Source of 'Tanaka' loquat tree or scions?
By the way, he has provided some trees to the USDA repository in Davis (I saw them in March) and there are more headed there. I'm not sure if they are in quarantine or not, however.
The following thread was started by HarveyC on May 09, 2008 at 10:13 am PST
I've never seen "Tanaka" for sale, nor have I ever seen it growing in anyone's garden, but the cultivar is in the CRFG "Fruit Facts", so it was probably extant in California at some point. My understanding is that P. Schaeffer has a really big loquat collection up in Philo, and I would bet that he has it -- but I've heard that it isn't easy to get in touch with him.
Has the "avid fan" you mention (who I suspect must be K. Love) sent a "Tanaka" tree to Wolfskill? If he has, you could probably get scions from it, eventually. Loquats are reasonably easy to graft, so making your own tree wouldn't be that hard. Getting seeds to sprout into rootstocks shouldn't be that hard at this time of the year!
If you're interested in loquats, check the "Cloudforest" archives for posts by Paul A. He's been too busy to come here lately, but he's quite interested in loquats, and he's offered a number of extensive discussions on the fruit. (He has perhaps fifteen cultivars growing, but I don't think he has the one you asked about.)
The above followup was added by Ashok on May 09, 2008 at 11:35 pm PST.
Yes, Ken said that Ed was interested in loquat and he grafted several there in a demo a year or two ago and is growing a couple hundred in soiless mix right now to send to Wolfskill. However, he said this is not part of their formal collection, just something the former curator was interested in (Ed has moved to Florida, FYI, and Mahli (sp?) is the acting curator). He's not sure I could request cuttings since it's not part of the formal collection.
Thanks for the tip on the archives, I'll check later.
By the way, here is Ken's loquat page: http://www.hawaiifruit.net/loquat.htm
I've wanted to grow a loquat or two (probably one multi-grafted tree) since they are the commonly the first fruits of the season, excepting citrus.
The above followup was added by HarveyC on May 10, 2008 at 7:25 am PST.