Mr Hopeful

Thank you Stere. I'm not sure what was going on at the base of the tree. I was very careful clearing around the bottom and did it by hand so I can only think its the fungal infection maybe. The damage seems to be on two sides at the base. Is there a treatment for this? We are going back in February so will prune of all the dead wood and see where we go from there. I was wondering if we should be trying to open up the centre of the tree. I cant find any information specifically on how to prune and train a nespole

Hello. I'm not sure if this falls within the rules of what I'm allowed to ask in the homeowners section, so apologies if it doesnt. My girlfriend and I have just bought a house in Italy which needs a lot of work doing. Until we can get started on the house itself we have been tidying up the garden which has been neglected for over 10 years. After we finally finished recuing all the trees from the ivy and brambles that was choking them all we discovered we own amongst others a Nespole (Loquat) tree. My question is does anyone have any advice on how we can prune this tree ( if we should at all) to give it its best chance to become a well formed productive fruit barer. Its a bit one sided at the moment due so would like to see if we can get it to start growing a bit more evenly if its not too late. Thanks for any advice with things we can do ourselves. We havent mt any local arborists yet so would be good to have a bit of knowledge before we approach any.