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The Japanese quince, or chaenomeles, is, first of all, an ornamental quince, and it was in this capacity that it appeared in Europe by the end of the 500th century. For two hundred years it was cultivated, admiring the abundant flowering in spring, a lush bush with bright small leaves throughout the summer, and only then appreciated its useful fruits and began to create varieties with larger fruits. To date, there are about XNUMX varieties, Japanese quince can be grown even in difficult conditions of the middle lane.
Description
Japanese quince is a sprawling shrub up to 1 – 2 m tall with prickly, beautiful arc curving shoots and small shiny leaves. It blooms in May for 3-4 weeks, luxuriantly covering the shoots, bright scarlet flowers almost hide the leaves that are just beginning to open. Breeders have bred varieties with double and semi-double pink and white flowers. This heat-loving plant loves sunlight, but tolerates partial shade well, winter frosts down to -30 degrees can damage young annual shoots, and an adult bush winters well under snow. It is better to cover young bushes with lutrasil for the winter, and adult bushes are sprinkled with leaves and covered with snow.
Fruiting begins in the third – fourth year of the life of the shrub, Japanese quince is famous for its fragrant and very useful fruits that ripen in September – October. Fruits are small, hard and sour, half of the fruit is occupied by seed boxes, but they contain so many useful substances that they can heal the body. Traditional medicine recommends using them for various diseases. They contain much more ascorbic acid than lemons. Carotene, pectin, vitamins, iron, manganese, calcium, potassium – all this is preserved even after heat treatment, so delicious desserts (jams, jellies, marmalades, jams, compotes) made from fruits are very useful. Quince Japanese low, more precisely, its yellow pear-shaped or rounded fruits, helps with hypertension, sclerosis, diseases of the stomach and gallbladder.
Fruits must be harvested before frost, even if they are not ripe, because under the influence of frost they lose their taste and benefits, and become unsuitable for processing.
Video “Description”
From the video you will learn what this shrub looks like.
Landing
Japanese quince is planted in the spring before the start of sap flow or in the fall three to four weeks before the onset of frost. It is necessary to plant a shrub immediately in a permanent place, its root grows long, it is injured when dug up, it is undesirable to replant the plant, it may not take root in another place. Usually, one-year-old seedlings are sold with an open root system, and two-year-old ones are sold in a container, they are planted with a native earthen clod, which helps young plants to endure stress.
Japanese quince, planting and caring for which does not require too much effort and time, loves warmth and sun, which means that you need to choose an open place for it, on the south or south-west side of the buildings. It can grow in light partial shade, but the larger the shade, the smaller the fruits will be, the slower the shoots will develop. It is advisable to prepare the soil in advance, the preferences of Japanese quince are in the rejection of heavy, too wet, alkaline, too acidic, peaty soils. She likes loose, breathable, neutral soils rich in humus, without stagnant water. If the soil at the selected place does not meet the requirements, it must be prepared.
For spring planting, in the fall, they clear the place, select all the roots of perennial grasses, dig them up, add sand and leafy soil if necessary, and be sure to add humus or compost, superphosphate and potassium salt. At a depth of 15 cm, loose fertile soil should form, which is watered and left until spring.
In the spring, a pit with a diameter of 40 cm and a depth of up to 80 cm is prepared on a prepared site. The earth from the pit is mixed with humus, ammonium nitrate, superphosphate, wood ash. A part is poured into a hole, a seedling is placed and covered so that the root neck is at ground level. You don’t need to leave it on top so that it doesn’t freeze, but you shouldn’t deepen it much – don’t provoke the growth of wild growth, it’s best to focus on the level that was in the nursery.
If quince (chaenomeles) does not grow singly, but in a group, then it is not necessary to plant shrubs closer to each other than after 50 cm, they are planted a little closer only for hedges so that the plants close.
Care
Quince Japanese care, of course, appreciates, but will grow even if it is forgotten. But then it may turn out that the shrub has grown terribly, captures an ever larger area, does not bear fruit, and forms fewer flowers or freezes in winter. To prevent this from happening, you need to look after the plant – water, cut, feed, cover for the winter. Quince requires cross-pollination for the formation of fruits, so at least one other plant of a different variety should grow on the plot (possibly a neighbor).
Winter Care
Even varieties claimed to be hardy must be protected from winter frosts and blizzards. Shoots of the first year, not covered with snow, usually freeze at temperatures below -20 degrees, there are no fruits on branches affected by frost. But the deep occurrence of the roots, more precisely, the long powerful root of an adult plant will protect it from complete freezing, but with young bushes you need to be decisive and cover them completely.
The ground around the shoots is mulched in autumn with compost, ground with sand, sawdust, crushed bark, pine nut skins to a height of 10–15 cm, capturing an area equal to the projection of the crown. Young, not very overgrown bushes are wrapped with lutrasil or similar material, covered with snow in winter. Adult bushes are covered with dry leaves of fruit trees, and covered with spruce branches on top. It is necessary to specifically hold back the snow, throw it on the bushes. Under a snowdrift, if the snow holds until the end of winter, the Japanese quince will winter well, no matter how cold it may be.
