Loquat Harvest

[Tim]

A co-worker brought in a huge bag full of loquats taken from his seedling tree, possibly dropped by some bird in his yard.  I've had fruits of poor to pretty good eating quality from many commonly available cultivars and seedling trees, but so far, nothing tops this tree.  At peak of ripeness, or close to, it's very sweet with a light sub acid balance.  IMO, it's the perfect balance ... similar to Edward mangoes on the sweet/tart contrast.  I'm so hooked 

Does anyone know if loquats grow true to seeds?  When is it best to graft them?  may-aug?  I've also read cleft is the way to go as well.  I'd love to try grafting scions from this tree.

[lkailburn]

Wow that's some nice looking fruit! From what i've heard they do not grow true to seed but that most seedlings will produce somewhat edible fruit eventually. But if you have a good speciman the only way is to graft. I don't know when the best time to graft loquat is but..when the time comes would you mind sending a stick or two my way 

Hopefully someone can help answer your question with some personal experience

-Luke

[simon_grow]

I've heard they don't come true to seed.  My friend has a huge tree planted from some fruit I gave him about 10years ago and they are definitely different.  If you want a good large fruited variety that tastes good, try "Big Jim".  It gets really large without thinning and will get even larger with thinning. 
Simon

[eNorm]

Hi Tim,

I've grafted seedling trees when they were pushing a lot of new growth.  I honestly don't recall the time of year, but to the best of my recollection, it was around spring.  I used a cleft graft on 3 seedling trees and they all took.  One took a year to fruit, the 2nd took 2 years after grafting, and the 3rd has not yet to flower.  It may work out next year on it's 3rd year?

I have other seedlings growing for grafting, but I may likely just get rid of.  From the fruit I get from my trees and family member trees, there's just too much fruit to consume.  Let me know if you need a seedling tree to graft on.

eNorm

[fruitlovers]

Hi Tim, loquat has a lot of variation from seed, that is why grafted cultivars are sold. They are very easy to graft with cleft graft. That looks like very nice loquat fruits so you should try to graft some scions whenever you can get the material. You might also want to plant some seeds from that tree if you have room to experiment because it's also possible that some seedlings will be superior to the mother plant.

[Tim]

Thank you GENTS for the responses and advice, cleft it is.  Putting some seeds out in hope of an even better seedling sounds incredibly enticing but I don't have the room to play with at the moment   

Norm, thank you for the offer but I do have several 1' tall seedlings I can play around with but they do need to thicken up a bit more.