I have a red flowering fruiting Japanese quince. I have been trying for years to get cuttings to root. I have taken cutting at all times of the year. They never take for me, even with rooting hormone. This year I dug the plant up and divided the clump. Even dividing sections with already established roots proved difficult, most died. I was under the impression that quince was easy to root, but so far I have found it to be MUCH more difficult than roses or rhododendrons. I am sure I must be doing something wrong. I hope somebody else chimes in.

Cheers,

Werner

woah, thats not good to hear

Ilstep - can you tell us what things you've tried with some more details?

Sure. I have my records from last year, and I think the year before was similar.

I took cuttings from unbranched new growth at the branch ends the third week of June (about 6 to 8 inch lengths).

I removed the leaves from the bottom half, cut the top 1/4 inch or so off (very new growth - tends to wilt even in high humidity) recut the bottoms just below a node to produce cuttings about 5 inches long, and dipped the cuttings in rooting hormone powder and shook off the excess.

I stuck them in 5-1-1 mix (a bark based mix - see the container gardening forum for info) and firmed them in well.

I put a humidity dome over the tray (cuttings were stuck in cell trays in flats) and put the dome under a 2 foot T5HO strip light (one bulb, 24 watts). The light was a couple inches above the 4 inch tall dome.

The light was left on 24 hours a day.

I left two vents in the dome open just a hair for some ventilation, and removed the dome twice per day (for just a minute or two) in order to hand mist with a spray bottle.

Success was 0%.

Cuttings of other plants (none particularly hard to root, admittedly) with the same method/environment had success rates closer to 80% - 100%.

This year is similar to above, except the finished cuttings are closer to 6 inches, they were taken the first week of June, instead of rooting powder I did a 4-5 second dip in 20x diluted Dip n' Grow, and instead of a humidity dome they are under fog with root zone temperature maintained at 77° by bottom heat. Also, instead of the fluorescent light they are under a COB LED (5000K) set at 24 inches above the cuttings to produce about 200 PPFD (also left on for 24 hours).

Thanks! Good luck with the new method. I was hoping it would be something simple.

I failed to mention that I DID have success with air layering. It took 3 months to develop roots. I cut several pencil thick branches laterally 2/3rd through. Dipped a small piece of wet cheese cloth into rooting powder, and inserted the cloth into the cut. I then wrapped the cut area in alternating layers of wet soil and cheese cloth until the bundle was baseball sized. Then I wrapped the bundle in plastic wrap many times. At the end of three months, I removed the plastic, cut the branch, and stuck the entire wad into a pot with additional soil. I started this in august last year, potted before thanksgiving. Two out of five survived the winter.

Cheers,

Werner

Werner was that for the flowering variety or fruiting?

https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/5194/1/7Propagation.pdf

I think layering is probably the most reliable method...although mature cydonia has been stooled back hard, heaped with soil and the resulting shoots chopped away from the mother plant having formed root systems.

Are we talking about cydonia or chaenomeles?

This is for a fruiting variety. Of course it does flower, but it is not one of the sterile showy cultivars. This is a Chaenomeles variety. The fruit is small, yellow, and oblong.

Garden 2018 · More Info

Werner

Thanks. Thats good news! I really want to start growing them. How did it get water after you wrapped in plastic?

It did not get water. The cheese cloth and soil was wet when applied. The plastic wrap held in the moisture. I did not re-wet the material afterwards.

Cheers,

Werner