Longan , poor to no crop...

[luc]

Since they started flowering ( 3 to 4 years ago ) I never had a decent crop , any suggestions ?
Every year I prune about 40 cm of the entire tree ( 3 trees ) to keep them at a decent hight ( 5 meters more or less )

[HMHausman]

Since they started flowering ( 3 to 4 years ago ) I never had a decent crop , any suggestions ?
Every year I prune about 40 cm of the entire tree ( 3 trees ) to keep them at a decent hight ( 5 meters more or less )

I would give them a year without pruning to see if that makes a difference.  You can always more aggressively prune the following year if you do not get the desired results.  How have winter temps been over the last 3-4 years? Are you dry during winter or wet?

[luc]

Since they started flowering ( 3 to 4 years ago ) I never had a decent crop , any suggestions ?
Every year I prune about 40 cm of the entire tree ( 3 trees ) to keep them at a decent hight ( 5 meters more or less )

I would give them a year without pruning to see if that makes a difference.  You can always more aggressively prune the following year if you do not get the desired results.  How have winter temps been over the last 3-4 years? Are you dry during winter or wet?

Harry , we have a 8 month dry season , temperatures during winter-nights go below 10 Celsius

[davidgarcia899]

are the trees from seed?

[luc]

are the trees from seed?

Yes David , 99.99 % of what I grow was started from seed and the few trees I bought probably also ...

[LEOOEL]

Not that I want to be discouraging, but I think that since your longan are from seeds, the tree(s) may take longer for it to fruit than if it were grafted.

[davidgarcia899]

I have a couple longan trees that I started from seeds just for fun. They have been fruiting for about 4 years now and I have noticed that the crop gets a little heavy every year. My suggestion to you would be trim them as little as possible, wait till after they fruit to do any trimming, and be patient.

[luc]

David don't you think a 5 - 6 meter tree should be mature by now ? I didn't take notes in the beginning when I started to collect but they must be close to 10 years . They started to flower profusely around 6 years but never enough fruit to fill a 20 liters bucket .

[davidgarcia899]

Ya Luc, thats sounds exactly like mine. Try not to trim the trees and be patient.

[fruitlovers]

If they are flowering profusely but not setting fruit it's pretty obvious they are not being well pollinated. You need to get more honey bees, carpenter bees, bumble bees, or other pollinators to help out.
Do you know what cultivar the seeds came from? I would also try some different cultivars if possible, preferably planted close by.

[luc]

Oscar , I have 2 different ones , problem seems to be that a lot more trees are flowering all at the same time and the pollinators have preferences .
I am not allowed to keep bees due to the african bee problem and being to close to other houses .

[Pan Dulce]

Hey Luc, mature trees and low yields are a bummer.  That's a long dry season you got, I figured your green season was a little longer.  How are you irrigating? You may have to let them drought stress for the more normal period of time instead of the long 8 months they are experiencing now.  Maybe after 4 months or so start irrigating.  Also during the dry season you could apply potassium chlorate or KCLO3.  The potassium chlorate is supposed to be applied when the trees are not flushing, just flushed, or getting ready to flush, from what I've been told.  This application is supposed to help increase the crop load and crop consistency.  I'll send you a pdf. file of the research, if your interested. 

The Africanized bee problem sucks too, seems like the long dry season would curb a large pollinator population as well.

[thao]

You said yours is probably 10 years? I remember Harry posted on GW of his seedling longan and said it took maybe 15? or so years for it's first fruit. Maybe he will come by again to say the exact # of years that his took. You could see his seedling longan towards the middle of the thread.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0901484314828.html

[HMHausman]

You said yours is probably 10 years? I remember Harry posted on GW of his seedling longan and said it took maybe 15? or so years for it's first fruit. Maybe he will come by again to say the exact # of years that his took. You could see his seedling longan towards the middle of the thread.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0901484314828.html

Yes, my Kohala seedling did take about 15 years.  However, once it flowered for the first time. there was immediate fruit set....and in quantity.  I am inclined to agree with Oscar that the  focus is on the pollinators or lack there of.

[fruitlovers]

Hey Luc, mature trees and low yields are a bummer.  That's a long dry season you got, I figured your green season was a little longer.  How are you irrigating? You may have to let them drought stress for the more normal period of time instead of the long 8 months they are experiencing now.  Maybe after 4 months or so start irrigating.  Also during the dry season you could apply potassium chlorate or KCLO3.  The potassium chlorate is supposed to be applied when the trees are not flushing, just flushed, or getting ready to flush, from what I've been told.  This application is supposed to help increase the crop load and crop consistency.  I'll send you a pdf. file of the research, if your interested. 

The Africanized bee problem sucks too, seems like the long dry season would curb a large pollinator population as well.

Potassium chlorate is to initiate flowering. Luc already stated he got good flowering. So that would not help at all.

[fruitlovers]

Oscar , I have 2 different ones , problem seems to be that a lot more trees are flowering all at the same time and the pollinators have preferences .
I am not allowed to keep bees due to the african bee problem and being to close to other houses .

Suggest trying to plant flowering plants that attract pollinators. You can get a whole list of them by googling "plants that attract bees". Your wife will also like all the flowers! 

[Kay]

Longan dont like pruning too much, once pruned the following year might be bad or skipped all together.  I am not great at it, but there are certain ways to prune longan/lychee to help aid in yield and also maintain tree shape/size.

If you got lots of flowers, probably like they say, pollinators.  if you are getting sporadic flowering try not pruning for a year or 2.