Got Loquats? The Quest for a March Ripening Fruit May be Over 

Wow Carol, I love your story. I (Duane) grew up in SoCal and we had 4 fruit trees and most of the time we didn't have to water them at all. Being here for over 24 years now we've grown to respect that fact that life requires water and it's a precious resource.

Ooh, I like that. This is a completely new farm animal for us, so we're going to need a lot of suggestions from everyone. We visited Rosie yesterday and she is definitely a ball of energy. A lot like a toddler....on crack!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm growing up farming dairy goats and now a mom of four toddlers I can confirm your assessment is completely accurate.

Hey Penny! I have not tried a Bradenton loquat before, but so far I haven't found one I haven't liked. If you're suggesting it I suppose we should try to track one down!

Hey Chet! That's what we're thinking also. We visited Rosie yesterday and she was literally climbing everything in sight. These are both registered mini-Nubian goats, so we are planning on breeding them. Multiplication is a good thing there!

Great suggestion Kelly. Our breeder suggested the same and Lori stated looking for those yesterday. Now that would be funny watching a goat try to balance on a bowling ball! Ok, I know you didn't mean it that way, but that would be hilarious!

Great suggestion here. I was looking back at a stack of logs just today thinking that might be a good option. We visited her today and she was happy to jump up on pretty much any/everything!

Hello in Tucson! They're a really tasty, unique fruit that is definitely worth trying. Best description I can give is a mix between a citrus and cantaloupe. We know just how you feel with those mandarins. Our citrus trees are just covered with blooms right now and it smells amazing!

I know, right? Looking at these today I think we'll have our first harvest in the next day or so. They may be a bit tangy, but Lori is dying to have one!

Hey Eric! So true with Lori. We had planned to have her stop working in the Fall and boy are we glad we did! Still trying to figure out why Raintree won't ship those out earlier. They clearly have them available, so why they would sit on them until now is beyond me.

I had a bare root order come in from them late last year as well. When I asked if they could ship it earlier, explaining the temps here, they refused. It's like they don't care.

@@TheFlametalon I don't know much about them. We ordered berry starts from them years ago and they did fine, but I don't remember them being here so late. They must just run a seasonal staff for Fall - Spring and not have the labor or something.

That's a solid suggestion. We need to find a few more toys for them to jump on and those seem to be a winner for most folks! Love the Cog Hill crew!

I'm glad to hear the Planting Justice starts are doing well. We've had very good success with them as well. Ah goats. I didn't think about roses, but our neighbors sheep seemed to really like the roses and apple trees in pots. Same with the mulberry trees. I didn't think about the wood chip pile, but I imagine she would be in heaven up there! For now we're going to keep them penned up unless Lori is out and about with them. Goats running loose on the farm would not be a very good thing for our fruit trees!

Hey Jesse! This really is our favorite time of year. The trees go from looking like dead sticks to beautiful green and sporting tasty morsels!

Yeah, we're in for it with these goats. Never raised them before, so it's completely new to us. Biggest concern off the bat is making sure they don't devour our trees everywhere!

I love those names for your daughters! Violet is really adorable. We haven't met her yet, because her owner is on the other side of town, but we can't wait!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm 🤗🤗🤗🤗

Funny story there. Our very first fruit tree was a lemon that we planted back in 2001. It was in rocks, with a single drip emitter about a foot from the tree and we used tree stakes to fertilize...when we remembered! By 2006 we were giving away more lemons than we would ever be able to use! What variety of lemon do you have?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm its a lisbon lemon. Similar story here. It was in my shower for two years only light through a sun roof.(turned a bathroom into a grow room, unsuccessfully). Couldn't even stand on its own when in planted it two years ago. Now it has a trunk as thick as a baseball bat and more lemon starts than i can count.

Hey Kylan. Thanks for the kind words. As you know, there are a few of us around town that try as many different varieties as we can to see just how far we can push the envelope! Best description of a loquat is a cross between a mild citrus and cantaloupe or similar melon. We're bringing in goats prior to sheep mainly because of Lori. She loves goats and now that she's home we (read that as she :) can make time for milking etc. These are registered Mini-Nubian goats, so we plan on breeding them. We do plan on sheep as well, but are still waiting on that. Glad to hear that peach is doing well. Fresh peaches from a tree are VERY hard to beat!

We had a feeling we would wind up with a few that sprouted, but you're right. It sure looks like they were just fine after 5 years!

Hey Abid! All this time and we had no idea you were in Georgia! One thing I (Duane) remember about the few times I traveled to Georgia was everything peaches. Street names, business names, everything! I imagine your blackberries come back once you warm up a bit. When is your last frost date?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm ,We have everything peaches, That is true

I'm glad you got something out of that close up on the organza bags Margaret. We use them all the time, so it's second nature for us, but not everyone has used them to cover fruit before! We're hopeful on these loquats. We had a Yehuda on the old property and it was very tasty. We've been told the Champagne is one of the best and given the size of the fruit, we're hopeful!

