Explain the loquat, if you can

Jun 05, 2023

Loquatsare one of the great mysteries of Mobile and the Gulf Coast.

Thosewho can still see the world beyond their car windows may have noticed that theloquat trees are right now full of golden orange fruit.

Now,I recognize that many Mobilians have never eaten a fruit unless it was firstwrapped in plastic and processed on a charge card.

Butfolks who've been around the Gulf Coast for a while recognize that this fruitis not simply edible, it's genuinely delicious.

That'swhy loquats are called "Japanese plums" in much of the world, even thoughthey're not all that closely related to plums, and even though their flavorresembles an apricot, a mango, a peach or a pear as much as it resembles aplum.

InJapan and China, the fruits are peeled, seeded, canned in syrup and sold as anunusual delicacy. Old recipe books from Mobile are filled with recipes forloquat jellies and jams and desserts.

Gettingenough fruit to eat seems to be as easy as taking the time to pick it. Loquatsdon't suffer from many serious pests or diseases, and the trees in Mobileproduce well without benefit of fertilizers, chemical sprays or carefulpruning.

Totop it all, it produces fruit in April, at a time of year when fresh fruit fromthe garden is scarce as hen's teeth.

Thetruth is, the loquat should be honored as one of our most desirable fruits. Weshould be celebrating the loquat harvest the way we celebrate the harvest ofthe blueberries, the first Chilton County peaches and the peak of the OwariSatsuma crop.

Thereare probably many silly reasons why we overlook our most distinctive Mobiletraditions, but there is one major perception issue loquats need to overcome:Loquats do not bear fruit here.

Somany books tell you so. Winters on the northern Gulf are just too consistentlycold for reliable loquat harvest, they tell us. While flower buds can surviveinto the teens, the books say, the flowers and the fruits are frozen anddestroyed in the mid-20s.

NowI hope you're paying attention, because if you are, you'd realize that what thebooks say is a pile of crock. Loquats not only produce fruit here, they do itin a big way, and they've done it virtually every year for the past two decades(which is as far back as I can remember). Not just one or two loquat trees, butvirtually every tree in Mobile. Even after very cold winters.

Thisspring, I can't find a moderate sized loquat that isn't loaded down with fruit.So I've got serious issues with the books, but I'll also have to admit: Thebooks SHOULD be correct. It's just not logical to believe that a subtropicalfruiting tree that flowers in November (!) and which has fruit that develops inwinter should somehow survive the worst of Mobile's cold weather every year.

Evenwhen we have temperatures into the teens, the small, developing loquat fruits,which ought to be frozen solid, somehow make it through unscathed until April.

What'seven odder is that much north of Mobile, loquats almost never mature fruit,regardless of the severity of winter. Cities like Jackson, Hattiesburg,Thomasville and Montgomery occasionally have very mild winters, with lowssimilar to what we had last winter here on the Gulf Coast. Come April, theloquats in their cities are inevitably bereft of fruit.

EvenCharleston, S.C., which is said to have a climate as mild as Mobile's,celebrates the beauty of the loquat, but declares the fruit unreliable.

So why is it that loquats seem to defy allknowledge and common sense, and continue to produce bucketloads of fruits everyspring in Mobile, seemingly without regard to winter temperatures, even thoughthe fruits seem to be destroyed in comparable winters elsewhere?

Honestly,I don't know. But I have some hypotheses that I wish some of you would at leasttake a stab at disproving.

Here'smy first hypothesis: Maybe the fruit, when it reaches a certain size, isactually far hardier than most people expect. And maybe only the flower itselfand the very, very young fruit is vulnerable to cold in the mid-20s.

Thatwould explain why loquat fruits do so well in Mobile, but so poorly inMontgomery, even when the minimum winter low temperatures in the two cities aresimilar.

Mobileand Fairhope have an exceptionally late first winter frost -- often after thefirst week of December, and rarely experiences temperatures in the 20s when theloquat is flowering (in November and early December). But cities north of thecoast and even Atlantic Coast cities like Charleston, S.C., frequently gettheir first hard frosts in November.

Muchas I like the sound of all that, it's nothing but a flimsy hypothesis until wedo experiments to test the cold hardiness of flowers and fruits at all stagesof growth and in a wide range of temperatures. Maybe my good (that is to say,remaining) friends at Auburn would have some interest in that -- particularlyif there's a possibility that loquats have a future as a commercial crop nearthe coast. And if I have any horticultural friends in Pensacola or Pascagoula,maybe they'll tell me about their observations in their communities.

I'dalso want to hear from people who've grown named cultivars of loquats, such asChampagne. These cultivars are known for their generally large and sweetfruits, but perhaps they have less hardiness in flower and fruit than theundistinguished seedling loquats grown around Mobile.

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