Loquats

Loquats are a delicious winter fruit. They ripen first to yellow, then to orange, and like many tropical fruits, are usually not at full sweetness and flavor until they exhibit some softening and some discoloration. The skin is edible, but is often removed for better texture and flavor. Each fruit contain one or a few easily removed seeds, which are inedible.

A hardy, attractive, and medium-sized tree, it is an excellent choice for edible landscaping. Obtain a grafted, named variety. Loquat trees are very cold tolerant and moderately drought-tolerant, but definitely not flood-tolerant— plant on high ground or on a mound with plenty of soil above the highest standing water expected. Fruit should be aggressively thinned once formed. Remove spent and fallen fruit to interrupt the life cycle of fruit flies.

For commercial growing, we thin the unripe fruit as shown in these photos. This produces larger, fleshier fruit and decreases spotting on ripe fruit.

At SweetSong Groves, we have three loquat trees, NW-A-1 (Big Jim), NW-H-3 (Bradenton), and EF-G-1 (Christmas). So far, only Big Jim has fruited in commercial quantities, but watch for all three in coming seasons.