Diamond River Longan

[simon_grow]

A friend just dropped off some of these Diamond River Longan and they are delicious. The Brix is 23% and they taste very sweet and have less of the the coconuttty musky flavor(Longan flavor) which some people may like and others not so much. I think in our dry climate, this variety tastes really good. The downer to these Longans are their small size. I don't know if my friend thinned the fruit or not and I'm not sure how big his tree is, it could be first year fruit.

Anyways, Quang from Ongs Nursery spoke highly of this variety and he is absolutely correct from this thasting I just had. I like Kohala, Sri Chompoo, Biew Kiew and Diamond River. All very good Longan and difficult to say which one is best. I need to do a side by side comparison. Frequent applications of Potassium fertilizer combined with small applications of rock dust combined with fruit thinning at pea size and withholding of water at quarter size may improve the quality even more.





Simon

[fruitlovers]

Yeah, it's a good one. Best thing about DR isit's a very consistent producer, even in the tropics...needs no chill. Also it's very proficic producer. The qualtiy gets knocked in the literature, but i think it's pdg (pretty darned good), all things considered.

[Finca La Isla]

I like this fruit too.  It is one of the fruits I am hoping can replace rambutan as a commercial fruit for me for farmers market sales.
Peter

[simon_grow]

I just got more info from my friend and he said his tree has been in the ground 3 years and this is the first fruit his tree has produced. He did not fertilize and he also didn't thin the fruit.

Simon

[xshen]

Wow!! Another late season longan to grow!!

Kohala longans were just finished here in the SGV just a bit over a month ago. This could fill the gap until the Biew Khiews and Chompoos are ready in the next couple of weeks.

Simon, you sound like a longan enthusiast. You need to try Sak Ip. My dad was raving to me about how good Sak Ip longans are for years and I finally tried it again this year from a graft done last year. I’ve had Sak Ip longans over 25 yrs ago and every chew I made brought back childhood memories. The fruit is not that juicy but the flesh is very crunchy, sweet, the flesh does not cling to seed, AND the flavor and aroma is very floral! It’s nothing like the ones I’ve had here. Two other TFF members had tried this with me and they both agreed that Sak Ip is one of the best longans out there!!

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the tip Xue! I love Longans. Do you know of any nurseries that sell air layers? Do you happen to know if the fruit is big and how large the seed gets? Looks like another variety I must get:)

Simon

[fyliu]

Sak Ip is the standard good longan for the Cantonese area. It basically tastes like how longan is supposed to taste.

Xue, did you get your scion from Hilo? I didn't have time this year to request from the
m but now that I have some land, I can add varieties.

[fruitlovers]

Diamond River longan is considered a tropical longan and usually recommended for tropical areas. I don't know how well it will do in sub tropical or temperate areas? Has it really been proven to be consistent producer in S. California? Also DR might be more susceptible to cold snaps than other longans?

[BrianL]

I have it in a 15 Gallon pot here in NorCal, but it survived a winter in a protected spot (although so did Degelman, Kohala, and Biew Kiew).  Also, it's growth rate appears above Biew Kiew and Degelman, but less then Kohala.  It did set some fruit, but I picked it off so it would grow.

[xshen]

Sak Ip is the standard good longan for the Cantonese area. It basically tastes like how longan is supposed to taste.

Xue, did you get your scion from Hilo? I didn't have time this year to request from the
m but now that I have some land, I can add varieties.

Fang, my scions came from Hilo. A few took and fruited a year later along with other varieties including Chu Leon, Fortune Eye, and Tai Wu Yuan. Flesh to seed ratio should be high from what my dad told me. We had smaller fruits this year because our trees were laden with fruits and my parents were too greedy to thin. Where did you buy your land and how big is the lot?

Simon, local nurserymen here in the SGV will ALL tell they have Sak Ip longans. The fact is they are usually Kohala passed around as Sak Ip with Pine Island Nursery tags. I have two aunts who both bought "Sak Ip" trees with Pine Island Nursery tags. We have two longans in ground planted over 10 years ago and both were bought as Sak Ip from different local nurseries. My aunts' trees and both of our trees taste like the common Kohala. My parents claimed they're both Sak Ip until they tried the fruits from the grafted branch and said "it taste like the one we have in China". The real deal might be hard to find. I think you'll have to graft your own.

[fyliu]

Xue, I "bought" a house in Burbank. 8800sqft lot. There's still a good amount of backyard for trees. I plan on keeping things small.

Back on the topic, I was too young to remember what Sak Ip tasted like in China. My wife says it's much better than anything she's tasted here (kohala and a large watery one from a friend's tree).