Patience Pays off with Duku Langsat

[fruitlovers]

[TropicalFruitHunters]

FREAKIN' LOADED!

[ScottR]

How many years of patience!Oscar?Nice reward

[Jsvand5]

Wow. That is an impressive sight.

[simon_grow]

That's a beautiful sight, I wish I was there!

Simon

[fruitlovers]

How many years of patience!Oscar?Nice reward

Started fruiting lightly when plant was about 12 years old, and now heavily when it is about 15 years old. Very long wait even though it's a grafted duku langsat originally purchased from Frankies. This duku langsat is way better than regular langsat. There is no bitterness around the seeds, as is the case with langsat. And about 95% of the fruits are totally seedless. Also the fruits have a lot less latex than langsat. Fruits almost as big as longkong. Taste more concentrated that longkong. Really a top tier fruit.

[Mike T]

My grafted duku johor took 9 to start fruiting and only began in about June this year. The biggest grafted longkong I have fruited for the second time after 10 years and a second one of the same age is yet to fruit.I also have a 7 year old duku langsat that hasn't fruited. A friend has both utteraditt and paete langsats and they are 10 years old and are yet to fruit.
Genetic work has shown that how they are named is not backed up with genetics and there was crossing of species to account for the breadth of genetic diversity. There are numerous varieties with each of the four groups and even they look alike varieties are often more genetically aligned with other varieties that have different physical traits.
I reckon duku langsat and longkong taste the best and as Oscar points out duku langsat has a richer flavour and a little more tang. Some duku are just sweet and some langsat are too sour. Kokosan is a wilder form and almost a fifth group.that is quite sour.Mature trees of all of them can bear very heavily with fruit bunches all over the place,     

[fruitlovers]

My grafted duku johor took 9 to start fruiting and only began in about June this year. The biggest grafted longkong I have fruited for the second time after 10 years and a second one of the same age is yet to fruit.I also have a 7 year old duku langsat that hasn't fruited. A friend has both utteraditt and paete langsats and they are 10 years old and are yet to fruit.
Genetic work has shown that how they are named is not backed up with genetics and there was crossing of species to account for the breadth of genetic diversity. There are numerous varieties with each of the four groups and even they look alike varieties are often more genetically aligned with other varieties that have different physical traits.
I reckon duku langsat and longkong taste the best and as Oscar points out duku langsat has a richer flavour and a little more tang. Some duku are just sweet and some langsat are too sour. Kokosan is a wilder form and almost a fifth group.that is quite sour.Mature trees of all of them can bear very heavily with fruit bunches all over the place,     

According to a grower here the longkong is the fastest fruiting of the 4 types. I have a grafted longkong and it is growing very fast, but has yet to fruit. But it is only about 5-6 years old. Love the large pinp pong size and taste of longkongs.
I wonder if the almost total seedlessness of this duku langsat is due to young age, or is really a trait of this type and will continue to be seedless? The dukus i had in Thailand were extremely seedy, some with 4-5 seeds in each fruit. With this duku langsat have to go through 100 fruits before i get 4-5 seeds!

[Mike T]

Duku langsat usually have one or two seeds per fruit with a minority seedless in my experience with the main longkong types being seedless or nearly so.I understand some duku langsat average less than one seed per fruit.I wouldn't be surprised if fruit get more seedy with age especially if other L.domesticums were around to outcross with. Duku vary a lot and some are just too seedy.Thai ones might be the poorer Malaysian varieties but there are some really good big ones with better flesh to seed ratios.It is more usual to have one or sometimes 2 enlarged segments with seeds that dominate. Seeds of langsat are so bitter that they compromise the experience when you bite them.
5 or 6 years for longkong would be pretty good going I think and the average here would be more like 10.

