Growing Loquat Trees In Florida

Growing loquat trees in Florida couldn’t be easier.

Can you grow loquat trees in Florida? Yes, loquat trees thrive in Florida’s climate. Loquat trees flower from October to February giving you mature edible fruit in early spring.

Loquats are not only a great fruit producing tree in Florida but they are relatively care free and they are a very attractive landscape plant as well. This makes the loqaut one of the best fruit trees to grow in Florida.

Florida Friendly Loquat Varieties

There are too many different varieties of loquat to name. Litterally over 1,000 worldwide. Each different variety has a slightly different fruit. some are round and some are pear shaped.

Some varieties produce clusters of fruit that contain up to 20 pieces of fruit. Most varieties have yellow-orange skin but the flesh of the fruits can be white, orange, yellow and sometimes pink.

Florida Friendly Loquat Varieties:

Advanced
Champagne
Emanuel

Golden Nugget
Goliath
Juda

Judith
Oliver
Tanaka

Thales
Thursby
Wolfe

All varieties of loquat are sweet. some are more tart than the other while others can even be spicy. I’ve heard people say that loquats remind them of a pineapple and citrus fruit baby.

Growing Loquat Trees

The best way to grow a loquat tree is from a grafted plant.

A loquat tree grown from seed will be slightly different than the tree the seed came from. The fruits may be slightly different or it may produce less fruit.

Growing from seed also takes significantly longer to produce fruit. If grown from seed, your plant will not produce fruit until at least year 8. With grafted loquats, you can get fruit with a plant that is 2-3 years old.

However loquat seedlings aren’t all bad. seeds sprout easy and they are fine for ornamental uses. These loquats are also perfect for root stock.

If you learn to graft you can use these seedlings as a good base to graft your very own loquat.

Loquat Tree Care

Loquats can be planted at any time of the year. But to give your loquat tree the best chance to thrive you should plant during the springtime after it produces fruit.

This is usually in mid to late spring but it will vary depending on variety and weather conditions.

All loquats enjoy full sun and warm weather. Loquats not only enjoy our warm Florida climate but they can withstand the cold winter nights that north Florida can throw at it. These trees can take temperatures down to 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Really high temperatures may cause fruit production to slow.

Loquats can grow up to 20 feet tall and bush out to 15 feet wide. While loquats do not require pruning, it’s not a bad idea to give it a light pruning once a year. The larger your loquat tree the harder it will be to harvest. Keeping it at a manageable size will make your life easier.

Soil For Loquat Trees

Loquats are not picky when it comes to soil, they can take our natural Florida dirt but they definitley won’t complain about soil that has been amended with compsot and mulch.

At the very least I always add a good amount of compost to the dirt and a nice thick layer of mulch. These two thigns will go a long way when it comes to pleasing your plant.

If you want to plant your loquat into a container make sure that it will be large enough to support the growth of this tree. I planted my tree into a 15-gallon cloth pot that I bought off of Amazon (Check price).

I’m really in love with these cloth pots because they are super easy to move, they are cheap and large enough to support fruit trees.

I usually build my own soil for planting into containers. I’ve always had good luck with a mixture that looks something like this:

40% Coco Coir (Check price on Amazon)
40% Compost (You can get it on Amazon but I’ve found it way cheaper at local stores)

20% perlite (Check price on Amazon)
Worm castings (Check price on Amazon)
Mykos (Check price on Amazon)

Compost and perilite are easy to find at your local nursery. you can also use peat moss instead of coco coir. Peat moss is much more acidic than coco coir so you may have to compensate for that as your plant ages with chelated iron.

The worm castings and mykos are optional ingredients but I do find really good results with them. Worm castings give your plant an extra boost of nutrients while the mykos is a benefical fungus that helps your plant abosrb these nutrients.

Loquat Disease And Pest Issues

The biggest pest for loquat trees in Florida is the Caribbean fruit fly. It can get out of hand quickly and it actually devastated loquat trees in south Florida in the 1960s.

Fire blight is a disease that effects loquats as well as other trees that are in the apple and pear family. It’s a bacteria that enters through the flowers of the tree and causes a quick death to the tree.

Fire blight is more common in north Florida than it is in central and south Florida because of the cooler weather that is seen there.

Fruit flies can be prevented by placing paper or nylon bags (Check price on Amazon) around all clusters of fruit, while this can be a pain in the ass, it’s better than not having any fruit to harvest at all.

Growing Loquat Trees In Florida

Loquats are one of the easiest fruit trees to grow in Florida
The best time to plant your loquat tree is in mid to late spring.
Loquats flower and fruit from October to February.

Florida friendly varieties of loquat are Advanced, Champagne, Golden Nugget, and Wolfe.
Loquat fruits are a yellow-orange color and have a sweet and tart flavor.
Loquat trees are not picky about soil but adding compost and mulch is never a bad idea.