Glad you're enjoying the content. I (Duane) am originally from Gardena. As a kid we had a loquat tree in one of the houses we were renting and I remember eating myself sick on the things every year!

Love hearing this Maria. So many folks have never had one of these and they are definitely missing out!

Great notes on these. We will have a problem from time to time as well as we have hit the 20's on occasion out here away from the city. Timing sounds the same for us here with flowering in December(ish) right before we start seeing the chance for 20 degree mornings. We'll have to appreciate those years when we have milder winters and count these as a special treat!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Interesting anecdote from this year's loquat season in Houston. The trees in our neighborhood had tons of flowers that were loaded with bees in late November and early December. Fruit set was really good, and the trees were loaded with little green fruit. We had two freezes in February, one got down to 23F (-5C) and the other down 25F (-4C). Some of the fruit was killed immediately, but I was amazed to see the majority made it through. Two weeks ago, the fruit on most trees was still tiny (nickel to quarter sized) but started turning yellow and falling off the trees, some still attached to a piece of stem. I tried some of the fruit: it was sour but flavorful. The weirdest part was that there were no seeds inside of any of the fruit. According to some research I did, it turns out that after fruit set, a temperature of 25F or less will kill the seed in the fruit. I guess it takes the tree a while to figure it out, but when it does it cuts it's losses and drops the fruit before they're mature. I was caught by surprise by this so didn't get a chance to harvest any of the neighborhood fruit. If it happens to you my suggestion would be to save as much of the fruit as you can and make wine from it using 71B yeast. This strain can convert a good portion of the malic acid (the predominant acid in loquats) into softer lactic acid, which might just be enough to tame the high acidity of the underripe/immature fruits. How's that for rambling? Good luck with those loquats!

@@powerman7776 wow, now this is news to me. I was aware that frosts can damage and/or kill either the fruit or the flowers, but it's interesting that it does so by killing the seed. Solid suggestion on the wine. After eating these for the last couple of weeks it has us thinking about wine for these....as happens with most of the fruit we grow here!

They really are beautiful trees. The leaves are very unique and the orange fruit hanging from the tree makes them very beautiful.

Hey Tina! I (Duane) am a Cali native and would do the same as a kid. They were all over the place in Gardena.

Hmm, I'm not sure on that one actually. They do ok with the cold and have a hard time with extremely hot, dry weather. Growing up as a kid (Duane) in Gardena, CA (nearly LA) they were everywhere.

Oh man, that is a real bummer! That's a tough one to get around with fruit on the trees. It's one of the many reasons we grow so many different varieties. If we lose one, there's usually something else we can depend on. Still a bummer for you!

Hey Alex! We're trying to change things up with the music. It seems to be hit or miss sometimes! Solid suggestion on the sprinkler. We purchased a tripod sprinkler that arrived today and set it up this afternoon. If it works well, we'll add them to the other pastures also. Watering the ground is a real drag!

Oh my goodness, that's a bummer. What kind of caterpillars are you dealing with?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm not sure the names one is a stinging one others are green then there is the black and orange and brien and yellow then the inch worm

@@faithsfarmlife1424 oh my goodness, you're being overrun!

Can't argue with that. There are a few fruits that go really well with vodka!

Oh wow, that's early. Where are you located?

Central Florida

@@hughjass1835 ah, ok. That definitely makes sense. I know a lot of the loquat trees we see for sale here in AZ are actually brought in from FL, so I imagine they do really well for you there!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm they do amazingly well here. I've made 15 gallons of wine from a single tree for the past three years and we still don't use all the fruit. It's fun watching the squirrels and birds get drunk on the purple fruit this time of year. Love my Loquat! Let me know if you'd like some seed, I have quite a few.

Hey Soraya! It sounds like you have quite the guava orchard there. Which of these is your favorite?

Ha! Yeah, I (Duane) am in the doghouse on a regular basis, so I may be hanging with Rosie from time to time!

I (Duane) grew up with them as well living in Gardena, CA. The pits are a bit of a drag and you're right the skin can be a bit tough on some varieties. We had a Yehuda loquat on the old farm and the skin was very thin, so we're hoping we have some luck with the 4 varieties we have growing now.

