Japanese quince

Vasyl

Mame
Messages
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Location
Gurnee, IL
USDA Zone
5b
Any idea what am I doing wrong with this Japanese Quince?1497794189612886676420.jpg
 
That's what I thought, but I think I water well, sometimes twice a day. I even thought that maybe I water too much
 
Any idea what am I doing wrong with this Japanese Quince?

I keep mine in East/West Sun all Winter and as soon as the nights get 40ish I put them in filtered Sun. All of mine were doing that when they received Full Sun in Spring/Summer... I asked here and got a wide variety of other answers but found that even though they all say Full Sun that potted it just does not work out for me here. Also, I find they do best in a fine loam mix here and I water when then top 1 to 2 inches is dry.

To much water gives me brown tips no matter what location they are in. Here is one that spent all Winter as I described and was moved to Filtered Sun when nights were steady 40ish this Spring -

IMG_1137.JPG

Grimmy
 
I keep mine in East/West Sun all Winter and as soon as the nights get 40ish I put them in filtered Sun. All of mine were doing that when they received Full Sun in Spring/Summer... I asked here and got a wide variety of other answers but found that even though they all say Full Sun that potted it just does not work out for me here. Also, I find they do best in a fine loam mix here and I water when then top 1 to 2 inches is dry.

To much water gives me brown tips no matter what location they are in. Here is one that spent all Winter as I described and was moved to Filtered Sun when nights were steady 40ish this Spring -

View attachment 149750

Grimmy
I will try to move it from direct sun, see if that works. Thanks
 
I will try to move it from direct sun, see if that works. Thanks

I will add there is a huge row of Quince 50+ years old at he farm growing in loam and wide open to sun. I am certain the "Full" Sun directions for any Quince here applies to in the ground and not to potted culture for which we often must adjust. Not a bad thing just a few season learning process based on location and other variables.
I also might suggest trying a far lighter fertilization as recommended for ground growing. I am certain here in a climate similar to yours I treat shrubs in pots with fertilizer as I do the ones in the ground if in loam type substrate. They really need little in loam and less as they get established over a few seasons.
May I ask what yours is growing in as far as substrate?

Grimmy
 
I will add there is a huge row of Quince 50+ years old at he farm growing in loam and wide open to sun. I am certain the "Full" Sun directions for any Quince here applies to in the ground and not to potted culture for which we often must adjust. Not a bad thing just a few season learning process based on location and other variables.
I also might suggest trying a far lighter fertilization as recommended for ground growing. I am certain here in a climate similar to yours I treat shrubs in pots with fertilizer as I do the ones in the ground if in loam type substrate. They really need little in loam and less as they get established over a few seasons.
May I ask what yours is growing in as far as substrate?

Grimmy
I use a mix that consists of 4 parts turfus, 1 lava rock and 1 fir bark
 
I use a mix that consists of 4 parts turfus, 1 lava rock and 1 fir bark

Filtered sun and a daily light watering should be your game changer then - hard to explain in detail but after another full season you should see robust foliage. I might add I like the way you have gone to decent quality training pots and if I can bother you with another question - What is the plant in the upper left in that picture?

Grimmy
 
I treat my Japanese Quince like my azaleas. They only get the morning sun and the afternoon sun gets filtered with a 50% shade cloth.

Steve
 
Any idea what am I doing wrong with this Japanese Quince?View attachment 149714
Too dry. Wrong soil mix (too light) Repot next autumn using a heavier soil. Dig up some from your garden if you need to and put it through a fine sieve. Mix that with some sand and peat. Quince are always the first to show signs of drying. Modern open mixes are complete crap for some plants. Quince is one of them. Crab apple is another.
 
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Too dry. Wrong soil mix (too light) Repot next autumn using a heavier soil. Dig up some from your garden if you need to and put it through a fine sieve. Mix that with some sand and peat. Quince are always the first to show signs of drying. Modern open mixes are complete crap for some plants. Quince is one of them. Crab apple is another.
Are you saying I should repot this autumn, not the next spring?
 
Too dry. Wrong soil mix (too light) Repot next autumn using a heavier soil. Dig up some from your garden if you need to and put it through a fine sieve. Mix that with some sand and peat. Quince are always the first to show signs of drying. Modern open mixes are complete crap for some plants. Quince is one of them. Crab apple is another.

This is interesting. I obtained two of these (contortas) a couple years ago. One I put in a bonsai pot and one in the ground in my garden. The one in the pot recently developed leaf defects like these after a very hot spell. The one in the ground did not. The correlation for apples is even more interesting because I've always had terrible luck with apple.
 
Are you saying I should repot this autumn, not the next spring?

