Fruit Week 2011 cont....

4. Sort of berry like =Loquats........

The loquats are ripening now and are quite sweet. The 2 trees shown were photographted yesterday. Most loquats around the central Florida area have half an inch diameter fruit. Not even worth picking since they are all seeds and no meat. The upper photo is our old tree (selected from 3 seedlings) that has fruit up to 2-inches in diameter. There is plenty of sweet plum-like goodness to enjoy.
The origianl seedlings were a gift from a plant breeder who said they should have larger fruit - they did. So we propagated the one with the largest fruit (btw...it took a few years for the seedlings to flower).
The tree below is from seed collected in China (it is about 6 years old). Its parents also had large 2-inch fruit. This is the first year we have fruit on it and they do look large - also a more yellowish color compared to our normal variety.

Loquats are great eating and always make March a good month.