Slides include production technology of loquat, its origin and distribution in Pakistan, plant description, environmental and cultural requirements etc..

1. Loquat
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2. Botany
Common name:
Japanese medlar, Japanese plum,
Chinese plum.
Bot. Name:
Eriobotrya japonica
Family:
Rosaceae
Subfamily:
Pomoideae
Genus :
Eriobotrya
Also resembles to genus Mespilus, so fruit is called medlar.
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3. Origin and distribution
• Loquat is among the first fruits cultivated in Asia.
• Native to central eastern China
• For centuries only Chinese royalty was allowed to eat.
• The fruit was introduced from China to Japan 700 AD.
• The west learned of it from the botanist Kaempfer in
1690.
• It was planted in the National Gardens, Paris, in 1784.
• Plants were taken from Canton, China, to the Royal
Botanical Gardens at Kew, England, in 1787.
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4. Origin and distribution
• Sometimes called pipa (Chinese), and biwa
(Japanese).
• Commercially grown in Australia , South
Africa, USA, Japan, China, India.. )
• As minor fruit crop In Pakistan.
• Lahore, Gujranwala, Jehlum, Rawalpindi, Kalar
Kahar, Hazara, Mardan,, Choa Saiden Shah,
Chhattar, Tret, Hasan Abdal, Wah, Hari Pur, Mardan
and Takht Bhai.
• Available when other fruits are not abundantly
present in makets.
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5. Areas of cultivation in
Pakistan
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6. Plant Description
Tree:
Moderate size tree, 20 to 30 ft height, rounded crown,
short trunk, and woolly new twigs.
Foliage:
• Leaves evergreen, whorled at the branch tips, elliptical-
lanceolate, 12.5-30 cm long and 7.5-10 cm wide
• Upper surface dark-green & glossy, whitish-or rusty-
hairy beneath
• Thick, stiff, with conspicuous parallel, oblique veins,
each terminating at the margin in a short, prickly point.
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7. Plant Description
Flower:
Sweetly fragrant , borne in rusty-hairy, terminal panicles of
30 to 100 blooms, are white, 5-petalled
Fruit:
• Pome , clusters of 4 to 30, oval, rounded or pear-shaped,
2.5-5 cm long.
• Smooth, yellow to orange, sometimes red-blushed skin.
• White, yellow or orange, succulent pulp, sweet to sub-acid
or acid flavor.
• Avg. fruit weight is 6.5 g.
• 1 to 10 seeds, usually 3 to 5, dark-brown or light-brown,
angular -ellipsoid, about 1.5 cm long and 8 mm thick.
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8. Soil and climate
• Prefers upper elevations 1000 - 5000 ft.
• At lower elevations as an ornamental.
• Mild sub-tropical climate with 75-100 cm rainfall
(ideal).
• Also adapted to Mediterranean climate.
• Deep, well drained, fertile light loamy soil, with a
slightly acidic PH balance.
• Excessive lime, hard pan, gravel in sub soil is not
good.
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9. Soil and climate
• Temp. below 0 ⁰C is injurius.
• Cool and foggy weather during ripening
decreases sweetness and flavor.
• In summer hot, dry winds – small sized fruit, not
mature properly.
• Well established trees can tolerate upto 12° F.
• The killing temperature:
flower bud is about 19° F,
mature flower about 26° F.
• Can grow in shade, as temporary plant.
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10. Cultural practices
• To produce large fruit with high quality.
• Flowers should be thinned to three bottom
stalks (racemes).
• Only three to five fruits are left on each
panicle, depending upon the variety.
• Cover fruit to protect it from fruit flies and to
slow coloration.
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12. Pruning
• Immediately after harvesting.
• New branches replace those removed, resulting in
a larger harvest next year.
• Pruning make harvest easier, keeping trees
smaller.
• Cutting the branches just above a node - multiple
branches in its place creating a heavier harvest.
• If branches need to be completely removed, cut
them as close to their own base as possible.
• Small shoots at the tips of each branch can be
pinched out to stop further extension.
