Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
there will of course be no guarantee what sex
they will be. Planting named cultivars will
save disappointment.
off. Always wait until the green stem that is
attached to the pod turns black/brown
before picking.
Although carobs are very drought-tolerant
once established, they need reasonable
rainfall/irrigation to crop well.
Loquat
Eriobotryajaponica
Loquats make wonderful tough shade trees
and if well-treated, delicious fruit. Seedling
trees are fine if all you are after is shade but
only named cultivars should be grown if you
want to partake of this first fruit of the
season. They flower in late autumn to
winter, and their generic name means
'wool cluster' in Greek, a very good
description of the flowers.
Fruitingwood
Carobs fruit on mature wood about 30 cm in
from the edge of the canopy and have the
unusual habit of producing flowers directly
out of a branch.
Pruningtime
Prune after harvest, if at all.
Shape your tree to an open vase for
maximum light penetration. If you want both
shade and fruit, prune at planting for three to
five well-spaced limbs and disbud the trunk to
the required height (see page 43,
'Disbudding').
Maintenance
Carobs need little if any pruning. Very
crowded and crossed growth that inhibits the
penetration of light into the canopy can be
thinned out, and branches can be shortened
to make harvesting easier. Every few years
they will benefit from the removal of a branch
to allow the light in. Carobs are very prone to
sunburn so after a clean-up prune every few
years, paint the stems with a white water-
based paint on the most sun-exposed side;
that is in the southern hemisphere on the
north-west side, in the northern hemisphere
on the south-west side. Failure to protect the
stems can result in the death of the plant.
Although carobs make excellent hedges, pod
production will cease with such little light in
the interior of the tree.
Loquats are self-fertile so only one tree is
necessary for fruit. Those grafted to loquat
Harvest
Some carob trees will drop their pods when
ripe; others will have to picked or knocked
Figure 7.3
Loquat's generic name
Eriobotrya
comes from
the Greek '
erion'
meaning 'wool' and
'botrys'
meaning
'cluster'.
