Loquat (Lokat)

1. Land Preparation Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft with 15–20 kg farmyard manure, spacing 20 x 20 ft. Loquat does particularly well around Haripur and Abbottabad. 2. Sowing Time & Method Plant grafted plants in February–March.

Both Sowing Feb–Mar Harvest Jul–Aug 80–150 maund per acre

Land Preparation

Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft with 15–20 kg farmyard manure, spacing 20 x 20 ft. Loquat does particularly well around Haripur and Abbottabad.

Sowing Time & Method

Plant grafted plants in February–March. Loquat is the earliest fruit of the year in KP, ripening in March–April when nothing else is on the market — that early window is where its money is.

Seed Rate & Treatment

Grafted plants only — seedling loquat takes 8 years and gives small seedy fruit.

Fertilizer

Per bearing tree per year: 25–30 kg farmyard manure, 1 kg urea, 750 g DAP, 750 g SOP. Feed after harvest in May, when the tree starts building next year's wood.

Irrigation

Every 15 days, and regularly through February–April while the fruit fills. Loquat flowers in autumn and carries fruit through winter, so unlike other fruit it needs winter irrigation.

Weed Control

Weed Damage Control Product
Purple Nutsedge (Deela) Its tubers fill the basin and strip nitrogen and water from the tree's shallow feeder roots while the fruit is swelling. Dig the basin over and lift the tubers out
Bermuda Grass (Khabbal) A khabbal sod under a young tree takes the nitrogen first and holds the tree back for years. Keep the basin clean and hoe the runners out
Horse Purslane (Itsit) Takes the monsoon rain and the feed out of the basin just as the tree is building the shoots that flower in autumn. Hoe it out while it is small, before it mats
Field Bindweed (Lehli) Twines up young saplings and into the low branches, shading the fruiting wood. Pull the vines off the tree and hoe the new shoots off every time they come through — cutting them again and again is what runs the root down
Lambsquarters (Bathu) Fills the basin right through the winter, just when the tree is carrying and swelling its fruit. Hoe the basin clean in winter

Clean basins.

Insect Pests

Fruit fly is the main problem in April. Birds take a large share of an unnetted crop — on a small orchard netting pays for itself in one season. Scale and mealybug occur on old wood.

Diseases

Leaf spot and canker in wet weather. Fire blight can affect loquat as it does pear — the same shepherd's crook blackening — so prune out and burn, and disinfect tools.

Crop Care

Thin the fruit clusters in January to 4–6 fruit per cluster. This is the single step that turns small loquat into the large fruit that fetches the early-season price.

Harvesting

Pick when fully coloured and slightly soft — loquat does not ripen after picking. Cut the whole cluster with a short stem and handle it once; the skin marks at the lightest touch.