Author Topic: longan  (Read 4412 times)

dingaling

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longan
« on: August 22, 2017, 12:09:27 PM »
Our Longan has finally flowered. Its is a grafted variety but I am not sure what variety. It has been in the ground for about 5 years and we were giving up hope thinking that Darwin just doesn't get the chill that is required to get them to flower. I spoke to a gardening friend     (Chris N for those in the know) and he put me onto the bleach theory. So about 4 months ago I poured about 4 bottles of woollies finest bleach just out past the drip line (I think they are 2 litre bottles). Was very pleasantly surprised to see these flowers bloom. Possibly just a fluke and it was going to flower anyhow.................. who knows.

 Couple of very very nice looking Rollinia fruit coming on as well. 2 different trees from the same batch of seeds and the fruit on one tree are nice and smooth, the other just a touch of the spiky appearance. The fella who gave me the seeds (from QLD) will know who he is and a big thank you is going out to him for these cracking fruit. Hope they taste as good as they look.






Chandramohan

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Re: longan
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2017, 12:51:38 PM »
These do not look like Rollinia!

achetadomestica

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Re: longan
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2017, 10:12:29 PM »
What is the bleach theory?

Last year both my Koala Longans flowered for the first time. This year nothing.
What was different? El Nino. 12" of rain in January???

Raulglezruiz

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Re: longan
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2017, 10:15:05 PM »
Yeaa! Very different Rollinia?.....
El verde es vida!

kh0110

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Re: longan
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2017, 11:04:04 PM »
Congrats, dingaling.
I got some seeds from Mike T a while back who assured me that they were from the best tasting no name variety he ever came across. I have a 3-yr old seedling that is about 5 ft tall and has recently started to flower. The road will be rough to get it to fruit here in So Cal but I still have about 1-2 more years to figure something out.
Thera

fyliu

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Re: longan
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2017, 11:42:16 PM »
What is the bleach theory?

Last year both my Koala Longans flowered for the first time. This year nothing.
What was different? El Nino. 12" of rain in January???
http://horttech.ashspublications.org/content/17/3/296.full

Bleach drench or foliar spray or injection to the branch.

fruitlovers

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Re: longan
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2017, 12:54:10 AM »
First photo is not a rollinia, maybe sugar apple? Second photo is a rollinia.
Koala should be kohala longan. The bleach theory in not a theory. It actually works. But it's much better to use potassium chlorate than bleach. Both stress the tree into flowering. But you have to be careful to apply right amounts as you can damage or kill the tree with too much.
Oscar

greenman62

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Re: longan
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2017, 05:42:29 AM »
i gota think there is a better way to induce stress than bleach.

i know with Jujube and some other fruit
growers will girdle the trunk

some info below on Lychee (relative to Longan)

getting them to fruit.
http://www.lycheesonline.com/girdlingtips.cfm


here, mentions bleach and girdling...
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=10968.0

also...

 Lychee trees grow in periodic flushes, with periods of latency in between them. The trick to fruit production in a lychee tree, is to time the pruning of the tree so that a growth flush occurs during a cold period where the mean daily temperature is below seventy degrees. A common practice for accomplishing this, is to girdle of some of the branches in September.
http://buyraretropicalplants.com/fruit/litchi-chinensis/


dingaling

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Re: longan
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2017, 01:58:52 PM »
Gday Oscar,
 I am not at home at the moment so i can not send you a pic of the flowers off each of the trees. Give me 3 or 4 days and i will pm the pic of each flower to you then you tell me if if is a rollinia or not.

fyliu

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Re: longan
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2017, 02:10:26 PM »
i gota think there is a better way to induce stress than bleach.

i know with Jujube and some other fruit
growers will girdle the trunk

some info below on Lychee (relative to Longan)

getting them to fruit.
http://www.lycheesonline.com/girdlingtips.cfm


here, mentions bleach and girdling...
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=10968.0

also...

 Lychee trees grow in periodic flushes, with periods of latency in between them. The trick to fruit production in a lychee tree, is to time the pruning of the tree so that a growth flush occurs during a cold period where the mean daily temperature is below seventy degrees. A common practice for accomplishing this, is to girdle of some of the branches in September.
http://buyraretropicalplants.com/fruit/litchi-chinensis/

Lychee is different. There's no chemical way to induce flowers for lychee, only stress.

The bleach is not to induce stress. It's the chemical. It doesn't have to be bleach either. Just read my link to the paper.

Girdling works for a wide range of fruits, including grapes and jujubes, so the genetic relation of lychee and longan doesn't really matter for this method. Stress works for herbaceous fruits like papaya too.

xshen

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Re: longan
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2017, 02:25:36 PM »
It was mentioned the tree was in ground for 5 yrs. Do you know the actual age of the tree? How big is the tree?

fruitlovers

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Re: longan
« Reply #11 on: August 24, 2017, 04:56:09 AM »
Gday Oscar,
 I am not at home at the moment so i can not send you a pic of the flowers off each of the trees. Give me 3 or 4 days and i will pm the pic of each flower to you then you tell me if if is a rollinia or not.
Rollinia flowers are very easy to tell apart from annona flowers. The rollinias have a propeller type shape, and have 3 blades.

Oscar

fruitlovers

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Re: longan
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2017, 05:03:17 AM »
i gota think there is a better way to induce stress than bleach.

i know with Jujube and some other fruit
growers will girdle the trunk

some info below on Lychee (relative to Longan)

getting them to fruit.
http://www.lycheesonline.com/girdlingtips.cfm


here, mentions bleach and girdling...
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=10968.0

also...