Watering
Growing and caring for quince requires competent watering. This plant tolerates a lack of moisture more easily than its excess. It is enough to water adult bushes once a month, but abundantly so that the water gets to a depth of more than a meter; in the absence of rain, they are watered more often – after 2 to 3 weeks.
And young seedlings are well watered after planting, then moisten the ground every decade (if there is no rain), gradually increasing the interval between watering. In summer, when the earth warms up enough, the area under the bush is loosened to a depth of 10 cm, mulched after watering. The cleanliness of the land must be monitored all the time, weeds must be removed, but it is enough to loosen deeply twice a season – in early summer and autumn.
Additional fertilizing
If, when planting, they prepared the site well and filled the pit with fertilizers, then liquid top dressings begin to be applied in the second, or even in the third year of life. In early spring and with the beginning of flowering, the plant needs nitrogen fertilizers, and in autumn potassium-phosphorus fertilizers are applied, which will help gain strength for wintering.
Quince well perceives humus, which is laid out in early spring under a bush, liquid top dressing with a solution of bird droppings, wood ash, superphosphate, potassium salts, ammonium nitrate.
Liquid top dressings are applied after watering so that their consumption is slow and gradual. The first year the plants after planting do not fertilize.
Trimming
In the spring, sanitary pruning is carried out annually – frozen or injured shoots are removed, excess root layers are removed, which grow every year in large numbers. If they are not removed, then the bush grows at an incredible speed – a twenty-year-old plant can occupy a plot of 2 square meters. Cut out shoots growing parallel to the ground or inside the bush, forming its crown. Before cutting the chaenomeles, you need to disinfect sharp tools (saw, pruner) and protect your hands with thick mittens from thorns.
When the bush reaches the age of 8 – 10 years, they begin to carry out rejuvenating pruning, remove shoots older than five years, keeping approximately 15 shoots. Quince tolerates pruning well, the hedge is sheared annually, giving it the desired shape, shortening all the shoots, and not just removing the extra ones.
Diseases
Chaenomeles gets sick very rarely, but if a cold, wet summer happens, fungal diseases can threaten, and then the bushes are treated with an ash solution, or special fungicides are used.
Usually pests do not bother the bushes, but if aphids or caterpillars appear, the plant is treated with a copper-soap solution or infusion of onion peel.
Damaged parts of the plant are cut and destroyed, and when processing a bush, they cultivate the ground under it and nearby.
Reproduction
If Japanese quince is already growing on the site, propagation is easy – this can be done using seeds, cuttings, root offspring or grafting. Seeds are taken from ripened fruits in the fall, and then sown before winter. They will sprout beautifully in the spring and grow in the open field to the state of adult seedlings, which are already being transferred to a permanent place, it will only be necessary to thin them out. If it was not possible to sow them before frost in the fall, then the seeds can be left until spring, but then they are placed in wet sand, wrapped in a plastic bag (you only need to make holes for air), they are kept for 2-3 months on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator at a temperature of +3 up to +5 degrees. Thus, the seeds will be stratified at home, then they are transferred to warmer conditions, and after they hatch, they are planted in peat cups or other seedling utensils. They are allowed to grow at home, then transplanted to a permanent place of growth.
Seeds are almost always XNUMX% germination, healthy strong plants grow from them, which are then used as rootstock, since they do not retain the characteristics of the mother plant. But the root offspring and layering perfectly retain all the characteristics of the variety, but they are not so strong, their roots are located at the very surface of the earth for a long time, they are not taken as often as we would like. The offspring are simply separated from the bush along with the root, transplanted. And the layers are rooted by digging the lower shoot in the spring. By autumn, it can already be cut into several parts with separate roots and seated, or you can do it next spring so that young plants do not freeze in winter.
A cutting of varietal quince is grafted onto seedlings using splitting, budding or copulation methods. Several cuttings can be grafted onto a strong stock in early spring, but budding is carried out in the second half of summer.
Good results are obtained by breeding with cuttings, but far from all of them take root, the best result is 50%.
Varieties of varieties
The genus Chaenomeles consists of only three natural species and a number of interspecific hybrids, hundreds of varieties have been bred on their basis today, but our weather and climatic conditions do not allow growing so much.
Quince Japanese “Golden Apple” with large red flowers grows up to 2 m. It is considered frost-resistant, tolerates partial shade and drought.
Quince Japanese low – this is a species that grows in our middle lane, its height does not exceed 1 m. Varieties are common: “Pomegranate Bracelet” with bright red flowers, “Rising Sun” with pale cream, “Sargent”, “Red Joy » with red flowers.
They also grow high up to 1,5 m “Hollandia” with a rounded crown and pink flowers, “Pink Lady” with pink flowers of different intensity.
Fruits with a red blush gives “Crimson and Gold”, with a spreading crown and dark red petals and yellow stamens.
Video “Growing and care”
From the video you will learn how to grow and care for this ornamental tree.
