Posts: 581
Threads: 44
Joined: Feb 2006
Ken Love's column this week on Hawaii247 is loquats:
http://www.hawaii247.com/2009/01/05/farm...ve-loquat/
If you have never tried them, you should. I think they are really great , if you get a good one, but they are marginal here over winter and the best one I had was wiped out by fire blight.
Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP
Allen
Finally in HPP
Posts: 1,243
Threads: 55
Joined: Feb 2008
My grandmother had a big loquat tree in S. CA when I was growing up. The fruit is really good eaten out of hand, but I cannot imagine doing much with them in a culinary sense. Still, if you have plenty of room it is a fun tree to have. When we moved to N. CA we had one that the deer would literally "Jump" up to get the fruit. It should have been planted in the fenced area, but it wasn't. They do well in the same kind of environment & soil as avocados.
Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany
Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com
Posts: 118
Threads: 16
Joined: Nov 2007
Make sure to feed them heavily and trim them into a 'bush-like' sructure because they can get very tall with all the fruit to high to pick. Have one here at 900 feet and produces each year - in the early fall. They don't seem to produce as well here as they do in So Cal. I have absolutely wonderful large red grapefruit this year from a tree which did nothing for over ten years and suddenly exploded with fruit this spring and still picking... my mistake was that I didn't plant 10 or 15 of them instead of just one.... I have a new passion fruit which developed here in Black Sands ... I'm taking cuttings now... it's called Passion Maxx... huge purples with green spotted shoulders and delicious with no hollow cavity inside like some passions... it's a cross between a large yellow I got in Sea View several years ago and a super purple strain from Hilo. Anyone interested in getting a start???
JayJay
JayJay
Posts: 1,243
Threads: 55
Joined: Feb 2008
Jay Jay... I would LOVE a start of your hybrid passion fruit!
Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany
Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.travelingfork.blogspot.com
Posts: 333
Threads: 30
Joined: Aug 2006
Allen - Thanks for the link. After reading the article, I went out and cover the fruits on my loquat tree, as shown in one of the photos. I use the empty envelopes that came with the junk mails, seal it and cut the opening on one of the end side. Hopefully, I will get to taste some ripe fruits before the birds this time.
val
Posts: 118
Threads: 16
Joined: Nov 2007
Devany- Taking cuttings now and also looking for a vendor in Puna for you to pick them up there... should be very reasonable -- & will announce here in Farming & Gardening when a local vendor has the plants available... If you like passion this one will blow your mind! >Passion Maxx<
Lots of compost- dig deep and mulch well,,, full sun is best but can take some shade... big trident leaves like a yellow but medium-dark purple with slight green shoulders and no cavities inside. Many same size as a large yellow and I think the best tasting passion I'v ever had but of course taste is so subjective... anyway, the first time I tasted it I got a huge smile on my face!!! Just a natural occurance really... always pays to be observant. I'll keep growing the seed out into futher generations of course but it could end here with this strain by just continuing to take cuttings. Will let you know where and when and would assume we're probably looking at about April, perhaps May delivery...
JayJay
JayJay
Posts: 1,243
Threads: 55
Joined: Feb 2008
Great Jay. I am a Passion fruit nut... have been for several years and now that I live where I can grow them I am looking for some different ones! We live in Hilo, so any vendor on the East Side would be great. I am creating a recipe book, just based on Liliko'i.
Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany
Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.travelingfork.blogspot.com
