Some varieties have been bred for fresh eating, and leaving the fruits on the tree through a frost is said to make them sweeter. Seeds are poisonous in large quantities. Transplanted saplings will fruit in three years.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For quince, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 180 days at its best temperature, about 2340 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your quince will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by Skud,
I'm in Thornbury, in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
Our landlords won't let us replace the lawn with a veg garden, so we can only plant in containers. I'm on my usual spring quest for largish containers, 30cm diameter and above. We especially love the old-style…
eggplants
pears
quinces
ginger
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 180 to 270 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Cydonia oblonga Miller
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Rosales Rosaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -25 °C |
| Life form | shrub, tree |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
Quince
Photos
shiny harvested not specified.