I will be obtaining some loquat scionwood in Spring and was advised that quince makes an excellent rootstock by someone who has lots of experience with this. It is dwarfing and induces heavy production. He advised chip budding.
Does anyone know if pear rootstocks like (OHxF87) will work? I will certainly try as I have rootstock available.
Is there a source for large caliper (1/2-3/4") quince rootstock? I will only need a few (<5) as I will be chip budding.
Someone also posted Photinia fraseri can be used.Loquat rootstock?
I also found this thread on houzz. Pear on Loquat rootstock
They talk about some alternative root stocks. bb
Very interesting note about Photinia Fraseri. Should be easy to acquire these.
I’ll try a variety of rootstock and see what happens.
It will be great to see if you will get some success from this method. My uncle loves loquat and he prefers chip grafting for loquat as well, but he does it on loquat rootstock. He airlayers underperformaing varieties off as rootstock and graft on buds from his better tasting ones.
I got a cutting from him last year and it has grown quite big for a 10 gallon container I’ve put it in. I will probably see some fruit next spring if I’m lucky.
Hi,
Is that a loquat cutting you rooted? I didnt know they could be rooted!
Yes, I got it around early March last year, it was a sharpie thick cutting that I dipped in Dip N Grow and rooted pretty much the same way as a fig cutting. It took about a month for the roots to form, and repotted in a 1 gallon in late April, which grew to a 5 gallon by last fall.
I up the pot to a 10 gallon this spring and I make a mistake of mixing in too much compost, so the soil was extremely heavy and poorly drained by summer. However, from my mistake, I’ve found this specific variety to be highly drought tolerant, with a very strong root system and no pest issues to report yet here in Chicago. I have heard that loquat can handle 30 F quite well, and so I’ve tested it by placing it in a sheltered corner of my yard. There were a few days this month the temps have dropped to just under 30F, and it display no sign of damage at all. I also have not fertilize it at all so it has put on a surprising amount of growth on only 2hrs of sun a day.
I have so many trees so sometimes I just ignore some of them to see how well it does by itself. At the rate this loquat has been growing, I wouldn’t be able to handle it had I given it better soil and fertilize. Right now it has grown to 6 ft x 3 ft wide, So far, I’ve found loquat on par with goji berries in terms of ease to grow. I’ll probably airlayer some branches off and start treating it better and hopefully I’ll be able to get some fruit off it. Let me know if you want one next spring, I’ll be happy to send you an airlayer for just the shipping fees. This is a fantastic fruit variety that I don’t mine sharing.
Hi Quinn,
Thats a beautiful tree.
Do you know the kind? Is it from a seedling? How do you find the taste of this variety?
The cutting was from a tree that was 5-6 years old. I am quite sure the variety is called Champagne. I had a chance to taste the fruit from it once. I would say loquat has an apricot taste to it but the smell is quite different, similar to dried Japanese plums, with a fragrant hint of orange flavor in it as well. It is moderately juicy, you could mistake it for aprium if someone didn’t tell you it was a loquat.
