We’ve lost 90% of the forming green fruits on our loquat. They shriveled and fell off, many still attached to the shriveled branch tips. It was cold a couple of weeks ago but likely not lower than high 20s and we just had a huge rainstorm. All the pictures of fireblight I’ve looked at online show brown leaves but ours look fine for now. Any thoughts? Frost damage from a couple of weeks ago manifesting now is what I’m hoping for but want to get opinions on potential fireblight
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High 20s in your climate?
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It doesnt look like FB.
Fruits fall off for various reasons. Rain is one of them.
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High 20s is a guess. We had a late year late night frost, it also took out one of my cherimoyas all the way to the main trunk which has never happened before so I know it got colder than 32
How old is the tree? The younger the tree, the more sensitive it can be to things.
How long has it been in that spot?
Could be cold injury. If the fruit has already set they can hardly handle any frost.
Fruits can be damaged by wind and frost; temperatures below -2°C damage open flowers and young fruits, set fruits can be damaged at a temperature of -1°C.
Flower buds had the highest resistance to low temperatures, whereas young fruit were the most susceptible. From buds to young fruits, the resistance to low temperatures decreased with flower development (Zhang et al., 2007).
The effect of winter cold on flowering of various loquat cultivars
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284276600_The_effect_of_winter_cold_on_flowering_of_various_loquat_cultivars
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I think its’s around 7 or 8 years old and has been there at least 6. We usually have several lights frosts a year and the fruit has never been affected like this before.
It hasn’t happened in previous years but this frost was relatively late followed by more rain than we had been getting so maybe the combination. Thank you for the link
That might be it, a lot of different fruit types, like pomegranates, and citrus to name a few, the more water entering the plant the more fragile the fruit can get.
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