“As we grow our fruit on heavy, wet soil and have a lot of problems with bronze colouring and russeting with ordinary Conference pears grafted on A and C quinces, the Q- Eline rootstock seemed to be a good alternative. And indeed, we are now harvesting 100% good pears: pears that are green and show virtually no bronze colouring.
On top of this, the trees’ frost resistance is a lot better than that of C quinces. So Q-Eline is definitely an advantage where frost tolerance is concerned. The rootstock is also more fertile than C quinces, producing large quantities of good-quality pears. Q-Eline quinces are a bit more vigorous than C quinces – something we have observed in summer in particular, when shoot formation puts a lot of pressure on the trees. This is also favourable for the size of the pears. For regions like ours, where most growers have to cope with fairly wet soil, Q-Eline definitely offers added value.”
