Loquat

Ohhh fresh loquats and loquat jam!! I hope it grows to be a beauty for you!!

Think I'm in for a bit of a wait before I can enjoy fresh loquats :-D

I feel ingnorant but I am not familiar with loquat. Can describe to me?

The fruit looks a bit like a small orange. I must admit, I don't recall ever eating one, so I can't tell you what they taste like. The tree supposedly is quite ornamental. The leaves are large and my seedlings have a grey fuzz on the leaves. The flowers are supposed to smell very nice indeed.

We have a gigantic loquat tree in out yard. It's gotta be about 40-50 years old and about 50 ft tall. If you let the fruit mature long enough, it's supposed to get sweet. Ours shribbled up while I was waiting for it to get sweet, lol. I find them very sour. I know a few people who are gaga over loquats, though. Our fruit is about the size of a crabapple and kind of pear-shaped, and orange in color. When peeling the fuzzy skin from the fruit, your fingers get stained. Try not to get it on your clothes. They have a pretty large seed for the size of the fruit. Between the loquat and the avavcado (which) I love we have mass amounts of leaf litter, which is composted, but makes quite a mess all over the yard. Nobody really eats them around here...we were talking about chopping it down. There's an apartment complex maybe 3 or 4 stories high across the alley behind us and the loquat does provide and nice screening, so it'll probably stay. I think that it will do well in the UK. Two winters ago we had a pretty hard freeze (for us anyway) and the next year it produced more fruit than I've ever seen it produce. Good luck with your seedling :)

Thanks for that Tasteyg! I don't think I've ever seen a mature loquat tree. My friend that gave me the seeds said they are handy over here, but don't usually produce seed because the summer is not quite warm or long enough for them. Mine WILL NOT get to 50ft tall!!!! It will get pruned long before it gets that big - it was only last year that I had a conifer of about that height cut down - regained about 15ft at the end of my garden, which has become the veggie plot. Not going through all that again! x-D

Hi Sid,
the picture you have of a baby Loquat looks just like mine. Can I put it in a pot for the patio? Will it need taking inside in the winter?

Hi Pam, yes I'm sure your plant will be fine in a big pot on your patio. This photo was taken back in 2008. The plant is now about 3ft tall and in a 30cm pot. Have to say, he looks a bit sickly after this horrible winter we've just had, so I've got my fingers crossed that he'll pull through. They do say these are hardy in the UK (but don't flower/fruit). But I do think this winter would have been too severe for my tree had it not been in my cold greenhouse all winter. One problem I have had with him is that he does seem to get attacked by catapillars which really ruin the look of the nice big leaves, so do look out for those! Good luck with it :-)

I'll let you know how mine does. Thanks for the info. I:)