Inducing more precocious fruiting in trees

General Fruit Growing
#1

Is it possible to make trees produce sooner?

I am growing some trees from seed. just for fun. I don’t want to wait 7+ years to taste the first fruit.

There is one grower who mentioned root constriction and using air pruning to induce early fruiting. Does this work? Are there other techniques that work?

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#2

I’ve been topping the seedlings and grafting the cuttings to the apex of established trees.

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#3

Grafting a dormant cutting onto a bearing-age tree after the sap is flowing will be the best bet for quick results. I would expect grafting to B-9, M-9 or G-41 rootstock might also speed up the quest for results. (Skillcult has YouTube videos on the topic…you might check out his apple breeding videos). (Just Google ‘apple breeding’ and you’ll get results.)

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#4

Just for context. My trees are loquat seedlings from supposedly superior fruit.
I also have several Dekopon seedlings that are growing well.

#5

I see. Well, just skip the apple root. But grafting to a mature tree could be useful to speed up fruiting from a new experimental variety. (SEEDLING)

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#6

Graft loquat to quince for precocious fruiting and a manageable tree.

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#7

Great suggestion. I am using Provence quince (BA29C) as my preferred rootstock for loquat. Do you know if this will speed up maturity even in the case of seedlings?

#8

I use ba29c as well for pears, and have found that it performs well here in the PNW. Loquat scions of named varieties are precocious on quince, but I can’t say for sure if seedling scions will behave similarly. For apple and pear breeding, dwarfing rootstock definitely makes a difference for getting seedling varieties to fruit at a younger age, but not sure about loquat. My guess is that you would cut your time to first fruit in half, but you might have to be the pioneer who gives us a better understanding.

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