Loquat | Texas Plant Disease Handbook (2024)

FAQs

What is the disease in loquat trees? ›

Diseases: Fire Blight: While more common in pear and apple trees, fire blight can affect loquats, causing wilting and blackening of leaves. Leaf Spot Diseases: Various fungal pathogens can cause leaf spot diseases, resulting in dark spots on the leaves.

Fire Blight

The first sign is a watery, light tan bacterial ooze that exudes from cankers (small to large areas of dead bark that the pathogen killed during previous seasons) on branches, twigs, or trunks. The ooze turns dark after exposure to air, leaving streaks on branches or trunks.

Symptoms of a Loquat with Fire Blight

As the disease progresses, it moves down the branches causing young twigs curl and blacken. Foliage on infected branches also blacken and wilt but remain attached to the plant, making it look as if it has been burned.

Leaf spot of loquat, also known as leaf blight, is caused by Entomosporium maculatum Lev, with the perfect stage Fabraea maculata (Lev.)

Dry, hot winds combined with summer heat will scorch the foliage, resulting in leaves falling off the loquat.

Loquats should be fertilized every one to two weeks with a high-quality liquid fertilizer for container plants. If they are fertilized too little, growth slows and the leaves stay small and turn yellow.

Peach Leaf Curl will cause the leaves to fall off and the fruit production of the tree can be affected. However, gardeners are usually relieved to hear that this disease rarely kills trees and can be easily managed if treated with a fungicide during the dormant season.

For the control of leaf curl virus in Chilli - Spray Isogashi - 2.5 ml per 10 liters of water and repeat after 10-15 days interval for better control. You can also spray Aza power plus - 5 ml per liter of water when thrips are low in number.

Peach leaf curl first appears in spring as reddish areas on developing leaves. These areas become thickened and puckered, causing leaves to curl and severely distort. The thickened areas turn yellowish and then grayish white, as velvety spores are produced on the surface by the leaf curl fungus.

Leaf blight symptoms are characterized by the presence of long, elliptical, and necrotic lesions on the leaf lamina. The center of the lesion is straw in color and the margin is usually dark brown. The dark color of the margin is, however, not conspicuous in nonpigmented (tan type) cultivar.

What is Alternaria on loquat? ›

Alternaria alternata is a fungus which has been recorded causing leaf spot and other diseases on over 380 host species of plant. It is an opportunistic pathogen on numerous hosts causing leaf spots, rots and blights on many plant parts. A leaf spot and fruit rot on loquat, caused by A.

Burn or bury infected cuttings. If the infection reaches the main trunk, the disease cannot be cured and the tree will eventually die. If this happens, it's best to remove the entire tree along with the stump. This will eliminate one source of bacteria for the rest of the susceptible plants in the area.

Winter Protection: Loquats do not need winter protection. The tree survives down to 8°F - 12°F. However, since loquats flower in late fall, and ripen their fruit in March & April, flower buds need to stay above 19°F and fruits & open flowers need to stay above the mid-20s in order to have fruit.