Hi everyone --

Last year I purchased a grafted strawberry loquat to put in our orchard, which gets full sun all day. It's grown tremendously well -- was about 30" tall out of the box with just a handful of leaves, and now is in the five-foot range with perhaps more than a hundred leaves. The problem is that the trunk is not adding enough girth to support all the heavy leaf and branch growth. It can't even stand upright on its own without staking, and it took several tries to get it staked correctly so that a strong wind wouldn't bring stakes and tree flopping over. This has happened a few times, but surprisingly there was no damage to the lower trunk as it bent at a 90-degree angle along the ground. Some cracking and flaking of the outer layer of bark, but that's it.

The graft is a simple one (maybe a t-bud?) about 7-8" off the ground. I don't want to exaggerate and make it sound like the trunk hasn't grown at all -- it has, just not enough to support the rest of the tree.

Is this common with loquats as they get started? Is there perhaps a special nutrient I should double up on? I fertilize regularly with the Sunniland Citrus/Mango/Avocado 6-4-6 with micros, and also added a micronutrient supplement earlier this year (doesn't say on the package, but I think it's high in Boron).

There are some nice ones growing in people's yards around here, and I hope this one can get to that stage someday! The others seem to be sturdy, and not particularly sensitive to winds. I wrote to the nursery I purchased it from last year, and they said basically to give it time, but I haven't had this trouble with any of the other fruit trees I've put in. Am I going to have to keep this tree staked for many years?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Bruce C.