Quince in Zone 5a & 5b
Cydonia oblonga
When to plant quince in zone 5b
Zones 5a and 5b share the same average frost dates in our data, so this page covers both.
Method: Buy as a start: Buy as a nursery start and transplant outside. Quince is slow or unreliable from seed, so most gardeners skip seed-starting it entirely.
| Start indoors | Not started from seed; buy as a nursery start |
|---|---|
| Direct sow / transplant outside | May 10–May 17 |
| Estimated harvest | May 9 '30–May 16 '30 (First real harvest in year 4) |
Spacing: about 50 square feet per plant (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 10-15 ft.
Quince is easy to confuse with the thornier, purely ornamental flowering quince (Chaenomeles) sold for its spring blooms, but this is the true fruiting quince, grown for its intensely fragrant, golden fruit used almost entirely for jelly and preserves rather than eaten fresh off the tree.
How quince fits zone 5's season
Zone 5b's frost-free window runs about 148 days, from May 10 to October 5. Quince takes about 3 growing seasons to reach first worthwhile harvest, so what matters here is how many of these seasons it gets, not whether one is long enough.
Quince is hardy in zones 5-9, so in zone 5b it stays in the ground through winter and comes back rather than being replanted. Allow about 8 ft of spread at maturity.
Good companions
No standout companions recorded yet for Quince.
Where to buy quince starts
Quince is almost always bought as a nursery start rather than seeded. Check a local nursery or garden center; we haven't vetted online start/plant suppliers yet.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing quince" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Quince in USDA zone 5b: when to start seeds indoors, when to direct-sow, and when to expect a harvest.
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