The Tropical Fruit Forum

Joe, is there a date when the sale will be open? I did send him an email but have not heard back.

My Persian has leaves but I don't see any fruits on the branches. It is about 1 year old from grafting, length is about 10 ft tall, no fruits. I hope it will have fruits in my location. Never tasted a morus nigra fruit.

It should not be a compatibility issue. I have grafted most of these mandarin combinations and never seen any with compatibility issues of the graft. Yours looks to me to be a possible albino type color starting on the scionwood. I have trees that have lighter color branches, almost yellow (branch and leaves) which are grafted on normal green branch lemon tree and it survived ok. You yellow graft will eventually go back to green so nothing to worry about (I think). If it starts to turn all light yellow (healthy branch & leaves) then it will just be a weak branch and needs the green portion of the rootstock to nurse it.

This year 2023 Peluche loquat taste report. I have much more fruits on the Peluche grafted branches this year so maybe I can get a better result from my sample taste test.

I did notice that the Peluche fruit will turn slightly yellow at full size fruits, then start to slowly turn yellow to dark yellow when it is fully ripe. One problem I notice is that some fruits will not make it to fully dark yellow skin (ripe) so the taste is inferior to those that actually hangs on the tree until they are ripe.

I'll take some brix reading of the Peluche this year, but I know before I do this, the brix numbers will be lower than last year. All my loquat varieties have lower brix number since it did not get hot here in SoCal as normal years.

I will also show some photos of the largest fruiting loquats that I grow. Here's the ones that I see that are the largest loquats:
1 Peluche, one fruit can weigh as much as 110grams
2. Imperiale (Italy), weigh as much as 100 grams
4. Gulielmo II (Italy)
5. BS-Ester
6. Khaled (newly found seedling tree), can weigh up to 120 grams
7. Vista White, not as heavy but the fruits look large since it has a round/rock like shape. I have one large fruit on my tree so when it ripens next week, I will post all the fruit photos of these loquat giants.

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If anyone has photos and weight of their largest loquat fruits, please post them here and if you know the variety name, identify it in your post.

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Alex, wow, I didn't know the Pantin fruits get so large. Very nice looking fruit.
If you take cuttings from the tree, I would be interested in buying a few small (1/4"-1/2" diameter) cuttings. I think I have a green sapote which has not had any flowers yet so I want to graft a fruit scionwood eventually on the tree. My tree is about 8 ft tall (skinny, no side branches).

SHV, if your Vista White loquat has fruits now, can you take a few photos of your fruits and post it here. I like to see how similar everyones fruit looks. Is your fruits large or on the smaller side?

This loquat has not gotten as much attention as other varieties. I think it is very unique because the fruits of the Vista White is large, round with some bumps, has the thinnest skin of any loquat I have and pure white flesh.

I will post some photos of my large tree which is over 30yrs old, those of you who have purchased the Vista White cuttings from me last year and this year when I cut most of it down, you are the lucky ones to have this variety in your collection.

Many of the fruits are just starting to ripen so I will post some photos now of the fruits on the tree, later in a week I will show the inside flesh, and take a brix reading. This year all of my loquat varieties have drop in brix reading, probably because it has been cool in April/May so the fruits just are not as sweet as last year. One of my seedling variety (KT6) last year had a brix=30, this year the fruit only had brix=20 so far. Most of the fruits are ripe now so I don't think it will get any sweeter.

If anyone else is growing the Vista White (Nate), then please post some photos of your tree & fruits so everyone can see the variation in fruits.

I have many white flesh varieties in my collection (10+) and the Vista White has the whitest color flesh.

Yes, there are some loquat fruits that only have one seed, this Vista White and others I grow. But when the fruit only has one seed, the fruit usually is on the small side. So I prefer to have the large fruits with more than one seed since it has more flesh to eat.

Nate, the shape matches some of the Vista White fruits I have seen from nursery and locally. But I'm not sure why some people who grow this variety say the fruit size is small to medium. My fruits are always on the large size. I'll post photo of the I took yesterday of this tree.

Very unusual growth. I know about the albino seedlings, I had those, they will either die off or turn back to normal green Leafs. But this weird growth is something I never saw on any seedlings before. Maybe they are results of fruits that had irradiation treated for importing here.

I love the loquat fruits so it is a fun hobby to see if there is another seedling or variety that tastes better than what I am growing. I started my quest about 7yrs ago when I only had the Gold Nugget, Vista White and Big Jim. Now I have over 90 varieties which includes 25 seedling trees that fruit (my seedlings) and it looks like I will be done with my search this year.

For these seedling tree introductions, I thought it would be nice for the people who have the tree to be able to show case their tree with excellent fruits.

The top 3 loquats (will not list now) from my collection is not a named variety from the nursery or have been around for more than 10yrs. The top 3 varieties are all seedling trees that was grown in someone's yard and not many people know about it. But anyone who loves to eat loquat will be happy to be growing at least a few of the top 5 varieties since majority of the orange flesh loquats taste very similar and it's hard to find any particular flavor difference, maybe only the high brix.  The white flesh loquats seem to have more flavor difference and just the brix will not give you the whole story on the taste. White flesh loquats will be sweet but tart at the same time, if you pick them early it will be more tart (some people prefer this) and if you let it fully ripen it becomes deliciously sweet, more than the orange flesh. So far, the brix on white flesh seems to be the highest (up to brix=30, from last year's testing).

For me, I don't think there will be another loquat better than what I already grow, but everyone will have their personal preference so I will not be ranking the varieties, I will leave it up to the individual person to decide.

Update: 5/22/23

I was able to graft about 15 or so on small rooted red mulberry and some of my rooted cuttings. So if the graft takes in a few more months, I will start contacting you on the list in sequential order. The red mulberry seedling I purchase a year ago grew very slowing so I couldn't use them until this year. The ones I grafted to my rooted & seedling trees are a little larger so it will cost more. Price is based on the size of the plant I grafted to, and cost to ship. Probably will range from $30 for small to $50 for a little older rootstock, plus shipping cost.

You will have the option to pay for it when I send you the message or you can pass and let the next person on the list buy it. The first 10 people on the list may be able to choose which size grafted plant they would like to purchase, I will number each plant and show the cost, plus shipping cost for each one. The others on the list (11-20) will not have the option to pick, I will show the photo of the plant, if you don't want it, then it will go to the next person in line.

My grafted branch is holding fruits now, but I see some smaller side branches that can be used for grafting so I will try to finish grafting to cover the 20 people on the list. I will not be adding any more people to the list. Hopefully by next year there will be enough people growing this variety so others can sell/share from their trees.

Seanny, wow, that's how I need to do it. My seedlings are starting to drop most of the leaves and some new ones just starting to grow again.

I will separate them into individual pots and try something similar to your method.
Thanks.