Loquats anyone?

9 years ago

My "Christmas" loquat has been in the ground around three years. It's been very healthy but after the first year the crop steadily declined to one single fruit which died last year though it had bloomed well.

It's "supposed" to be self fertile but this year I took it upon myself to use a gift from a GF of a fluffy powder makeup brush she gave me for this purpose to pollinate the eruption of flowers myself every day.

Well, I'm may have to do this to all my trees yearly because it has set so many fruit I may have to thin some!

Does anyone else have an issue with their loquat setting fruit?

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Comments (4)

flatwoods_farm
9 years ago
Honeybees do the job just fine. No need to use the brush.Thinning can result in larger fruit, so do it while they are small.
gnappi
Original Author
9 years ago
Honeybees? Here? In the bee food desert? I haven't seen bees in a couple of years near me.
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greenman62
9 years ago
plant some basil , Lantana, Lavender, or bee balm
for me basil grows easy, and reseeds itself.
bees go crazy over it
borage as well, they love that too
now in the summer,
i cant go outside without hearing a buzz.

plant it, they will come.
gnappi
Original Author
9 years ago
Besides loquat, I have (blooming) 5 mango, 2 sapodilla, 2 peach, coffee, sapote, lime, guava, jaboticaba, jamaican cherry, barbados cherry, carambola and coffee.

In the grass there's clover, and I have several pentas (that bees swarm over in home depot not 4 miles away) and lavender. I don't think a few more things will help. There are no bees anywhere.

I started pollinating the rest of my 30+ types of fruit trees by hand that are shy about bearing and have been rewarded.

What drove the bees away I don't know but I do not see many ornamental plantings nearby.