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13. Fertilizer requirement
• Nitrogen based fertilizer three times a year,
producing better fruit and more foliage.
• Chicken manure is an excellent organic source
of nitrogen.
• 60 kg mixture of well rotten cow dung or FYM,
bonemeal and woodash in the ratio of
100:5:10 in Oct, with irrigation.
• Young trees should be applied half of the said
quantity, acc. To age of tree.
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14. Irrigation
• Although loquats is drought tolerant ,
irrrigation help them to grow faster and
produce more fruit of a higher quality.
• Deep watering in warmer months (10-15 days
interval) is needed as well as during cooler
months (every month) if rain is lacking, or
according to weather conditions.
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15. Propagation
i. By seeds
ii. By air layering
iii. By inarching (grafting)
iv. Shield budding
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16. Propagation by seeds
• Seeds are only good for ornamental value, fruits
bearing is insignificant.
• Planted directly into soft potting soil. Delay
makes the germination of seeds poor.
• Once planted, watered from above daily to
ensure that the soil is kept constantly moist.
• Soon enough your seeds will sprout and slowly
begin growing.
• The seedlings can be re-potted or planted into
the ground once they have reached a height of
around 15cm tall.
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17. Propagation by Air layering
• It is an easy method of propagation of loquat.
• Three month old shoot is ringed and then
layered
• Ringed shoots should be treated with
NAA(3%)
IBA (2500 ppm)
for improving root formation.
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19. Inarching
• Simplest method of grafting.
• Scion, from three months old branches.
• Accomplished before new growth starts in the
spring ( Jan-Feb ).
• Seedlings of commercial varieties are used as
root-stock.
• Varieties to use are Advance, Champagne, Oliver,
Pineapple and Thales.
• Root-stocks such as apple, pear and cydonia have
also been used.
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20. Shield budding
• Common method of veg. propagation
• Buds from well matured wood of the previous
season growth.
• Performed in Jan-Feb give encouraging
success (before new growth starts in the
spring).
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21. Flowering
• Flowers at terminal end on new years shoots
• Flowering starts in July-Aug, continues upto Jan-
Feb in the form of panicles.
• Panicle is conical or cylindrical in shape.
• Avg. 150-200 flowers / panicle.
Three flushes in loquat:
1) Flowers produced in first flush mostly shed.
2) Major crop, mostly from second flush.
3) Usually crop from third flowering is poor.
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22. Fruit development
• Thickening of the toral rim just above the carpel.
• Rapid cell division & enlargement more or less uniformly.
• The sepals grow & cover the distal portions of carpel.
• Sepals base thickens and persists as a permanent structure;
petals, stamens and carpel dry up.
• Hood enclosing distal portion of the carpels are exposed to
see.
• The edible part is wholy toral in nature.
• loquat have SSC >12%, moderate TA (0.3 to 0.6%)
• In mature fruits, the toral cells are large, thin walled
and juicy
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23. Fruit thinning
• Flower buds produced at terminal end of
current season growth and fruit bearing takes
place in clusters.
• To thin out few fruits for better development
of each fruit is impractical.
• When overcrowding, clip out the ends of
bunches.
• Fruits thinned when less than 12cm in
diameter.
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25. Harvesting and yield
• Harvest when fruit matures and turns golden pale or
orange color.
• Loquats harvested in the fully ripe stage have the optimum
quality.
• Harvested at the eating-ripe stage before becoming fully
ripe.
• Usually, fruits in a cluster mature uniformly, so whole
cluster may be cut, If not, then ripened fruits are harvested
by clipping.
• Fruit bearing starts from 4th year of planting
• Yield increases with age of trees. Max at 15 years.
• Avg. yield 25-30 kg /tree
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26. Storage
• Commercial storage: 0-5 °C with > 90% RH.
• Can be kept in good condition for 3 to 4 weeks at
0 °C and 2 weeks at 10 °C .
• In order to maintain quality and storage-life,
loquat should be pre-cooled to < 5 °C within 20 h
of harvest.
• A refrigerated shelf at 5 to 12 °C is good.
