Medlars are small trees with attractive flowers and decorative edible fruits which in taste and texture resemble apple puree. They are unusual, hardy, disease resistant and will give you a hearty crop of delicious medlars for eating raw, making jam, or cheese and jelly. They are ready mid or late November when most of the other fruit is finished.
The Common Medlar (Mespilus germanica) originated in southwest Asia and southeastern Europe (the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey). They are large, deciduous shrubs or small trees growing up to 8 meters tall with a spread of about 6 meters.
They have dark green, oval that are rather leathery and turn yellow or red in autumn. The five-petalled white flowers 2 – 3 centimeters across with red anthers are produced in late spring. The fruit is two to three centimeters in diameter, with decorative sepals and turns a golden yellow before ripening to a mat brown.
Medlars like to be out in the sunshine, so choose an open, sunny site. If they are in light or dappled shade the fruit crop will be reduced and you won't get that lovely, golden autumn colour. Make sure you don't plant in frost pockets as medlars flower in late spring.
Medlars are very tolerant trees and grow in most soils and places but they ideally prefer moist soil and will tolerate moisture better than other fruit trees. If possible give them moisture-retentive, free-draining soil and add compost or peat / peat substitutes to heavy clay soils prior to planting to aid drainage. Leaves and flowers are easily damaged by strong winds.
The Common Medlar (Mespilus germanica) originated in southwest Asia and southeastern Europe (the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey). They are large, deciduous shrubs or small trees growing up to 8 meters tall with a spread of about 6 meters.
They have dark green, oval that are rather leathery and turn yellow or red in autumn. The five-petalled white flowers 2 – 3 centimeters across with red anthers are produced in late spring. The fruit is two to three centimeters in diameter, with decorative sepals and turns a golden yellow before ripening to a mat brown.
Medlars like to be out in the sunshine, so choose an open, sunny site. If they are in light or dappled shade the fruit crop will be reduced and you won't get that lovely, golden autumn colour. Make sure you don't plant in frost pockets as medlars flower in late spring.
Medlars are very tolerant trees and grow in most soils and places but they ideally prefer moist soil and will tolerate moisture better than other fruit trees. If possible give them moisture-retentive, free-draining soil and add compost or peat / peat substitutes to heavy clay soils prior to planting to aid drainage. Leaves and flowers are easily damaged by strong winds.
Germination, Sowing and After Care for the
Medlar (mespilus germanica)
The Medlar has a long and complex double dormancy within the seed and this can only broken after lengthy periods of pre-treatment.
To begin with soak the seeds for 48 hours in warm water, then drain away the water and prepare a free draining medium into which the seeds are to be mixed, this can be a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand, or perlite, vermiculite. The chosen medium needs to be moist (but not wet), if you can squeeze water out of it with your hand it is too wet and your seeds may drown and die.
Mix the seeds into the medium, making sure that their is enough volume of material to keep the seeds separated. Place the seed mixture into a clear plastic bag (freezer bags, especially zip-lock bags are very useful for this -provided a little gap is left in the seal for air exchange) If it is not a zip-lock type bag it needs to be loosely tied. Then write the date on the bag so that you know when the pretreatment was started.
To begin with the seeds require a cold period to break the final part of the dormancy, this is achieved by placing the bag in the fridge (4 Celsius or 39F) for around 52 weeks.
Next the seeds require a period of warm pretreatment and need to be kept in temperatures of around 20 Celsius (68F) for a period of at least 36 weeks. During this time make sure that the pretreatment medium does not dry out at any stage or it will be ineffective!
Following this, the seeds require a second cold period for around 17 weeks. Towards the end of this period it is quite possible for the seeds to germinate in the bag at these temperatures when they are ready to do so, (it is worth checking the bag every few weeks for germinating seedlings) if they do, just remove them from the bag and carefully plant them up.
Alternatively seeds can be placed in a protected pot and placed in a sheltered place outside and allowed to experience the natural seasonal temperature fluctuations. The best results will be obtained from experiencing a long first winter, then summer followed by a second winter. Seedlings should begin to germinate during the second Spring.
When the pre-treatment period is completed the seed is ready to be sown. Pots or seed trays can be used, filled with a good quality compost with the seeds sown on a firmed compost surface, covered with a thin layer of compost (up to1cm) and watered. It is often best to remove established germinated seedlings from their containers and pot them up separately.
After the first growing season do not throw away the contents of the pots and trays but leave them outside in a shady place through summer and winter and further seedlings will appear the next Spring. This process can continue for as long as 5 years with some seedlings germinating each year,- so don't give up on them too soon!
Do not expose newly sown seeds to high temperatures (above 25 Celsius) otherwise a secondary dormancy may be induced and the seeds will not germinate until they have been pretreated again. Keep the seedlings well watered and weed free.
A few months after germination developing seedlings should be fine in full sun. Growth in the first season is slow but will accelerate in the second and subsequent years and the developing young trees should be re-potted as necessary preferably during the dormant season. After perhaps 2 or 3 years they are ready to be planted in their permanent position.
To begin with soak the seeds for 48 hours in warm water, then drain away the water and prepare a free draining medium into which the seeds are to be mixed, this can be a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand, or perlite, vermiculite. The chosen medium needs to be moist (but not wet), if you can squeeze water out of it with your hand it is too wet and your seeds may drown and die.
Mix the seeds into the medium, making sure that their is enough volume of material to keep the seeds separated. Place the seed mixture into a clear plastic bag (freezer bags, especially zip-lock bags are very useful for this -provided a little gap is left in the seal for air exchange) If it is not a zip-lock type bag it needs to be loosely tied. Then write the date on the bag so that you know when the pretreatment was started.
To begin with the seeds require a cold period to break the final part of the dormancy, this is achieved by placing the bag in the fridge (4 Celsius or 39F) for around 52 weeks.
Next the seeds require a period of warm pretreatment and need to be kept in temperatures of around 20 Celsius (68F) for a period of at least 36 weeks. During this time make sure that the pretreatment medium does not dry out at any stage or it will be ineffective!
Following this, the seeds require a second cold period for around 17 weeks. Towards the end of this period it is quite possible for the seeds to germinate in the bag at these temperatures when they are ready to do so, (it is worth checking the bag every few weeks for germinating seedlings) if they do, just remove them from the bag and carefully plant them up.
Alternatively seeds can be placed in a protected pot and placed in a sheltered place outside and allowed to experience the natural seasonal temperature fluctuations. The best results will be obtained from experiencing a long first winter, then summer followed by a second winter. Seedlings should begin to germinate during the second Spring.
When the pre-treatment period is completed the seed is ready to be sown. Pots or seed trays can be used, filled with a good quality compost with the seeds sown on a firmed compost surface, covered with a thin layer of compost (up to1cm) and watered. It is often best to remove established germinated seedlings from their containers and pot them up separately.
After the first growing season do not throw away the contents of the pots and trays but leave them outside in a shady place through summer and winter and further seedlings will appear the next Spring. This process can continue for as long as 5 years with some seedlings germinating each year,- so don't give up on them too soon!
Do not expose newly sown seeds to high temperatures (above 25 Celsius) otherwise a secondary dormancy may be induced and the seeds will not germinate until they have been pretreated again. Keep the seedlings well watered and weed free.
A few months after germination developing seedlings should be fine in full sun. Growth in the first season is slow but will accelerate in the second and subsequent years and the developing young trees should be re-potted as necessary preferably during the dormant season. After perhaps 2 or 3 years they are ready to be planted in their permanent position.
