That’s amazing Ram! Hope you grow out seedlings from the fruit.
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Just visited the International District/Chinatown tree, and it’s nearing peak ripeness, maybe one week to go before they are as ripe as the one @ramv posted above. With recent pruning and other people already reaching what could be reached from the top of cars, I was only able to get a single almost-ripe fruit from the top of my car, but collected some seeds from rotten ones on the ground. The tree is loaded high up in the canopy.
I went ahead and ate the one I picked, it was already quite sweet but still a little more tart than this tree gets at peak.
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Great report. I was hoping for the pic of you balancing on the hood of your car!
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They get sweeter the longer they are on the tree. Today’s were at Brix 22. I’d choose them over pretty much any fruit at this stage except maybe the very best mangoes or figs. Flavor is a bit reminiscent of lychee mixed with orange. But sweeter than either fruit.
So far Shambala looks like a winner. It is a vigorous grower and has no fuzz on the fruit. I still peel the fruit before eating.
Unfortunately it is hard to do a side by side comparison because the other varieties are later than this one. I will measure and post the brix as a I harvest the others.
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Kanko starting to get ripe.
They are quite different from Shambala as the fruits have a peach fuzz on them. Shambala is more like a nectarine.
Also Kanko while very flavorful is less sweet than Shambala.
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Just topworked this seedling of the Seattle Chinatown tree with its mother:
Out of my 4 seedlings, this one has shown the most frost sensitivity, so it seemed like the least promising to grow out. However, I’ve been wanting to emulate the rooting method used by Fruitwood Nursery for their rooted plugs, as described by Marc in an email to me:
We usually get at least 50% takes when we root them in our propagation greenhouse that has a light shade and sprinklers that go off 4 times a day for short period. Nothing fancy. We do dip them in rooting hormone
before sticking them into a 50/50% peat/perlite mix.
So, I kept the branch tips from the seedling to try to root, and maybe if I succeed then I’ll grow one of these out instead!
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Marc Robbi is able to get results somehow that the rest of us struggle with. Mark Albert told me some years ago that Marc was a genius at mist propagation. Sam at OGW has also successfully propagated loquats from cuttings.
For reference I had two air layered loquats that both perished in the cold of last winter. My suspicion is that seedlings have better and more resilient root systems than vegetatively propagated loquats.
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Does Big Jim ripen for you in PNW? If it does, it’s worth adding. It may not be the best loquat you ever tasted but it’s very flavorful and just the meat itself can get bigger than an apricot (with appropriate thinning, of course)
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I just added Big Jim from Kaz this year. It may be a seedling of Big Jim. It was the best tasting of the entire batch of varieties I received from him.
I am also growing Big Jim White which is supposed to be very sweet and large
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The first growth on any of these grafts is the “knuckle” (the place that was the terminal bud site on the branch last fall), even though it didn’t really have any dormant buds and the other two were more like traditional scions with visible terminal buds already:
This was the scion:
I’ve had real good luck with knuckles for avocado grafting and decided to try one for loquat, looks like it’s a good idea for them, too
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I can say that loquats make some of the sweetest fruit that can grow in western Washington. Kanko makes the sweetest fruit (25 brix) in my experience but Shambala is close. (22 brix). Even the seedling Bullock 1 is very sweet (around 20 brix) but the fruit is small.
Even the sweetest figs don’t get above 30 brix for me.
I think Kaz gets even sweeter loquats in LA. His hotter climate may make the difference.
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I’m envious. Those sound delicious.
I get gages over 30 brix, beyond the scale.
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Wow! That is incredible.
OTOH I am terribly unimpressed by apricots grown here. Insipid doesn’t begin to describe those.
I know I’m going a little off topic but here’s a post with a 31 brix gage.
Also have mirabelles at 30 brix.
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is that sort of like a guitar amp that goes to 11?
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@swincher Thanks for sharing the International District scions. They are pushing growth now.
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Glad to hear it! It’s looking like all three grafts might take for me on this tree, though I’m not sure how much more they will be able to grow this season.
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There are 3 loquat trees in my backyard. This is how it begin. The bird dropped a branch with loquats in the front of the house on top of the rose bush. We planted them in the pots. I have to put shade for the trees during the 1st time it was planted in the ground. It survived the brutal summer and now we get to enjoy the fruits.
Each tree have a different prospective to them. The 1st tree produce the biggest and the juiciest fruits. Surprisingly, it contain mostly 1 seed and the leaves tend to be smaller however there are more of them. Sometime is produce green dot on the fruit. I’m not sure why.
The 2nd tree has 2 - 3 seeds and the leaves are huge. It has stronger branches and does not require a lot of pruning. I like this tree as it’s low maintenance. However, during the heatwave it needs more water as the bigger leaves require it.
The 3rd tree has 3 - 5 seeds. The tree is combination the the 1st and 2nd tree. This one is the tallest. All trees are 6 - 7 feet tall and about 6 years old. All produce fruits each year now.
Love them loquats. The only criminal to steal my loquat are the Jays.
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Picked my sole “Golden Orb” loquat. I unintentionally broke off another branch with more fruits earlier.
Very pear like texture and taste. Hard to peel skin so I ate it with the skin. White fleshed with excellent sweetness. When I measured it, it was “only” about 13 brix which while quite sweet isn’t as sweet as my other varieties (20+ brix) which are in-ground and get a ton more sunlight.
Definitely a keeper.
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