They grow perfectly from seed; the tree can get to 40 feet with a trunk about a foot in diameter and limbs 15 feet or more radius from the trunk. If you leave it close to the house, they will grow branches away from the house and the house side will be flat. Better to move them now to an area where they can have more space all around.

It's a gamble. I took seedlings from two sister seedlings, both from the same mother tree. One sister seedling had large teardrop shaped fruit that was sweet and acidic before all the way ripe and very sweet, little to no acid when ripe. The other sister seedling was medium size and round, with high sugar and high acid, just like I like them. It also had an apricot flavor and fruited 30 days after the other seedling. I took 2 seedlings from the large fruited variety and 1 from the medium fruited variety due to only 2 being available, and the person who introduced me to the owner wanted one. The seedling from the large fruited variety is just like it's mother. My daughter talked me out of the medium variety and it was just like it's mother. Her tree died the year after bearing. Although my trees were almost copies of the mothers, the original seedling sister trees were very different. Seedlings should bear fruit from 3 to 5 years. My trees were @2 years old when I got them and they fruited the following year

Red, I bought some seeds of Opuntia sp. Hoconoiste (I am hoping this turns out nicely). I also currently already have a prickly pear growing in a container with relatively few spines (seems like a Nopales variety). I am currently searching for good varieties of prickly pear geared toward fruit quality and production. I thought about collecting the other fruiting cactus, however the small fruit size and or poor fruit quality turn me off. I am contempt with dragon fruit and prickly pear however :), with occasional cactus apple. I am really looking forward to expanding my fruit garden to producing tasty exotic tropical fruits to use in juice fusions. Prickly Pear, Passion Fruit, Dragon Fruit, etc. added into juice mixes sounds very tasty and appealing.

I'm in zone 7/8 area. Planted a couple loquat plants from Home depot 7 or 8 years ago, and moved them once when we moved to our current house. We always had problem with deers eating most of the leaves in the winter and the next spring the poor guys had to start over again. After we had our dog things have improved. Over past 2 years they gain a lot in size (now they are 7 feet and 4 feet tall, respectively) and this year, eventually the bigger one just set buds. I also started feeding them last fall and spring, and that might made a difference too. So I think the plants should be fine in Zone 8. However it will take longer if you start from seeds.