medlar fruit and trees
 

Has anyone planted one of these? They are offered in Junge's. My friend remembers these from Iran and had been searching for the tree. All I found is they are smaller trees and relatively free of disease. What type of soil, we are zone 5. Do you need two for pollination? He says the fruits are wonderful. Thank you in advance - piegirl

Disease free. No special needs and care. About your zone 5 I'm not sure, mine is 6. The fruits are really wonderful. Leave them until hard frost, pick (or pick and freez in the freezer for few hours) and then wait about week to soften and go to... heaven... (but who knows - different people - different tastes...)

Hi Hristo, would you mind describing the fruits, please?

[quote=phreddy;91365]Hi Hristo, would you mind describing the fruits, please?[/quote]

This will be difficult for me, because my English is not so rich :)
See here:
[URL]http://images.google.bg/images?hl=en&q=medlar&num=100&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi[/URL]

There exist 2 variety types - large fruit on small tree (no more than 2 m.) and smaller fruit on bigger tree (up to 5 m.) these are of a bit better taste (the big are also tasty)

Are you really from Bulgaria?

Thanks for the pics Hristo, that is what I thought they were. I have decided against them now as I leave BG as the frosts start.
I am not Bulgarian but live there, near Elhovo, from 1st April until end of October. Wonderful place to live but too cold in winter so I am off to Malaysia.

[quote=phreddy;91499]
I am not Bulgarian but live there[/quote]

That answers why you do not know medlar or mushmula on bulgarian.

[quote=Hristo;91503]That answers why you do not know medlar or mushmula on bulgarian.[/quote]
...and such a lot more Hristo, but we are learning, thanks to local people who are so generous with their advice.

Medlar Fruit and Trees
 

This is an old thread, but I thought I'd respond to it anyway.

I'm a fan of medlars and grafted about 100 or so trees last year of it for our orchard. I believe we've got six different cultivars of medlar from the initial grafting and I added a couple more trees this year of a seventh cultivar that originated in Iran. The original grafts are now about a year and a half old and began branching out after just the first growing season.

They appear to be pretty disease and pest-free and most have flowered after just one year. Not many have put out fruit, but a few have.

The varieties I grafted all came from the [URL="http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=11325"]Medlar collection that's part of the Nat'l Germplasm Repository[/URL]. Anyone can request dormant scionwood and could graft trees themselves. You'd simply need to buy separate rootstocks on which to graft. Medlars are closely related to hawthorne and many people grafting medlars will graft onto hawthorne rootstock which is what I did. I grafted onto two hawthorne rootstocks: Crataegus monogyna and Crataegus crus-galli. Of the two, I recommend the C. crus-galli. You can obtain young trees of this to be used as rootstock from [URL="http://www.lawyernursery.com"]Lawyer Nursery[/URL].

The fruit, by the way, taste like a spiced applesauce. But they need to be 'bletted' (or allowed to begin breaking down) before the pulp of the fruit is at its peak.

Here are photos of a medlar tree, medlar blossoms, and medlar fruit:

[IMG]http://www.meticulum.com/Medlar_Tree.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.meticulum.com/Medlar_Blossom.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.meticulum.com/Medlar_Fruit.jpg[/IMG]

It's a fruit tree well worth growing.


John

the only bletted fruit ive eaten are American Persimmons- those are super cool!

[QUOTE=garnetmoth;140506]the only bletted fruit ive eaten are American Persimmons- those are super cool![/QUOTE]
In a super mush kind of way - possums will hold their ground & then play dead rather than run from a bunch of dropped ripe persimmons!

I'd love to have a medlar tree. For now I'm content with persimmons. Those pics are beautiful.