What is the best variety of longan for souhern California?

[BonsaiBeast]

Is there considered a superior variety of longan to grow here?

What about lychee?

[simon_grow]

It depends what your goal is? Do you want the fastest growing- Kohala, probably the most consistent fruited as well. Without knowing your growing conditions or goals, I would suggest Biew Kiew because it grows well here and has excellent fruit.

Same for Lychees. You should really try out as many varieties as possible to see which one you like best. You can try visiting the nurseries when the Fruit is in season to sample the Fruit. Mauritius and Brewster are productive here but a friend has a Kaimana that is fairly productive as well. Emperor is also a great Fruit and the tree stays small but it’s root system can be sensitive here in Socal. Sweetheart and Fake Hak Ip are good tasting fruit but they can have some tannin taste if you are the type to break the skin with your teeth.

 All the varieties have tannin in their skin but some are more noticeable than others. Sweet Cliff is very productive as well with a smaller size Fruit, some people love it but it’s not one of my favorites because the Rose scent and flavor that I associate with a good Lychee is lacking in this variety.

Ohia is also a good tasting variety but I don’t know how well it grows here. Groff sucks from the few Fruit I’ve eaten. No Mai Tsze is by far the best tasting variety I’ve ever eaten. I don’t believe I’ve ever eaten a true NMT/NMC here in the USA.

Simon

[BonsaiBeast]

It depends what your goal is? Do you want the fastest growing- Kohala, probably the most consistent fruited as well. Without knowing your growing conditions or goals, I would suggest Biew Kiew because it grows well here and has excellent fruit.

Same for Lychees. You should really try out as many varieties as possible to see which one you like best. You can try visiting the nurseries when the Fruit is in season to sample the Fruit. Mauritius and Brewster are productive here but a friend has a Kaimana that is fairly productive as well. Emperor is also a great Fruit and the tree stays small but it’s root system can be sensitive here in Socal. Sweetheart and Fake Hak Ip are good tasting fruit but they can have some tannin taste if you are the type to break the skin with your teeth.

 All the varieties have tannin in their skin but some are more noticeable than others. Sweet Cliff is very productive as well with a smaller size Fruit, some people love it but it’s not one of my favorites because the Rose scent and flavor that I associate with a good Lychee is lacking in this variety.

Ohia is also a good tasting variety but I don’t know how well it grows here. Groff sucks from the few Fruit I’ve eaten. No Mai Tsze is by far the best tasting variety I’ve ever eaten. I don’t believe I’ve ever eaten a true NMT/NMC here in the USA.

Simon

I have been reading that lychees are not consistently productive here at all... People manage to get a few fruits here and there, but with little consistency. I would love to have a lychee tree over a longan, but I would rather have consistency over a pain in the butt. What do you think?

[simon_grow]

The larger fully established Lychee trees are usually pretty consistent. They may not Fruit heavily every year but they can have decent to good Fruit production 4 out of five years. The normal pattern I’ve seen like this: slow production until tree has been in the ground about 10 years and the tree is about 10-15 feet tall and wide. At this size, the tree may have a good year followed by an ok year and then a bumper crop year followed by a year with nothing or close to nothing followed by an ok year then a decent year followed by a good year then another good year then an ok year and then another bumper crop year followed by a bad year and repeat.

This is about what Leo gets on his huge Brewster IIRC and also several other trees I e seen around town. The variety you plant makes a big difference.

Bosworth 3/Kwai Mai pink is also a pretty productive tree that is pretty reliable with sweet fruit but lacks a little on the Lychee/Rose flavor. It tastes a bit like sugar water with some Lychee flavor but I still like it for some reason.

Simon