Leo Manuel's Maurice Kong seedling loquat

[simon_grow]

I just visited Leo Manuel and he told me that he had fruit from a seedling loquat, seeds obtained from Maurice Kong. The fruit were huge so it immediately grabbed my interest but Leo also mentioned they were a bit tart. I took some pictures of the fruit still on the tree and also a few pictures after I cut them off. The largest fruit were slightly larger than a large chicken egg. I only sampled one fruit so far and it only had a Brix of 11% but it had pretty good sugar acid balance. IIRC, Leo said it's only the first or second year it produced fruit so the quality may increase as the tree matures. Leo did not thin the fruit in order to get them to this size so I would assume they can get a bit larger if they were thinned properly. This fruit has excellent flesh to seed ratio with this good sized fruit having only two fully formed seeds.







Simon

[fyliu]

Wow! I need to trade for some scions when the tree gets bigger.

I have a seedling from a tree that makes large fruits too. But that tree naturally aborts all but a handful of fruits in each bunch. 1-5 fruits each.

[simon_grow]

Hey Fang, what color is the flesh of that fruit you have? I'm looking for a large fruited White fleshed variety that is sweet. I can get you scions when you are ready, his tree is fairly large. Thanks for sharing the pics. Oh yeah, how do they taste?

Simon

[ScottR]

Wow, nice size and looking fruit Simon, Leo is a great guy and jewel of CRFG. Fang, that is one of the largest loquats I've ever seen did you thin fruit clusters to get them that big? Simon when you send some scions of Leo's tree to Fang, please add a couple scions for me, and my friend Fang, hopefully will send me a couple pcs. ;)Please if you would Fang

[simon_grow]

See reply #10 for a picture of some Big Jim's I grew.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=6538.0
I prefer the Big Jim's over these seedling fruit because the Big Jim's were much sweeter and had stronger flavor but these fruit definitely have potential. ScottR, do you live close to Fang? I owe Fang so if you live close, I can send him extra and maybe you can pick up from him if he's ok with that. Fang, if you stop by San Diego, you can always pick them up fresh as well.

Simon

[fyliu]

Robert, they're big because of the cluster size. The tree naturally drops most of the fruits leaving a handful or less to ripen in each cluster. The Japanese should grow this so they don't have to manually remove fruits, if you've seen how they grow these and put little "socks" on the few remaining ones.

I have to ask my uncle what color the inside is. The tree belongs to his friend in San Jose. I should be able to ask for scions. My seedling is still a single stick that I put in the ground late last year.

I actually don't have a Big Jim grafted despite it being so common. It's good to have as a standard for comparison. For all we know a lot of the large good loquats could just be Big Jim since it's the one being sold at Home Depot.

Jim has several varieties he grew from seed that were pretty good as well. I only have the
Jazzy and Jim's Big White take despite several years of trying. I hope Mark Lee or someone close to him is helping keep these varieties going. The Jim's Big White tastes pretty good and is white-fleshed. The white fleshed ones go from acidic to sweet as they ripen. I think the taste is better than the orange fleshed ones that don't have much acidity.

I got some fruits from the Avri this year and they're large and orange-fleshed. The mediocre quality could be because it's the first year. They went from watery sweet to fairly sweet as they ripened.

Have you tried the Champagne loquat? I first tasted one from Dennis Sharmahd and it was really good. It's white fleshed. My family thinks it tastes weird because it tastes like pear rather than loquat.

[simon_grow]

I can't recall if I e ever tried Champagne so I'll have to keep my eyes out for them. Mark and I Grafted a few of Jim's varieties onto our trees and I believe Quang from Ongs nursery may have grafted a few as well. The early Big Jim's are really bland but the later season fruit are fantastic.

Simon

[ScottR]

I think like many varieties of fruit growing in Cal. and U.S.A. there most likely are many varieties of certain fruit but mostly also many copy cat named fruit. Meaning that people get fruit and rename it to different name, seedlings can slightly vary or totally turn to new different variety. So, I think as in White sapote that there are many different name varieties that really are the same. Some young person needs to dna many of these varieties to get things straight.
I've noticed for sure that varieties need 3-5 years of fruiting before you get the true taste of that variety! I don't have any named varieties of loquat except a few one being 'Big Jim' which in first few years of fruited i was ready to pull out. i waited another year to see how fruit was and was excellent the next year. i have a few white fleshed seedlings and they all vary in taste but i have one that has nice tropical taste notes but mid to small size. I imagine if i cluster pruned it would help but finding the time to manage 2.4 acres and get everything done at right time is not that easy!
Sorry to put you on spot Fang, about scions i should have asked first, don't worry about scions!

[snowjunky]

Robert, they're big because of the cluster size. The tree naturally drops most of the fruits leaving a handful or less to ripen in each cluster. The Japanese should grow this so they don't have to manually remove fruits, if you've seen how they grow these and put little "socks" on the few remaining ones.

I have to ask my uncle what color the inside is. The tree belongs to his friend in San Jose. I should be able to ask for scions. My seedling is still a single stick that I put in the ground late last year.

I actually don't have a Big Jim grafted despite it being so common. It's good to have as a standard for comparison. For all we know a lot of the large good loquats could just be Big Jim since it's the one being sold at Home Depot.

Jim has several varieties he grew from seed that were pretty good as well. I only have the
Jazzy and Jim's Big White take despite several years of trying. I hope Mark Lee or someone close to him is helping keep these varieties going. The Jim's Big White tastes pretty good and is white-fleshed. The white fleshed ones go from acidic to sweet as they ripen. I think the taste is better than the orange fleshed ones that don't have much acidity.

I got some fruits from the Avri this year and they're large and orange-fleshed. The mediocre quality could be because it's the first year. They went from watery sweet to fairly sweet as they ripened.

Have you tried the Champagne loquat? I first tasted one from Dennis Sharmahd and it was really good. It's white fleshed. My family thinks it tastes weird because it tastes like pear rather than loquat.

Hi Fang, how did your Avri loquat taste last year 2018?  Same as 2017 or better?
I have an Avri I grafted last year, but I'm think of grafting McBeth or Argelino over it if Avri is just average. 
Did you successfully graft the Tanaka scion I sent you a few years back?  If so how does it compare to the your other loquats?

[fyliu]

Did you get to taste the Avri fruit and what did you think? Avri never tasted good for me the last 3 or 4 years that I've grown it, and my location gets a good amount of heat, being 40 miles inland. Last year it was one of the last to ripen. I left them on the tree to ripen more since they were tart, but the squirrels figured out how to get into the netting and ate them.
I did get the Tanaka to graft. I don't remember eating it. Maybe this year. I didn't check to see if it has fruits.

[snowjunky]

Did you get to taste the Avri fruit and what did you think? Avri never tasted good for me the last 3 or 4 years that I've grown it, and my location gets a good amount of heat, being 40 miles inland. Last year it was one of the last to ripen. I left them on the tree to ripen more since they were tart, but the squirrels figured out how to get into the netting and ate them.
I did get the Tanaka to graft. I don't remember eating it. Maybe this year. I didn't check to see if it has fruits.

I've never tasted Avri and I never will now that you say it's avriage.  I will topwork it to an Argelino.

[beicadad]

I am interested in good loquat varieties too. Will top work my trees after this season’s harvest.