AGRONOMY PRACTICE OF LOQUAT

Climate and Soil

• The loquat trees are resistant to heat and drought. The thick, leathery leaves are well adapted to withstand seasons of neglect without serious injury. However, warm and dry climate is essential at the time of fruit ripening.
• The loquat grows well on a fertile and light sandy loam soil. Good drainage is considered essential for better tree performance.

Recommended Cultivars

• California Advance (1970) :
  • Fruit medium sized, conical to round in shape. External colour yellow. Flesh creamy white, taste sour-sweet. Fruit contain 2 or 3 medium sized seeds. Ripens during fourth week of April.
• Golden Yellow (1967) :
  • It has medium sized egg-shaped fruit with attractive golden-yellow colour. Flesh is yellowish with sour-sweet taste. Each fruit contains 4-5 medium sized seeds. Ripens during third week of March.
• Pale Yellow (1967) :
  • It has medium to large fruits, which are slightly conical to roundish in shape, pale yellow in colour. Flesh is white and taste sour-sweet. Each fruit contain 2 or 3 medium sized seeds. Ripens during second week of April.
  • The recommended cultivars of loquat are self-incompatible or partially self-compatible. So solid blocks of one cultivar can not be planted. California Advance is a good pollinizer for both Golden Yellow and Pale Yellow and should be planted along with these varieties.

Propagation

• The vegetative propagation is very important to raise good quality true-to-type plants for commercial orcharding. Promising  loquat varieties are generally grafted upon loquat seedlings of commercial varieties.
• Rootstock Raising :
  • Loquat seed germinate readily when these are sown immediately after extraction from the fruit. The seeds should not be allowed to dry after extraction as exposure to heat and light tends to result in poor germination. Fresh seeds are sown during April-May in moist sand. When seedlings are 4-5 cm tall, they are transplanted in the nursery for further growth and grafting.
• Inarching:
  • The usual technique is to raise the plants through inarching. The best time for inarching is July-August. Air layering is also possible but success is much less.

Planting

• There are two planting seasons viz. February-March and August-September. The plants should preferably be planted during August-September when the weather has cooled down sufficiently. Loquat should be planted at 6.5×6. 5 m in square system.

Irrigation

• The loquat is more tolerant to drought. However, the best results are obtained when the orchard is irrigated judiciously. During fruit growth period to maturity, three to four irrigations are generally recommended.

Manures and Fertilizers

• All farmyard manure should be applied in September along with P and K fertilizers. Apply half dose of urea in October and remaining half during January-February after the fruit set.

Maturity and Harvesting

• The loquat tree starts bearing fruit in third year of planting. The harvesting of immature and green fruits should be avoided. All fruits in a cluster usually mature uniformly. Entire cluster may be cut at one go. The fruits should never be pulled from the tree by hand. The fruit should preferably be harvested with clipper. Average yield of loquat tree is about 16 kg. However, well maintained and healthy trees can yield fruit upto 40 kg.

Post-Harvest Handling

• Grading:
  • The fruits should be graded in to two categories before packing. The large sized fruits free from blemishes should be placed in one box while all the remaining marketable fruit should be packed in another box. All superfluous stems should be clipped off. Badly bruised, shrivelled or scarred fruits should be discarded.
• Packing:
  • The fruits require careful packing. Paper is placed at the bottom of each box. The paper cuttings can be used for providing cushion. The wooden boxes of 14 kg size should be used for sending fruit to nearby markets.