A few days ago, Allen The Beekeeper and IÂ made a sacred pilgrimage to visit The Mystical Loquat of CCF.
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| World’s best loquat tree… ever. |
I’ve written about this tree before here. This spring it’s outdone itself with production (though as you can tell from the photo, most of the lower fruit have been picked already).
Unlike some loquat trees, the fruit on this one are very sweet and quite large as loquats go.
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| That’s a big loquat. |
I’m amazed by the taste of these fruit. Very good. Additionally, the shape of this tree is perfect for harvesting. When you don’t “limb up” a loquat, it can become a big ball of branches, making the fruit very easy to harvest.
Confession: this tree is so awesome that I walked up to it and yelled “YOU’RE SO AWESOME I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES!”
Not literally, of course. I just mean I want to propagate it.
I picked plenty of fruit and will be planting the seeds in my nursery so the genes of this great tree are passed on to future generations of loquats. Look me up in a couple of years and I’ll sell you a nice one.
You can have greener thumbs by this weekend!
16 comments
Aren't these trees also known as Japanese Plum? I have a small one in my yard. Its too close to my home and have should cut the sucker down.
Yes. Great fruit, too, even on the seedling types sold by landscapers.
I don't believe they have particularly invasive roots… you might do okay with it being near the house.
I think, because these trees grow so easily here in central Florida, that their fruit is underrated. I find them to be delicious (my tree produces sweet, somewhat large fruit as well). What's really cool is that they are virtually a carefree tree. I've never had to spray mine for insects or disease. Of course it's usually full of birds too. :-)
Carefree is right. I've seen them growing wild in the woods on occasion. Probably thanks to the aforementioned birds.
Wish we could have these in Tennessee! I see that they are quite prolific in middle Florida when I looked at the fallingfruit.org map.
Yes. You're really close to their range, though. They would live there once established… but won't fruit because of the bloom timing.
I live in Knoxville Tennessee. Would I be able to have any fruits at all if I plant one. I was told that we are on zone 7.
Getting fruit will be near impossible there, unfortunately. You might get a loquat to live, but they bloom in the winter and the blooms aren’t cold-hardy. If you plant them right next to a south-facing wall and espalier, it could work though.
My parents have a productive, mature loquat in their front yard. I'm guessing it's about 45' tall so most of the fruit is unreachable. Should I just lop off the top to bring everything closer to the ground?
I think that would be too huge a shock for the tree. Enjoy the shade from that one… and plant some smaller ones.
That tree is quite beautiful too.
It would make a good privacy hedge.
It looks a bit like the grass around it has been sprayed,
but the loquat leaves look healthy near the ground.
my neighbors have three beautiful trees, loaded with fruit. I want to knock on their door and tell them what treasure they have!
Go ye over there, Patti, and tellest them. If they see not thy point, then beggest thou them to allow thee to pick!!!
I was in Dade City Pasco County last week and had a loquat feast http://blog.logicgirl.com/2014/04/habitat-for-humanity-and-rv.html Thanks to your website, I'm educating others about Loquat. And I spit seeds to help propagate ;-)
Good woman!
We had four beautiful loquat trees that bore delicious fruit. Unfortunately, 2 of them died after the Texas freeze in 2021, the other two almost didn’t make it, but are now growing more like a bush. I was told not to cut anything for the first 3 years after the freeze, other people tell me to cut some of the branches at the bottom to help it grow. What would you advice?
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