 Lychee trees grow in periodic flushes, with periods of latency in between them. The trick to fruit production in a lychee tree, is to time the pruning of the tree so that a growth flush occurs during a cold period where the mean daily temperature is below seventy degrees. A common practice for accomplishing this, is to girdle of some of the branches in September.
http://buyraretropicalplants.com/fruit/litchi-chinensis/

Lychee is different. There's no chemical way to induce flowers for lychee, only stress.

The bleach is not to induce stress. It's the chemical. It doesn't have to be bleach either. Just read my link to the paper.

Girdling works for a wide range of fruits, including grapes and jujubes, so the genetic relation of lychee and longan doesn't really matter for this method. Stress works for herbaceous fruits like papaya too.
Yes there are chemical way to induce flowering in lychees, but they are not as effective on lychees as potassium chlorate on longans.
Yes the bleach is to induce stress. It is a chemical way of inducing stress. Usually when it or potassium chlorate are applied you will observe sudden leaf drop, which is a result of stressing the tree.
Girdling works on longans too, but is not as effective in causing flowering as with the use of the chlorates.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2017, 05:04:56 AM by fruitlovers »
Oscar

dingaling

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Re: longan
« Reply #13 on: August 24, 2017, 06:04:28 AM »
The fellow that put me on to the bleach method had some chlorate in the past but has  not been able to source it any more because it is used to make explosives. I cant remember the leaves dropping after i applied the bleach so i might not have put enough on??
Is there any chemical method to get hass avo's to flower in a region that doesnt get cool enough for them to flower?

fruitlovers

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Re: longan
« Reply #14 on: August 24, 2017, 05:50:12 PM »
The fellow that put me on to the bleach method had some chlorate in the past but has  not been able to source it any more because it is used to make explosives. I cant remember the leaves dropping after i applied the bleach so i might not have put enough on??
Is there any chemical method to get hass avo's to flower in a region that doesnt get cool enough for them to flower?
Just some leaves will drop, not all, so you may not have noticed it.
Don't know any way to force Hass to fruit, apart from moving to a cooler place.  ;D
Oscar

dingaling

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Re: longan
« Reply #15 on: August 24, 2017, 10:45:35 PM »


Smooth type rollinia. See the flowers in the pic. This is the same fruit that was in question. There are only 2 fruit on the tree and both of them are smooth skin the same.

fruitlovers

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Re: longan
« Reply #16 on: August 24, 2017, 11:00:44 PM »
Hard to see, but flowers look like rollinia. The smooth skinned rollinias i've seen looked different than that. If it is rollinia it's kind of unusual type.
Oscar

gozp

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Re: longan
« Reply #17 on: August 24, 2017, 11:38:49 PM »


Smooth type rollinia. See the flowers in the pic. This is the same fruit that was in question. There are only 2 fruit on the tree and both of them are smooth skin the same.

How do they taste. Pls share a photo if the flesh when u open it. Ty

kh0110

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Re: longan
« Reply #18 on: August 25, 2017, 12:24:03 AM »
...
Smooth type rollinia. See the flowers in the pic. This is the same fruit that was in question. There are only 2 fruit on the tree and both of them are smooth skin the same.

Fruits of 1st and 2nd photos are from the same tree, correct? They look the same except the 1st is round.
Thera

dingaling

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Re: longan
« Reply #19 on: August 25, 2017, 10:10:55 AM »
Gday Thera,

 My wife took the 1st pic when I was at work so I cant be 100% sure but there are only 2 fruit on the tree. She told me it was the same fruit that she took the pic of. They both look pretty much the same to me.

 As for taste I don't know as yet as these are the 1st fruit to come from the 2 trees that we have. My brother has another one of the trees at his place which apparently has fruit on it as well that are smooth skin. I will be heading out to his place in the next week or so and will grab some pics when I am there. Will see about some PM pics as well if there are fruit on his trees.

Cheers
GP.

Finca La Isla

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Re: longan
« Reply #20 on: August 25, 2017, 01:01:19 PM »
Rollinia fruits usually turn yellow as they ripen.

OCchris1

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Re: longan
« Reply #21 on: August 26, 2017, 02:26:27 AM »
That smooth Rollinia should be a benchmark! We shall see. My Rollinia is producing fruit for the first time- about ping-pong ball size (1 fruit) currently. Good luck! Can't wait to see your review. Best regards, Chris
-Chris

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Re: longan
« Reply #22 on: August 27, 2017, 09:11:07 AM »
About rollinias: did they survive to the winter outside at Australia? I see you are in zone 12B so you are in a tropical zone... I am at 9a in the middle of the city and annona mucosa seems to hate our winters:
the one planted at out backyard is not doing so well: all leaves down, just 1 frost and the branches will get burned... so sad... but the ones I entered to my house are doing really well.... I really want to taste this fruit, but it seems that I would have to pot it for ever...

dingaling

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Re: longan
« Reply #23 on: August 28, 2017, 11:21:35 PM »
The temp here rarely gets below 17degrees C. Days are mostly around 32 to 37 degrees C. Its the dry hot mongrel wind we get at this time of the year that tends to knock a lot of the trees etc around. Our Mangosteens do it tough this time of year, we put extra water on them to get them through. We planted some mangosteen trees under black sapote trees because the sapotes grow quickly and produce good shade, this was a mistake because the sapote root system is so much stronger than the mangosteen root system, the mangosteen struggles to get enough water. Nutrients aren't a problem as we feed the mangosteens through their leaves. We are now using banana plants for the shade for our mangosteen trees.