[Finca La Isla]

I'm still waiting on my second generation of lansium to produce.  Interestingly, a Philippine agroforestry page that I look at claims that air layered lansium will fruit a little quicker than grafted ones.  I have both and I'd say the layered trees are growing faster than the grafted ones.
Peter

[fruitlovers]

I'm still waiting on my second generation of lansium to produce.  Interestingly, a Philippine agroforestry page that I look at claims that air layered lansium will fruit a little quicker than grafted ones.  I have both and I'd say the layered trees are growing faster than the grafted ones.
Peter

Thanks, didn't know they could be air layered. How long did it take for air layers to form?

[fruitlovers]

Duku langsat usually have one or two seeds per fruit with a minority seedless in my experience with the main longkong types being seedless or nearly so.I understand some duku langsat average less than one seed per fruit.I wouldn't be surprised if fruit get more seedy with age especially if other L.domesticums were around to outcross with. Duku vary a lot and some are just too seedy.Thai ones might be the poorer Malaysian varieties but there are some really good big ones with better flesh to seed ratios.It is more usual to have one or sometimes 2 enlarged segments with seeds that dominate. Seeds of langsat are so bitter that they compromise the experience when you bite them.
5 or 6 years for longkong would be pretty good going I think and the average here would be more like 10.

Most of the trees and fruits available here are langsats, and most of these langsats are planted by Phillippine immigrants. I like langsat, but agree about the bitterness sometimes ruining the eating experience.
I saw a 40 year old langsat tree in the backyard of a Phillippine resident many years ago. That made waiting for crop easier because that tree was loaded with many hundreds of pounds of fruits! I estimate my duku langsat has over 100+ pounds of fruit on it. The experience is similar to growing jaboticaba....takes long time to fruit, but you are very handsomely rewarded when it does kick into gear. But langsat is even much slower to fruit than jaboticaba. Slower to fruit than mangosteen. In fact these trees make you wish you got into gardening and planting an orchard when you were 5 years old! HAHA

[Finca La Isla]

Yeah, I started with seedling Langsat and seedling duku and it took about 15 years.  They can fruit twice a year here and a lot.  But like lots of stuff they can fruit poorly as well.
I do quite a bit of air layering of fruit trees and ornamentals.  Lansium is not the easiest for sure.  The best result I have had is working with suckering type growth that sprouts from low on the tree. Sounds funny but that has occurred here.  I have had a poor result from simply layering branch ends with good growth that would be pretty much guaranteed with rambutan or longan.  Maybe cutting a decent size branch to work what sprouts out would be a good idea.
Do the Hawaiian Phillipinos asexually propagate lansium?
Peter

[Mike T]

Marcotting/air layering is becoming the preferred method of propagation for them here.My duku langsat is a marcot and the root system is better than my grafted duku although it could be without a tap root.Speaking of which my limberlost durian is a marcot and 9 feet high and has its first flower buds.A few people are real advocates of marcotting durians but the root systems look weak on them to me but at least they don't have incompatible graft problems that plague durians.

[Tropicaliste]

Packing my bags, Oscar. I'll be right over to help eat those. 

[fruitlovers]

Yeah, I started with seedling Langsat and seedling duku and it took about 15 years.  They can fruit twice a year here and a lot.  But like lots of stuff they can fruit poorly as well.
I do quite a bit of air layering of fruit trees and ornamentals.  Lansium is not the easiest for sure.  The best result I have had is working with suckering type growth that sprouts from low on the tree. Sounds funny but that has occurred here.  I have had a poor result from simply layering branch ends with good growth that would be pretty much guaranteed with rambutan or longan.  Maybe cutting a decent size branch to work what sprouts out would be a good idea.
Do the Hawaiian Phillipinos asexually propagate lansium?
Peter

Most trees here are seedlings. A very few nurseries sell grafted trees. Never heard of anyone here doing airlayers on any lansiums.

[luc]

I started Duku from seed 12 years ago....so I am not holding my breath...

