How to Prune a Loquat Tree

The loquat tree is an attractive ornamental tree with thick green foliage that provides shade and beauty to your landscape and produces a deliciously sweet loquat fruit. This fruit grows in clusters of 3 to 10 fuzzy, orange-yellow ovals that ripen from February to May. Loquats grow to heights of 20 feet and their leaves are evergreen, which makes them a delight to have in patio areas and backyards. They are easy to care for and require only occasional pruning.

Wait until the danger of frost has passed before cutting. Try to time your early pruning so it occurs just prior to the spring bud-break on the tree.

Prune out enough branches within the canopy of the tree to allow plenty of light into the branches--which in turn will boost fruit production. Loquat trees are drought-tolerant, but regular watering and pruning are important in order to develop rich hearty fruit.

Remove half of the loquat fruit when it is about pea-sized by removing half of each fruit cluster. This will increase both the fruit quality and size.

Dispose of diseased wood in a sealed bag or burn it. Fireblight disease---which causes branches to appear as if they are scorched---turns the branches of the tree brown or black and dries out the leaves. Pruning should be done immediately on any branches suffering from this, cutting off a full foot below the infected area into fresh wood. Sterilise your pruning tool with a 10 per cent bleaching solution before using on other portions of the tree.

Perform additional pruning directly after harvest time, when terminal shoots are bulky and numerous. Loquats thrive with severe pruning, so do not use a light hand. Remove any cross-branches and thin out dense areas of growth.