This is a pic of our Advance loquat. This variety has been shy about fruiting until this year. It seems to be cold sensitive. We had a mild winter and BINGO!

In the close-up of the fruit, Advance is on the left and Big Jim is on the right. Big Jim is hands down my favorite as far as taste goes. Anyone else grow these?

Ned

Ned, the picture of the full tree is AMAZING. I have a small Loquat, do you know how old or how big a Loquat has to be before it begins to bloom? - Millet

Millet, I am not sure but I believe the juvenile period is about 4 or 5 years - maybe a little longer. Like citrus, the wood remembers it's age, so if you graft them, they will often fruit the year after grafting.

Ned

YUM! What an awesome tree!!!

These aren't much in comparison to Neds massive amount of fruit pictured above but I wanted to share pics of my potted loquats in fruit. They are just starting to color and ripen so there's not much contrast between the leaves and fruit yet. I only have Big Jim and McBeth but I just got wood from a few other varieties that I hope to get grafted in the next couple of weeks. The Big Jim does have large tasty fruit but the McBeth seems to be more productive for me so far. These plants are about 5ft in height and width.

Here's Big Jim:


Big Jim fruit:


McBeth:


McBeth fruit:


So fruiting potted loquats are do-able that is if you've got some space for them since they really want to spread out and you don't mind doing heavy lifting every so often.

Glad you brought this up again. Ned is the one who identied my pic of loquat tree from Fl last year. I brought fruits home & planted seeds & threw all out except for one which is prolly rootbound now in 4X4X14 in. tall tree pot. Don't know what kind it is though. They tasted good except for big seed. Growing better than citrus now...will have to pot up soon.

You trees look good Eyeckr. Mine have a nice crop this year too. I haven't took any pictures yet, but I have started tasting a few. One I got from Stan's, which we thought would be more hardy (turned out not to be), is quite tasty and makes a good size fruit, so it is a keeper.

One thing I have read is that they are graft compatible with quince, and that quince rootstock will dwarf the loquat. I have never been able to get quince seed to come up, so I have never been able to try this. I might try to order some quince rootstock, if I ever get the time. I am sure it would make an good rootstock for a potted loquat. Even if it didn't, a smaller tree would be easier to protect from the cold. Anyone ever had any experience with this?

Ned

Eyecker, how old are your loquat trees? From seed or grafted?
I just checked my leaves & they look more like Big Jim as the leaves are wider. They are also fuzzy & thick & w/pointy edges. I gotta wait 4-5 years for fruits!!!
Ned, I never saw so many fruits on loquat tree as yours, but I only saw few trees in FL. Yours is loaded! When did it start blossoms?
Dr Bob had one in his yard, but I didn't see fruits...don't know what kind it was.

Ned I've thought about grafting them to quince. I have a regular fruiting quince in the ground but I saw dwarf flowering quince @ HD the other day. I may pick one of those up to experiment with. I can't wait to see your trees while I'm at the SPS meeting this month.

Patty my loquats are grafted. I shipped both of them to myself from California on my last couple of trips there. It's very difficult to find named varieties anywhere in my area.

Dr Bob's loquats are unnamed varieties. He has given me some rootstock to graft some Big Jim. This year he has managed to keep fruit on his trees throughout the winter. He says he'll be lucky to get some fruit before the birds make their attack.

Patty,

Grafted loquats are like citrus and will bloom the first year, if budded or grafted with mature wood. They are very easy to graft, like their relatives, apples and pears. I find the cleft graft works good, but I would guess the bark graft would do ok too.

I have to admit that one reason for the load of loquats last year was our mild winter - it never went below 30 degrees. Every loquat in the area had limbs straining to hold the load.

After saying I had not been able to germinate quince, I looked at a couple pots of seeds that I had got from a friend in Mississippi in January, and it looks like every seed is up. I had chilled them in the frig (started to say icebox and caught myself LOL) before planting, and I think that helped. You are welcome to some of these Eyeckr. Remind me when you get here.

Ned