Hey Alan! We did an episode on grapevine pruning a few weeks back, but it was focused on that first season pruning. Some still applies, but older vines are a little different. We usually don't do much thinning on the clusters, but we have pinched bunches before to induce larger fruit. That's where you remove the bottom 10-20% or so of the bunch to encourage larger grapes. However, we haven't seen much difference from that on the Flame and Thompsons that we tested that on. I'm not sure we'll have much of a fruit set this year with them heading into their second year, but if we do we'll be sure to cover it.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Great, thank you! I will take that 10-20% off then. I might take a few of the shots off too. Especially where we really don't want them.

@@TheFatTheist you can definitely pinch unwanted shoots. We're doing the exact same thing where we're trying to establish the trunks on these new vines as well.

Glad you enjoyed this one Valerie!

Hmm, that's odd that you're not seeing any blossoms or fruit. It took about 3 years for the tree to fruit on our old farm and we almost missed the first fruit set (it was hidden well under some heavy branching). How is the tree doing otherwise? Is it growing strong?

They are healthy and happy. One gets fish emulsion, the other doesn´t. One gets full sun, the other partial. I just don´t know what to do with them.

@@brm1279 I can't say we treat these really much different from the rest of our evergreen fruiting trees. They are in full sun, get aged chicken manure as fertilizer and we keep them heavily mulched year round. Irrigation is consistent (lower in Winter vs Summer, but still some) throughout the year to maintain soil moisture. That being said, we have 4 varieties. Champagne, Macbeth, Gold Nugget and Big Jim. All set fruit this year except the Big Jim. Nothing on that at all.

We hand water the temporary pastures and the main pasture when the seeds are setting (right now). Otherwise we use sprinklers to water on a schedule. The primary reason we don't have underground water on the permanent pasture is we run broiler chickens across it and are not able to use regular irrigation for the 3 months they're on pasture. Wouldn't want a sprinkler head coming up inside the tractor!

We have always grown them in full sun and had very good success. I would say the planting time (has to be in October), plenty of mulch and deep/infrequent irrigation are the keys to success with this one. That planting time may seem trivial, but it's the only way we've had consistent success with Loquat through that first summer.

I don't think I've seen them in the store before, but if I was to bet I would check any Asian Markets you have near you. In my hometown of Gardena there is a large Japanese population and most of my friends growing up had both loquat and persimmon trees.

Oh wow, what a find! I imagine these grow really where by you as that is an ideal environment for these trees. It's always best to keep as much of the root ball and surrounding soil as possible as this is an evergreen tree. You'll need to prune it back a bit as you're losing some of it's root mass and I would do this prior to moving it (makes it easier to move). The root ball that you keep should be about as large as the remaining canopy (think of a drip line for any tree).

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm ok Thinks

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm hey guys every one i have had look at it says its to big to move and the little off shots are growing out of the tree at the base instead of the root ball. I guess I am going to have to buy one instead. I taste the fruit is grate. Have yall every got one to grow from seeds or dropping the fruit to grow naturally?

@@tbjtbj4786 we're trying to grow one out from seed right now, but we have not done that before.

I'm assuming you're just wanting an "understory" to the nectarine here? If so, I would stick with smaller/shallow rooted veggies or herbs. Dill would be ok as would oregano or thyme. If you harvest young you might try baby lettuce.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm will those things also help with bugs such as nats?

@@putinhynes3848 that's a good question and I don't think so. I'm assuming you're talking about the herbs in the pot? Or are you referring to the organza bags around your fruit?

Hmm, it's hard to say for sure, but we're watering this tree once/week right now and it's receiving about 60 gallons of water total. Keep in mind, that's being applied in the ring around the tree and much of it is absorbed into the wood chips, so the moisture stays consistent. That being said, it received very little irrigation all Winter with the on and off rain we had. How old is the tree?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm yes that consistent moisture would be more ideal. I planted mine kind of elevated above the ground and it has a drip emitter to the side of it. So I feel only one side of the root ball may be getting covered. It’s less than a year old.

@@epigeneticnerd4244 ah ok. That consistent soil moisture is important. Especially for a tree like this that has larger, evergreen leaves.

She usually just rolls her eyes when I say that.. 😁

Keeping an eye on your question here Wendy. I'm curious as well as these set flowers for us here in the middle of Winter and we're still in the 60's and 70's during the day!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm that doesn't sound good. If they flower in winter, then i doubt I'll get to see any blooms. Maybe the weather will offset the blooms for warmer temps? Let's see how this year goes. It'll be it's 3rd year with me

@@Micky4life I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

i'm zone 8a, planted my loquat in 2017, it blooms in winter and does set fruit but the winter temperatures kill the fruit when they're tiny.

@@zia_kat well, that's a bummer. We get cold, but not quite that cold in Winter. It will be interesting to see what happens when we get a significant cold snap after fruit set in the coming years. Something tells me we may be in the same boat when that happens!

Hmm, that's an interesting statistic. It makes sense, given the grains would not hold together on their own in that form.