• Use of polyethylene bags retards weight loss and
minimizes decreases in organic acids
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27. Physiological Disorders:
• Fruit are easily bruised and scratched
• Damaged areas usually turn brown or black
• Careful handling and packaging during and
after harvest are important.
• Also, internal browning and brown surface
spotting occur during long-term or high CO2
storage.
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28. Pests and Diseases
Fruit fly ( Daucus dorsalis )
• Loquats is affected by fruit fly becoming a host to
the pests during April-May,
Symptoms
• Tiny holes in fruit, insect lay eggs under fruit skin
• Small maggots throughout the flesh.
• Control
• Affected fruits should be destroyed
• Spray 0.2% sevin , 15 days before harvesting
• Use of poison baits may also be effective
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29. Bark eating caterpillars
• Severe attack is noticed during Oct-Nov
• Insect attacks under the soil in roots
Control:
• By cleaning the holes with a spoke
• Inserting soaked cotton in 0.4 % solution of
Nuvacron and then
• Plastering the holes with mud
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31. Colar rot
• This disease is caused by the fungus Diplodia
natelensis
• Fungus attack the bark of the colar region which
turns brown, then cracks or sometime peels off
• The whole tree may be killed
Control
• By scrapping the infected portion, and painting
with solution having Phytolan 225 g, lime 112 g in
2.25 litres of water.
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32. Other Pests
• The tree is also susceptible to nematodes.
• Pest Management Program recommendations
is highly advisable.
• Good sanitation should be practiced.
• Green scale (Coccus viridis) can also affect the
plants.
• Loquat can be affected by fire blight (Erwinia
amylovora), and damaged wood should be
removed and disposed off.
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33. Varieties
• There are over 900 loquat cultivars in many
growing areas around the world.
• In Hawai‘i, common varieties are ‘Tanaka’,
‘Gold’, Nugget’, ‘Mammoth’, ‘Advance’, and
‘Wolf’.
• Varieties introduced in the 1990s from Japan
include ‘Obusa’, ‘Fusahikari’, and ‘Mizuho’.
• These trees can be top-worked and grafted
with newer varieties.
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34. Varieties
• Depending upon the time of fruit maturity:
a) Early Season variety:
golden yellow, pale yellow, large round
b) Mid season variety:
fire ball, safeda, mammoth
c) Late season variety:
California advance, tanaka.
A seedless variety, ‘Kibou’, was developed in 2003
in Chiba, Japan, but it has not yet been released
to growers.
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35. Fruit difference
• Chinese var:
Large, pyriform, deep
orange color, has usual
tendency of late
ripening
• Japanes var:
Small, slender , light
colored
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36. Health & Nutritional Benefits of Loquat
• Source of Vitamin A, visual and dental health of an individual.
• Extract from leaves is an important ingredient for lung ailments,
used by Chinese since ancient times.
• Maintaining optimum health, as they are low in saturated fat and
cholesterol.
• Loquats are rich in fiber, suitable for those who wish to lose
weight.
• The loquat leaf is said to alleviate coughing and nausea. It even
dissolves phlegm and is an expectorant.
• Loquat paste helps in soothing the digestive and respiratory
systems of a person.
• Loquat contains mallic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, vitamins A, B
and C, and B17.
• Vitamin B17 is known as amygdaline, laetrile or the anti-cancer
vitamin, as it helps prevent cancer.
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37. Nutritional value per 100 g of edible portion
• Moisture ........................................... 87 g
• Calories ............................................ 47–168
• Protein .............................................. 00.43–1.4 g
• Fat .................................................... 00.64–0.7 g
• Carbohydrates ................................. 11–43.3 g
• Fiber ................................................. 00.83–1.7g
• Ash ................................................... 00.48 g
• Calcium ............................................ 09–70 mg
• Iron ................................................... 0.14–1.4 mg
• Phosphorus ...................................... 11–126 mg
• Potassium ........................................ 185–1216 mg
• Vitamin A .......................................... 1122–2340 I.U.
• Ascorbic acid .................................... 00–3 mg
• Ranges vary greatly due to degree of ripeness of fruits tested.
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