Author Topic: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.  (Read 5885 times)

rambutantx

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North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« on: April 07, 2015, 01:56:47 PM »
I bought two 3 gallon kohala longan in spring 2014.  This spring I decided to plant one in the ground. 
I will airlayer some branch from the inground for more trees.






My lychee finally bloom again. The first time it bloom few years ago, the wind blow it all of. I'm so happy to see it bloom again.
Hopefully I can get some fruit this year.










raiders36

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2015, 03:03:05 PM »
rambutantx,

Very nice looking trees. I bought two 3 gallon kohala longan this spring too. I was wondering if you let your 2 potted trees outside last year or had it in the shelter. What is your low during the winter?

Droshi

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2015, 03:32:14 PM »
Hi! Good to see this in North Texas. Glad to see you're trying in the ground, your trees look great.

I'm in North Dallas, and have 2 Longan trees in pots. They are doing nicely, with the larger 1 flowering right now. Smaller one I had some fruits last year, but not more than 30 or so as I didn't want to overstress the tree.

I did have a Mauritius lychee, but I had it inside an apartment for the winter and it ended up not getting enough water (and dying). I'm thinking of trying again, but a bit of an expensive mistake! Next time I may try a cheaper non-hardened air-layer instead of a mature tree in a pot. Better chances now that I have a greenhouse for the winter, but I need to get rain water collection going, as I think eventually tap water salts would overwhelm the lychee.

Longan seems much easier to grow and fruit in containers for me. Glad to see lychee working out for you.

Here's a couple pics of flowers and the 2 trees:





I also grafted my first plant today. Took a nice cutting from my NDM (supposedly) Mango and onto a 2 year old seedling. I only had one other seedling (looked poly-embryonic), so I decided to graft the other seedling. Few others that I grew ended up dying off, but that was probably more due to neglect as I wasn't planning to graft them at the time. Maybe in the future we could trade some scions or air-layers. I also have a Geffner Atemoya that's a bit scraggly, but making it. Hoping to get some good tropical fruit this year. Really excited to see someone else in Dallas area trying the same thing.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2015, 03:46:35 PM by Droshi »

rambutantx

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2015, 04:04:56 PM »
raiders36,

It get below to freezing here in Dallas/Ft Worth area. My tree survive because the are shelter in a diy greenhouse.  I only turn on the heater if the weather forecast call for temp below 30.
The greenhouse pretty much keep the temp 10deg above outside temp.  I had the greenhouse for 4 years now, and I only had to turn on the heater for about 2 or 3 week during the winter months.

Droshi,

Nice looking tree, glad to see a North Texas grower too. How are those growbag of your holding up. Are they suppose to deteriorate after few years of use. 


Droshi

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2015, 04:13:44 PM »
raiders36,

It get below to freezing here in Dallas/Ft Worth area. My tree survive because the are shelter in a diy greenhouse.  I only turn on the heater if the weather forecast call for temp below 30.
The greenhouse pretty much keep the temp 10deg above outside temp.  I had the greenhouse for 4 years now, and I only had to turn on the heater for about 2 or 3 week during the winter months.

Droshi,

Nice looking tree, glad to see a North Texas grower too. How are those growbag of your holding up. Are they suppose to deteriorate after few years of use.

This last year I've been trying to keep my greenhouse above 45F in the center with a small heater on low, I figure it probably gets colder in other areas. This last winter was pretty cold. I just purchased my greenhouse on Amazon, but eventually I may build something better. In the summer I keep the frame up and have netting around it to protect fruit coming ripe (strawberries and blueberries now).



The large grow pots are 50 gallon, and supposed to not deteriorate. I've had them about a year, so we'll see. The smaller blue bag is a $0.50 Wal-Mart shopping bag. I've taken to liking these, they are about 7 gallons and seem to work well so far, but this is the first season I'm using them, so we'll see if they last.

I noticed your in Euless, probably 45m drive from me in Little Elm, so I would guess our climate is pretty similar.

rambutantx

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2015, 06:51:55 PM »



raiders36

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2015, 07:02:59 PM »
Hi Rambuntantx,

Thanks for your replied. I used to live at Ft. Hood for 3 years and know it can get very cold in Texas. I am going to put my longan trees onto the ground coming May. In late fall, I will erect frost cloth on all 5 sides with large stone/rock inside to absorb the heat during the day and keep the tree warm at night. The method work for all my 8 mango trees. Not only the mango trees had no damage but they also thrived. Therefore, the tropical trees need not to take a step back but only move forward. The lows were 30, 31, 32 in San Jose, CA

Droshi

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2015, 04:51:34 PM »
Hi Rambuntantx,

Thanks for your replied. I used to live at Ft. Hood for 3 years and know it can get very cold in Texas. I am going to put my longan trees onto the ground coming May. In late fall, I will erect frost cloth on all 5 sides with large stone/rock inside to absorb the heat during the day and keep the tree warm at night. The method work for all my 8 mango trees. Not only the mango trees had no damage but they also thrived. Therefore, the tropical trees need not to take a step back but only move forward. The lows were 30, 31, 32 in San Jose, CA

Interesting, so you made basically a greenhouse over each tree, but with just frost cloth?

Lows here get down to low 30s on average each year I would say. But of course record lows could always be down into the 20s or even lower.

Did you record temp inside your structure when outside was 30-32?

The main problem for where I am and planting in the ground would be the heavy clay soil. Interested to see the progress of OPs trees.


raiders36

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2015, 06:20:47 PM »
Drosi,

I bought those 6 feet redwood/cedar stakes from home depot and nailed one to the ground on each corner (4) of the tree. Afterward, I stapled (with the paper stapler) the cloth to the stakes. It hold up pretty good even with the wind blowing. I never take the temperature but it should be around 3-5 degree warmer. I did put my hand inside during the day and felt the warmth coziness within. The frost cloth I used have many holes for air circulation and rainwater to drip inside. The mango trees were very happy and I hope it would out for the longan and other tropical trees I put in this year. A lot of work babying them  :P

rambutantx

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Re: North Texas longan experiment and sweetheart lychee bloom.
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2015, 07:06:17 PM »
Hi Rambuntantx,

Thanks for your replied. I used to live at Ft. Hood for 3 years and know it can get very cold in Texas. I am going to put my longan trees onto the ground coming May. In late fall, I will erect frost cloth on all 5 sides with large stone/rock inside to absorb the heat during the day and keep the tree warm at night. The method work for all my 8 mango trees. Not only the mango trees had no damage but they also thrived. Therefore, the tropical trees need not to take a step back but only move forward. The lows were 30, 31, 32 in San Jose, CA

Interesting, so you made basically a greenhouse over each tree, but with just frost cloth?

Lows here get down to low 30s on average each year I would say. But of course record lows could always be down into the 20s or even lower.

Did you record temp inside your structure when outside was 30-32?

The main problem for where I am and planting in the ground would be the heavy clay soil. Interested to see the progress of OPs trees.

Drosi,
The cover is basic 6mil greenhouse film.  I have two wireless temp sensor, one near the door and the other at the back of the greenhouse. 
When temp is 30-32, I get average temp of 40 without heater on.