Monday, June 18, 2012

Adventures in Planting: Loquats

I've had some spare time this summer, which I have spent in the yard gardening.

I planted five loquat seeds last Thursday; they have yet to sprout. They can take anywhere between one and four months to sprout. If they sprout, they will never be grand and glorious trees like the first loquat tree I saw: it was the towering, 40-foot tree outside of my dorm. In the last weeks of my last year at college when the loquats were ripe, I could snag a loquat or two on my way to class. The skin and flesh are fuzzy and soft like that of an apricot, but so much sweeter and juicier. In the center of each fruit are dark, hard seeds that need to be planted right away.

I had brought home some loquats with me from college with the intention of giving them away and sharing their sweet goodness. However, no one seemed to want them. Perhaps I didn't ask around enough. They sat on my desk for a month, pruning and becoming wrinkled. At last, I needed to get rid of them, and yet I wanted more loquats, so I planted them.

We'll see what shall grow.