Loquat Tree

Phil@Tyalgum says...
Admittedly the tree does grow quite large but the roots don't seem to be surface invasive or damage pipes. I had a largish specimen in Woodend which I was able to grow other plants underneath relatively easily compared to some other evergreen trees. It may end up smallish anyway seeing it's almost been bonsaied all these years. I think they're a great addition to a garden. I managed to air-layer the Woodend tree before I moved up here as it is an unusual white fruited type, just a chance seedling with very thin skin and juicy fruit. Glad I brought it with me.

Pictures - Click to enlarge
Picture: 1

Phil@Tyalgum says...
I think it was at least ten years, I fed it with suphate of potash one autumn and got the first flowers that winter. It blooms May/June so good idea to sprinkle some around the tree with the first autumn rains. Seedlings of course take a lot longer to flower than named/grafted varieties. Wood ash from the fire is also helpful.

brad says...
The Loquat at our new house is sad. No photos yet, but most fruit is mottled, a bit small and we couldn't find any unmottled ones that were also ripe (maybe birds take those ones?). The tree shape needs a ladder, but in a space where there's room.

Can I get any general advice:
Are they long lived? (this one is at least 10 years old)
Do they take/like rejuvenation pruning?
Likely diseases?
Typical spray regime?
Typical water / fertilizer requirements?
Would you pull it out and buy another?

Anecdote: A friend came over all excited "Have you got a Loquat?" and went downhill to "That must be the worst tree in the district". I'd like to make her a lot happier next season

krazykangaroo says...
If anyone can get there, there is a loquat in the cave gardens at Mt Gambier (SA). It is really old so I doubt it is a named variety. Its fruit is sooo delicious, exactly like apricots with lots of flesh around smallish seeds and the skin is not tough.
I grew some seedlings from it many years ago but they died while I was moving I think. I must get more seed to grow next year before the council decides to take it out one day.

Julie says...
Brad, is the fruit ripe enough to eat? With no fruit fly? Then you're lucky (I don't get it in loquats either).

They are seen as the 'in-between' carrier of fruit fly, and many recommend not planting loquats for that reason. Seems it's not always true.

I've found I can get to like almost anything if I have grown it myself!

Yes, good idea to take your time and have a plan.

Jason says...
Krazykangaroo I'll go over and look at the tree in the cave gardens. They are very easy to graft so might as well flog a bit and try my luck. I have quite a few seedlings around here from various trees I've walked past over the years. I have never found one that had a bad fruit, some have larger fruit than others but getting seed from a local tree that bears lots of fruit in your climate always seems a better idea than a selected variety that only grows and fruits well in the subtropics to me

Jimmy says...
I call it anthracnose, but not sure if it really is, mancozeb would be the cure but you normally get enough to feed an army untreated and let the rest go to the birds.

Brad says...
Perth - rain... not likely!

thanks for that. not seen it full blown before - prevention better than cure. harvest should really be around now, I'd say this crop is for the birds.

Brad says...
We managed a few edibles today. I don't know any other varieties but taste was ok (a bit apricotty) and enough flesh to seed to be worth it - better ratio than olives :)

Copper spray I've got, I'll get some mancozeb

PS anyone in the area there's heaps of trees visible from streets around the top of gooseberry hill rd

Jason says...
Krazykangaroo, I got to the cave gardens today and got seed and a little tiny bit of wood to graft. Only have one piece so wish me luck. Then again I haven't had a loquat graft fail yet so I figured one piece is enough. The fruit on the tree isn't quite ripe yet, maybe in another week or two but it's close enough for seed collecting. You are right the tree must be ancient, it's huuuuuuge. What I'll probably do is graft the piece of the tree to a leader on one of my seedlings then grow out a few of the seeds and re graft it to them next year. Then you can have one.

I've been re-practicing my grafting on grafting on avocados, It's not really good timing since the scions are mid growth rather than at bud swell but they look like they are all going to stick. I kind of cheated and kept them in the cupboard for a while after they were gra
fted

grub says...
gidday can some one tell me the best time of year to graft loquats?many thanks in advance

Jason says...
You are supposed to be able to graft Loquat any time, but I did some test grafts this year in early spring and they all took.

So far all my Avocado grafts seem to have taken, the early ones I did a couple weeks ago definitely have. I'll try and explain how I graft the Avocados?.

I take a seedling that's about 20cm tall and cut it to be grafted at the point where the stem stop being really soft and bendy. Then I chop it off there. I also have a glass of water that's been boiled then cooled to keep the scions in after I've cut them. I use a 80 cent 9mm box cutter to cut the scions into any shaped grafting cut I feel like at the time, do a cut on the rootstock so it joins together good the wrap the grafted area with grafting tape. After this I would have in the old days I would have tied a plastic bag over it and had a little bit of water inside the bag before I tied it on. These days I just wrap some cling wrap around the scion.

Then I put the whole thing in the dark, somewhere warmish and leave them there for a few days or a week (I used to put them straight into a shadehouse and that went ok too). Once I think they have been sitting still long enough to have joined a few cells together I put them in the greenhouse. Once the little bits of stems that used to have leaves attacked (that I cut off just leaving a little stub left) , well once they fall off you know it's not fair off growing, leave it a little longer than that, then remove the glad wrap and that's about job done. I also cut the rootstock's buds out all the way down the stem once I'm sure it's joined together.

I'm going to improve on this soon as I've ordered some proper stretchy grafting film to wrap the scions in and some parafilm-M also (to replace the ordinary grafting tape and glad wrap). When I used plastic bags and put them in the shade house I would get about 70% success but I'd like to get much closer to 100% now that I'm older and ?smarter? or at least just older.

I can't seem to graft white sapote at such a young age as I can with avocado I need to graft white sapote when the wood has gone hard (not green)

Jason says...
Nah loquats are easy to graft I just do them on trees that are planted out (that's the best way to do sapotes too). I'm just using loquat scions that are hardened wood, tied up with a plastic bag over it, if it's going to get hot then put a paper bag over the plastic. I did one graft that was super rough and it still stuck and grew so I'm convinced they are very easy to graft.

If you graft sapotes from hardened wood that has some buds about to break and graft onto a tree in the ground it's a 100% thing, very easy also. I've grafted Avocados in the ground like that too and it works fairly good (not as easy as sapotes) but I get impatient with waiting for things to get big enough to graft so I'm always trying to graft smaller and smaller things. I like Avocados because I can graft them smaller than most things

Jason says...
Lennard if the cambiums are joined and the scion doesn't loose moisture or get too hot/cold then it pretty much has to work. Do you remove the buds from the rest of the plant so it has no option other than to grow out the one you have grafted onto it?. The plant prefers to grow it's own buds so you need to keep on top of those for a while until the grafted one pushes

Jason says...
I don't know if it _needs_ to be hardened growth (cut where it's brown on both pieces not green), but that's what I've been using and it works. That kind of wood can last for months without being totally joined so it gives plenty of time to heal. I've been grafting them onto plants in the ground so far but I'm sure in pots would also work. Plants in pots tend to be a little more difficult to graft because they are weaker plants but easier because you can shelter the graft better. So it works out almost the same (I still think plants in the ground are easier overall)

I use hardened wood on white sapotes also, but you can use softish (medium) wood on Avocados