Your spring is probably ok as long as it's still pretty cold (not too cold) In Japan they tend to repot in autumn because they have less trouble with nematode infestation when done then. I repotted mine about 2 weeks ago (winter here but not cold like IL)
As long as the buds are still tight you can repot.
This is interesting. I obtained two of these (contortas) a couple years ago. One I put in a bonsai pot and one in the ground in my garden. The one in the pot recently developed leaf defects like these after a very hot spell. The one in the ground did not. The correlation for apples is even more interesting because I've always had terrible luck with apple.
Yep and most of the plums like a finer water retentive mix with some kind of humus in the mix and preferably some clay as well. Fine aka (2mm) is good if you can get it. Forget large pumice, turface and lava (unless really fine or mixed with fine material which negates it's use in the first place) I have an old gardening book which suggests equal parts sub-soil, peat and sand all sieved to get the dust and particles over 3mm out for bonsai. I think this is too fine for some trees but perfect for others like quince. As a bonus you get finer ramification with old trees.
 
Hello Vasyl,
IL soils around Gurnee are too heavy in clay, do not mix into your bonsai potting mix.

Flowering quince do like sun, if roots stay at ambient temperature, hot sun on plastic pots can overheat the roots. Drape the pot with an old cloth. Alternative is to set pot in a larger & taller size empty pot. The empty pot will shade the inner pot, the air space will keep heat from warming up the inner pot. This way you won't need to repot right away this year.

Flowering quince, Chaenomeles, normally drop a fair amount of leaves during heat of summer, then they have a growth spurt, here in NE IL around 2nd week of August. During this growth spurt is good timing for repotting Chaenomeles, even here in IL. I do protect my freshly repotted quince for the winter, keeping them above +23 F (above -6 C). Many trees can be repotted in late summer, if you miss the spring repotting season. Trees that actively push roots at end of summer are good candidates for late summer repotting.

Potting media, flowering quince need more organics than pines or junipers. I raise orchids and use my old orchid bark mix as my source of composted bark. When I run out fresh orchid bark will work. My mix for deciduous trees in general is around 50% organic media. For organics i usually blend bark and some quality commercial potting mix like Promix, or Farfaad BX, one designed for containers, not a commercial top soil. I usually do not use pure peat moss, the brands available locally are ground too fine, it will block drainage. If you use peat, sift it to eliminate the fines & dust. For the inorganic portion I have gotten away from turface, I prefer pumice, or a pumice, lava, turface blend where pumice is the dominant component.
Hope this helps
 
Leo,
Thank you for another very helpful response. I use black plastic training pots and they do get quite warm in the sun. I will place my quince in a larger pot. Maybe that is why my hornbeams are not doing too good also. As far as the mix, this year I potted all my trees into 4 parts turface, 1 lava rock and 1 fir bark. Some trees do well, others not so much. I don’t know if that is the mix or other factors but my quince, korean hornbeams and wisterias don't look too happy. Dawn redwood and bald cypress look ok but there seem to be no much vigour this year. Although I try to water and fertilize well
 
All the species you listed as not doing well, are species that like more organics in their mix. All will benefit with a repotting into a more organic mix, one with more bark, potting mix or any of the organic media. They all like somewhat acidic soils, as for azalea. Not strongly acidic, as for blueberries or carnivorous plants.

You can also use either Akadama or Kanuma as a component and count it as part organic, part inorganic. Both are mildly acidic volcanic clays.
 
Spray it with an antifungal.
I think that's why some of the leaves are browning.
Ian
 
into 4 parts turface, 1 lava rock and 1 fir bark

4 parts turface is a lot....
Then again,....
I'm trying to score a bag of red Rock from a baseball field that could be called turface and it would be fine as 100% of a mix IMO.

But the turface in the "turface sucks" blog....
4 parts is too much.

Successful mixes like @Dav4 seems to use much less %.

Pics with a dime?

You may be successful all summer in that mix...
But come spring....fall rains and ice and thaw and spring and.....
You know....typical...

They may suffer.

Pics?

I wouldn't spray anything yet.

Way more likely a root thing.

We gotta get together....all us...I wonder if @bleumeon and @CasAH aka Ill Woods made it to THG?
@chicago1980 we gotta get up too.

I may hold a night.

Sorce
 
Note, Akadama and Kanuma are volcanic clays, meaning they have low calcium content. In Illinois, the clay soils are derived from finely ground limestone or dolomite. This means our local clay is very high in calcium content. This effects soil pH making it higher.

Similarly, turface is a high calcium clay.

A low calcium product used as a component of bonsai media is diatomaceous earth. It is low calcium, being based on fossilized diatoms, who's skeleton is mainly silica. Napa oil dry part 8822 is diatomaceous earth. Other Napa part numbers labeled oil dry are not the same material, so should you try it, you want 8822, nothing else.
 
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