Do you or anyone know if loquats require a lot of spraying? I bought a five gallon tree early this year from a local nursery. The fruit were good and done in May. After that there were so many weird aphids. I cut off all the affected leaves and branches for a few weeks. Finally I gave up, cut up, bagged, and put the tree in the trash can. I really like the fruits because they ripen before the plums and pluots. Do they really attract bugs that much, or I was just unlucky with that tree? I live about 30 miles east of Los Angeles.
I never have to remove a tree like that before. No other trees in the backyard have that kind of aphids, so I think the tree might be affected already when I bought it. I would like to try planting another one, but not before I know more about how disease resistant loquats are. Any comments would be appreciated.
They are bulletproof against grass hopers, crickets, aphids, borers, moths, cutter ants, army worms, and anything else we have here in Texas, and will live to old age without any care (even abandoned homesteads). They do take about 2 years to get acclimated, and need just a bit of supplemental watering. After that though… they seem to shrug off everything! I am wondering if the aphid just liked it because it is the only green thing around? Or is it the Achilles insect of the Loquat, of which we do not have here?
I don’t know much about different type of insects, and I didn’t take pictures. There were a lot of ants on that tree at the same time. The other trees had flowers and leaves so I had to remove the loquat to prevent it from spreading. After that there was none of the same bug so I was hoping that somehow it came from the nursery and not the surrounding.
On the other section of the town they used to have some loquats as street planting by the city, but they were removed a few years ago because of the drought, or other reasons that I don’t know of.
I may try again, not from the same nursery, if I can find a tree with fruits on already next spring. Thank you very much for your reply.
Edit
We may have some local problems according to this site when I googled “Achilles insect of the Loquat”
The University of Redlands is about 40 miles from my place.
https://sites.redlands.edu/trees/species-accounts/loquat/loquatinsects/
Finally got a day with temps above 40, went out and sprayed the magnolias for scab. Hope it’s not too late, but I do think I got a better shot at the scales with all those leaves finally gone.
I thought the Red Malaysian guava tree will stop ripening the fruits with the onset of the cold weather (like figs), but it still soldiers on. Some of the fruits are quite large now, almost the size of a pear
Lovely!!!
I went to another local nursery. The loquat trees have some kind of woolly bugs on the leaves. An employee was there so I didn’t want to take the picture, in case it upset him. I will plant more citrus varieties that ripen early in spring instead. Thanks a lot for your help.
Beautiful!!
My first tamarillos of the year… 
My harvest today: my first tamarillos, my last feijoas and lemons… some yellow araçás too…
Hey, wait a minute, what are those tracks in my nursery bed. Guess I better disconnect the bottom wires on the electric fence tomorrow.
Is that foxes or coyotes hunting voles? It looks like they found some to the left for sure
Deer. The spots you’re seeing is them clearing a patch to graze. I didn’t disconnect the lower wires on the electric fence and the snow is touching the wires. That wears down the battery (solar powered) and the buggers get in. But, we’ve been catching the coyotes on the game cam on a regular basis.
Ahh i took that to be small mammals since the tracks were not very wide but its hard to tell from distance and makes sense what happened to your batteries, Its amazing how good they are at sensing live wire
What are the coyotes hunting? Not voles?
I would guess mostly rabbits, we have two types here, regular brown hares as well as snowshoe. Haven’t seen signs of them at the orchard site, but across the street from the house near the cabin.
Rabbits - you don’t want those in your nursery bed!
@AndySmith
I have run a solar electric Fence for years .
I found that snow is a good insulator . Don’t remember my fence shorting out on snow ?
However a deer standing on snow in also insulated !
Such that if it touches a hot wire, it won’t get shocked.
I used the alternating hot and grounded wire method , 10 inches apart. So that when the deer gets in the fence it touches both , a hot wire and a ground wire.