I eat a fair number of loquats from trees in 25 gallon pots. Loquats will stand a pretty light soil (lots of perlite) so the pots are not to difficult to drag around.

There's no such thing as a male loquat. What is happening is that your Gold Nugget is simply very happy while your neighbor's tree is stressed, and therefore it's half the size and it's fruiting whereas yours isn't. Loquats are notorious for not fruiting for the first few years. My Gold Nugget took 5 years in the ground to begin fruiting, even though it was fruiting in the pot before I planted it. If you can't wait, then you might try girdling the tree. But it will eventually fruit, and when it does, you won't know what to do with all the fruit.

Jerry, I've tasted relatively few loquats. However, I've had some recent discussions with a gentleman who is wild about loquats and has tasted many of the named cultivars. He says that "Strawberry" is his favorite, and he is also excited about a type called "Vista White". "Strawberry" was originated in either New Zealand or Australia, "Vista White" in San Diego county. Both of these types are rather rare -- you would have to obtain them from specialty growers/nurseries in the Southern California area. Check the California Rare Fruit Growers web-site (www.crfg.org), under "member nurseries". Some of these sources sell plants via mail order; most would probably be (relatively) close to you in any case. LaVerne Nursery propagates and distributes several of the most common loquat cultivars -- "Gold Nugget", "Champagne", etc. You will most likely be able to buy one of these plants from any good nursery and possibly even some "big box" stores. If none have plants in stock, I believe that you could easily special order one. These commonly available cultivars would be solid choices as well. As for how to maintain it: just plant it and let it go. Loquats are basically problem-free trees. I have heard that they can be susceptible to fireblight, but that's the only issue I can think of. They really don't need pruning, unless you want to control the size of your plant.

You just can not find them here, but they are readily available from California, Here is an EBay link http://cgi.ebay.com/Eriobotrya-japonica-BIG-JIM-LOQUAT-Fruit-Tree-1-gallon_W0QQitemZ290157323592QQihZ019QQcategoryZ42353QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem