Identify this garden pest

[hudebnik]

Two and a half years ago we planted two dwarf quince trees in the front yard. The first year they produced leaves and branches. The second year they produced lovely flowers and a couple of fruits, all of which fell off before reaching the size of a thumbnail. This year there were more fruits, two of which reached perhaps the size of a baseball, and were looking promising. One of them became gnarly and misshapen, but we figured we'd let it ripen and see whether it was actually being chewed up or just misshapen. The other one, as of this afternoon, had a big brown mushy spot, and when we examined the fruits, both of them fell off. So no harvest this year.




If you recognize this infection and can tell me what organism causes it, maybe I can find a way to kill them next year.

Comments

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Hello, metahacker pointed me to this post.

At a guess, brown rot (http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/brown-rot-151477.pdf).

I strongly recommend asking at http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/fruit/

[isabeau-lark.livejournal.com]

Sunday mornings at 8AM on WOR is a gardening show where you could call in.

The former host (who unfortunately died about a year ago) was amazing and one of his oft repeated bits of advice when he couldn't answer a question was to contact your local cooperative extension. You could also contact the botanical gardens. Their folk are often quite happy to help.

[minstrlmummr.livejournal.com]

Does the monastery garden at the Cloisters have quince trees?

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

Good point: I'm pretty sure they do.

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

Thanks; I'll try those.