[Mike T]

Oscar I would try marcotting if you have a good tree. Friends have marcotted my ones successfully in just the same way you do rambutans and lychees where this is the standard method of producing new plants.The philipine couple I got my duku langsat from claimed this was a better method than grafting as trees stayed smaller and fruited faster.
Luc if your tree is around 16 feet tall it could fruit any time in the 5 or 6 years.
This species has been in cultivation a very long time and is quite true to type.As it would have been grown as seedlings for most of its cultivation there must have been a long term view of growing fruit trees in the past.Planting trees for the next generation is likely.

[fruitlovers]

OK, i will try doing air layers on duku-langsat and longkong and let you all know how it works out.

[DimplesLee]

Yeah, I started with seedling Langsat and seedling duku and it took about 15 years.  They can fruit twice a year here and a lot.  But like lots of stuff they can fruit poorly as well.
I do quite a bit of air layering of fruit trees and ornamentals.  Lansium is not the easiest for sure.  The best result I have had is working with suckering type growth that sprouts from low on the tree. Sounds funny but that has occurred here.  I have had a poor result from simply layering branch ends with good growth that would be pretty much guaranteed with rambutan or longan.  Maybe cutting a decent size branch to work what sprouts out would be a good idea.
Do the Hawaiian Phillipinos asexually propagate lansium?
Peter

They send out root suckers Langsat and Duku usually during typhoon season back in the Phils - after all the topsoil gets washed away. I don't know why? Maybe an attempt to have the root suckers grow large enough to add buttress roots to the mother tree. Maybe you can try the breadfruit (Rimas) method of inducing root suckers Oscar - expose a large mature root starting from the trunk and follow up the shallow dig to a few feet away, make a few shallow cuts here and there on the exposed part then cover with an inch or two of very loose compost. Only during favourable weather    rainy muggy mozzie season

[fruitlovers]

Yeah, I started with seedling Langsat and seedling duku and it took about 15 years.  They can fruit twice a year here and a lot.  But like lots of stuff they can fruit poorly as well.
I do quite a bit of air layering of fruit trees and ornamentals.  Lansium is not the easiest for sure.  The best result I have had is working with suckering type growth that sprouts from low on the tree. Sounds funny but that has occurred here.  I have had a poor result from simply layering branch ends with good growth that would be pretty much guaranteed with rambutan or longan.  Maybe cutting a decent size branch to work what sprouts out would be a good idea.
Do the Hawaiian Phillipinos asexually propagate lansium?
Peter

They send out root suckers Langsat and Duku usually during typhoon season back in the Phils - after all the topsoil gets washed away. I don't know why? Maybe an attempt to have the root suckers grow large enough to add buttress roots to the mother tree. Maybe you can try the breadfruit (Rimas) method of inducing root suckers Oscar - expose a large mature root starting from the trunk and follow up the shallow dig to a few feet away, make a few shallow cuts here and there on the exposed part then cover with an inch or two of very loose compost. Only during favourable weather    rainy muggy mozzie season

This tree has zero root suckers. The canopy has formed very dense shade under the tree. Will try nicking some roots, as you suggest, as well as putting some air layers on branches.

[DimplesLee]

Packing my bags, Oscar. I'll be right over to help eat those. 

Ah Oscar perhaps it's time for me to check out the visa waiver program as well    my new house is still leaking practically everywhere - blasted fixer upper and I'll head over to help Tropicaliste eat everything in your yard until we get to blimp-like proportions.

[Mike T]

I have never seen  root sucker in this species and have seen a lot of trees of different varieties. I run over surface roots with my mower and still no root suckers. Maybe one or 2 lansone types (philipine langsat) do it more. Air layering takes more time than lychees and new plants often sit there doing nothing for a long time after detachment before flushing. A bit thinner than little finger thickness works alright.

[Tropicaliste]

Can we put together a group order for airlayers, Oscar? Who's in?  I mean, with pictures like that, of course I'm going to want one.

[fruitlovers]

Some of the fruits get up to ping pong ball size: