Show Your Loquat Fruits - 2023

[sc4001992]

Dan,

Not sure of your question. Are you asking if I have some photos of my loquat trees in pots that have fruits now?

I have a Peluche in a pot but the fruits on that is still green. If I want to eat the loquat fruits, I graft them on my in ground trees since it will have much more fruits than if I let the ones in the pots hold fruits.

Most of my loquat trees in pots are used to graft new varieties or just have every branch grafted with different varieties so not really holding much fruit yet. Sometimes I use these potted ones for trading.

[12Zodiac]

Yes, I want to see how well loquats grow in containers. I have a Kosmic that needs up potting or put it in the ground but running out of yard real states.

[sc4001992]

Loquats grow well in containers. You should be able to keep them in 15 gal pots for years before you need to move them up to larger pots. If you see any roots coming out from the bottom hole then you know you should re-pot the tree again. Go to some nurseries like Armstrong and you should see older loquats in 15 gallon pots, those tree are probably older than 5 yrs old. Also to keep the tree from getting to tall, just top the tree at about 6-7 ft tall and let the side branches grow out about 3-4 feet. You should get a few dozen fruits each year on that size tree. It's not like a kumquat tree where you can keep it in a pot and get hundreds of fruits each year.

Like I said, I don't grow my loquats in containers, they are just temporary trees so that I can graft a particular variety before I give it away or trade the tree, so I don't keep them in anything larger than 5-7 gallons.

[Tropheus76]

Mine that fruited did their thing back in late Feb, early March and are long gone now. Crazy to be hearing about loquats in mid April. Ripe mango season is coming up soon.

[sc4001992]

Yes, it is interesting that you guys in FL are maybe 2-3 months ahead of us here in SoCal.  My lychee tree is just flowering now, on all my branches so I should get plenty of fruits this season.  Loquats will start ripening from April - July here. This is a good year for me, I have so much Big Jim fruits on my multi-grafted tree that I need to thin them out (mostly ripening now) so the branches don't break off. Also this is the first year I'm getting fruits from majority of my grafted branches (2-3yrs old). I should have thinned out my Big Jim branches so the other 84 varieties could have grown more but my neighbors and friends are waiting to get some fruits, so I let my tree grow without thinning the branches. Alll my mulberry trees just came out of dormancy and are holding plenty of green fruis on all the branches, just crazy fruiting this year. The Thai Dwarf has thousands of fruits again and many fruits are now ripening for the neighbors to come pick fruits.

I did notice who has been eating my ripe loquat fruits, it was the baby hummingbirds that I helped shelter from the rain on my loquat tree. Now I have another new nest with two babies in my other loquat tree so I can't cut the hanging branches with fruits since the nest is on it.

[K-Rimes]

I see loquat fruit ripening up all over town, and especially on my favorite unknown tree in town. I will see if I can encounter the neighbors to get some early fruit and ideally to grab scions which I still owe you Kaz! Got a brix tester now to really put these guys to the test. They are the best I've ever had. This weekend will have 80f+ temps and that will really spike the sweetness

[sc4001992]

Kevin, yes, looking forward to adding your special loquat to my collection. I have a branch on my multi-grafted tree for your loquat. Think of a name for that variety. Glad you got the brix meter so you can take the reading of the ripe fruit.

I will start taking some readings soon when the fruits are fully ripe. It's interesting that when I took a few test readings on my Big Jim fruits now, the average brix was 10-11. But I also tested one wrinkled but sill soft fruit and it had a brix of 20-21. So, taking readings of overly ripe fruit doesn't count. But just for curiosity I plan to take a few readings of my seedling tree when that fruit is wrinkled to see if it will get up to 35-40. This seedling fruit had a legit brix =29 last season.

[ryanscion]

Yes, I want to see how well loquats grow in containers. I have a Kosmic that needs up potting or put it in the ground but running out of yard real states.

On my walk through a small neighborhood community in San Diego I saw this loquat tree in what looks like a 20 gallon pot. It was fruiting and looked pretty good for being in a container. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the owner otherwise I would have asked more about it. Hope this helps provide some perspective.

[sc4001992]

That loquat looks healthy with lots of nice looking fruits. It looks like another week and those fruits should taste very good. Wonder what variety it is, the branches look a little on the skinny side but that could be due to the pot its in. I do notice that any seedling tree grows much taller in a short amount of time and seedling trees are much more vigorous.

[sc4001992]

Here's an example of my seedling trees that I planted last summer. This was a batch of 50 seeds from my KT9-Lindsey fruits that I planted after the fruits finished in June. It had most of the seeds germinated in this black rectangualr tub. I put about 12" of potting mix in this tub and now after just watering it for a year, the soil went down to about 8" now. Since it was over crowded some of the seedlings started to die off, also from not getting regular watering from me.

Today, the tub has only 2 survivors and they have taken over the soil. The small one is 3 ft tall and the big one is 4 ft tall. I will move these into the ground and let it grow until it has its first fruits in 4-6 yrs.

[K-Rimes]

Starting to ripen up, but not quite there. Today was nicely warm though, and this weekend should be HOT so that'll be perfect for next week.


Very productive big tree


Weighed in at 17 grams, and had a brix reading of 16. This is a small one for the tree, but only the small ones in full sun are fully ripe, the vast majority of the tree is green or at best yellow. Sometimes orange blush outside, but yellow on the shaded part of fruit. Looks to be a good year.

Kaz, I finally got you a scion, should be good for 2-3 grafts I will ship it to you tomorrow. The more I look at this tree and the leaves, the more I suspect it's a Big Jim - but I leave that up to you to decide, Mr. Kaz.

[sc4001992]

Kevin, great news. I can finally add your variety "Old San Marcos" to my tree.

Don't worry, I have 3 different sources of Big Jim on my tree. Some of the fruits have different shapes but so far my original Big Jim tree (rootstock of the multi-grafted tree) seems to have the best fruits of the Big Jim's I have grafted on it.

[ItFruitsOrItGetsTheHosex2]

Found a large loquat tree in a parking lot.
Fruit not too sweet, but fairly large. I prefer them on the tart side.
Tree was covered in fruit (the most ripe all pecked by birds)

[sc4001992]

Wow, that's a nice-looking loquat tree with all those fruits, thanks for posting the photos.

[Bush2Beach]

Thanks for photo documenting some of this years harvest.
I love see’ing photo’s of the different varieties coming into fruition.
I’m hoping to be in the right place and  time to contribute something worthwhile to this thread sometime soon.

[sc4001992]

Ok guys and gals. I'm sure some of you have loquats ripening now.

Please post some photos of your ripe fruits.

I'm especially interested in seeing photos of the Peluche loquat fruits you have. Looks like my Peluche grafts are all holding much more fruits than previous years, maybe it's due to cutting some scionwood for the free give away. This year one of my grafted tree which had about 12-14 fruits last year has about 80 fruits and they look big.

I'll take some photos today, the Peluche is not ripe yet but has started turn yellow.

[Reedo]

This is "Rita", a friend's seedling tree. Its flavor profile is pretty similar to many of the other orange seedling trees I've tasted fruit from, but it is a little richer and sweeter. Pear, apple, grape, apricot. Good acid/sugar balance. Moderate flesh to seed ratio. I'm not sure if it deserves to be distributed. I have about 15 varieties of loquats, but this is the first of my grafts to fruit, so I haven't seen how it stacks up against the others.

[sc4001992]

Your Rita fruit looks nice, kinda of different shape, and it looks like a white/yellow flesh fruit. Is the flesh color more yellow than orange? Do you notice if your fruits have 1 or 2 seeds or the usual 3-5 seeds in them?

You can always submit your seedling scionwood to me if you want it compared to other varieties I grow. I think I'm over 90 varieties if I count the new seedlings submitted. I will not distribute any Rita if you prefer to be exclusive. I have 17 seedling new seedlings on the list. I graft all the new seedling varieties submitted on the same tree so next year I can do a fair taste test and report back.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=50896.0

[Reedo]

Your Rita fruit looks nice, kinda of different shape, and it looks like a white/yellow flesh fruit. Is the flesh color more yellow than orange? Do you notice if your fruits have 1 or 2 seeds or the usual 3-5 seeds in them?

You can always submit your seedling scionwood to me if you want it compared to other varieties I grow. I think I'm over 90 varieties if I count the new seedlings submitted. I will not distribute any Rita if you prefer to be exclusive. I have 17 seedling new seedlings on the list. I graft all the new seedling varieties submitted on the same tree so next year I can do a fair taste test and report back.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=50896.0

Hi Kaz, I'm supposed to visit my friend Rita in the near future to collect scions. I don't think she'd mind if it was shared around, but I'll ask. Her fruit is on the medium/small side, usually with 1-3 seeds. The fruit/seed ratio isn't great, but they're pretty flavorful. We have been surprised by how much we like hers. I sent you a PM about the Big Jim scions. I'll see if I can get both to send to you at the same time.

[Reedo]

Thanks for photo documenting some of this years harvest.
I love see’ing photo’s of the different varieties coming into fruition.
I’m hoping to be in the right place and  time to contribute something worthwhile to this thread sometime soon.

If you happen to need two little enthusiastic helpers, let us know! We're visiting another farm today to taste three of their loquat selections to compare with others. I'll report back if we taste anything exceptional! 

[mbmango]

First year tasting from grafts from the last 2 years, so just enjoying some of the possibilities. 


Clockwise from left: a solo Peluche, Argelino, Gold Nugget, Mogi, Harvest, Tori, Vista White


Clockwise from top left: Gold Nugget (30g), Mogi (34g), Argelino (67g), Peluche (116g), Tori (55g), Vista White (50g)

[John B]

First year tasting from grafts from the last 2 years, so just enjoying some of the possibilities. 


Clockwise from left: a solo Peluche, Argelino, Gold Nugget, Mogi, Harvest, Tori, Vista White


Clockwise from top left: Gold Nugget (30g), Mogi (34g), Argelino (67g), Peluche (116g), Tori (55g), Vista White (50g)

Pretty awesome. Interesting that they all appear to be the same seed to flesh ratio.

[mbmango]

Part of it is the presentation, and also the particular ones picked then.  I tried to make it more consistent this time.





Left to right, top to bottom:
Peluche, Argelino, Tori, Vista White
Peluche (source #2, probably not?), Big Jim, Harvest, Mogi
Wolfe, Aiden, Gold Nugget, Avri

So, Argelino seems to have the best ratio this year so far.  Peluche & Vista White are pretty close though.  I only had 2 Tori's at all, so they were pretty large given they were the only fruits on their respective branches.  Not sure what they normally look like.  Gold Nugget has had the worst ratio overall.  Wolfe & Aiden were also pretty bad, but they were on an outlying branch that hasn't been the most vigorous, so I'm not sure if they are typically so small.  The rest are pretty similar.  Not pictured here are Champagne & Sunset

[John B]

Wow! Yes, big difference. Thank you for the images.