Author Topic: Seed grown Longan blooming!  (Read 2340 times)

TriangleJohn

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Seed grown Longan blooming!
« on: March 21, 2017, 08:07:37 PM »
So my Longan is in full bloom again. This year it has many more sprays of flowers and with the warmer weather this winter my greenhouse is full of pollinating insects so I might actually see fruit before too long.

I collected seed from a bunch of different grocery store fruit and out of all the Longan seedlings this one grew faster and stronger than all the others. I gave everything else away to other gardeners and kept this one. I normally drag it outside the greenhouse for the summer and keep it in partial shade and well watered. It get so big each year that I have to cut it back hard just to get it to fit through the greenhouse door. I believe it was over 6 feet tall by year 4. I now have it in the largest plastic pot I own and it can easily touch the roof inside the greenhouse which has a 15 foot center ridge. I think it is about 10 years old now but I didn't write anything down so I don' know for sure. For contrast I also have a Lychee  that is way over 10 years old that is only 5 feet tall and has never shown any signs of blooming. It has had a hard life where more than once it has had a large tree branch fall and crush it while it was summer-ing outdoors, and more than once rats have eaten it back to the ground while it was inside for winter.

Also my small potted Finger lime is blooming and making small fruits. It bloomed a little bit last summer but this year it is covered with flowers.














apresser

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Re: Seed grown Longan blooming!
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2017, 09:49:00 PM »
do you happen to know the name of the parent tree? any of your other seedlings flowering?

sildanani

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Re: Seed grown Longan blooming!
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2017, 09:52:47 PM »
That's great! I've tried propagating longan seeds from grocery store fruits. But it seems that the fruits we're irradiated. They never sprouted for me even though I generally have no issues sprouting seeds other than Passifloras and some Annonas. Hope the fruits hold on both trees!
Anisha

simon_grow

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Re: Seed grown Longan blooming!
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2017, 10:36:50 PM »
I hope you get some fruit this year! Please keep us updated.

Simon

TriangleJohn

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Re: Seed grown Longan blooming!
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2017, 08:37:42 AM »
I don't know the variety or cultivar. The local Asian market seems to have the same Longan and Lychee each year, at least they don't claim different names on them and they always look the same to me. When I've asked they've said that the fruit came from Florida but I seem to remember them saying that the Longan came from Hawaii that year. I know that every seed sprouted and grew, this one grew faster and appeared stronger. I moved into this house in 2010 and it was a year or two after that move that I sowed those seeds so this tree is less than 7 years old.

I tend to sow every seed I find in tropical fruit just to see if it will grow. There is only so much room in the greenhouse so I focus my collection on smaller trees. I've had good luck getting things to sprout but bad luck getting them to live for years and years. Besides this tree I have a purple fruited Passionvine (Passiflora edulis) that fruits well, a strawberry guava, some Suriname cherries and even a Key Lime tree (a friend sprouted and grew the seedling but gave it to me when it got too big). My big failures have been guava trees, I love eating the fruit but when I grow out the seeds they never taste as good as their parent - after 3-4 years of waiting! Other seed grown plants in the collection that have not fruited but are otherwise healthy are Jabuticaba, Cherimoya, Sapodilla, Indian fig Opuntia, a Luc's Garcinia, an Opuntia from Nullzero (doing great!) and some Jungle plums and Grumichamas from Oscar.

There is also a lot of fruiting plants that I bought as grown trees - Papayas, lots of Citrus.

greenman62

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Re: Seed grown Longan blooming!
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2017, 04:03:09 PM »

is this the finger lime ?

i bought seeds on ebay ($1.50)
and 2 just sprouted - less than a week.

i heard they can take 7, 8 or even 10yrs to fruit
how long for yours ?

Also my small potted Finger lime is blooming and making small fruits. It bloomed a little bit last summer but this year it is covered with flowers.



greenman62

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Re: Seed grown Longan blooming!
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2017, 04:11:27 PM »
I don't know the variety or cultivar. The local Asian market seems to have the same Longan and Lychee each year, at least they don't claim different names on them and they always look the same to me. When I've asked they've said that the fruit came from Florida but I seem to remember them saying that the Longan came from Hawaii that year. I know that every seed sprouted and grew, this one grew faster and appeared stronger. I moved into this house in 2010 and it was a year or two after that move that I sowed those seeds so this tree is less than 7 years old.

I tend to sow every seed I find in tropical fruit just to see if it will grow. There is only so much room in the greenhouse so I focus my collection on smaller trees. I've had good luck getting things to sprout but bad luck getting them to live for years and years. Besides this tree I have a purple fruited Passionvine (Passiflora edulis) that fruits well, a strawberry guava, some Suriname cherries and even a Key Lime tree (a friend sprouted and grew the seedling but gave it to me when it got too big). My big failures have been guava trees, I love eating the fruit but when I grow out the seeds they never taste as good as their parent - after 3-4 years of waiting! Other seed grown plants in the collection that have not fruited but are otherwise healthy are Jabuticaba, Cherimoya, Sapodilla, Indian fig Opuntia, a Luc's Garcinia, an Opuntia from Nullzero (doing great!) and some Jungle plums and Grumichamas from Oscar.

There is also a lot of fruiting plants that I bought as grown trees - Papayas, lots of Citrus.

Passiflora ,  strawberry guava,  and Opuntia i think should all be pretty close to the parent plants.
(maybe some of the others also)
papaya also, and papaya grow very fast... i cant see buying one grown.

i actually got a papaya to start from a cutting once.
 i had a seedling that passed it right up in a few weeks.

i have 1 seed grown longan and 1 i bought grafted.
it will probably be 2 or 3 yrs before i get fruit, but it will be nice to see the difference.


TriangleJohn

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Re: Seed grown Longan blooming!
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2017, 07:19:49 PM »
Greenman62 - yes that's the finger lime. It is grafted onto Poncirus trifoliata. I have no idea how old it is but it is maybe 3 feet tall including the pot. I bought it from the guy that grafted it, I didn't see any mature finger limes in his collection so I don't know where he got it from.

I normally grow Waimanalo papaya (seeds from Oscar) but I saw some Red Lady plants on sale at my local big box retailer so that is the only reason I have them. They hate winter here but snap out of it once it gets hot. I haven't tried rooting cuttings but I have just dug them up and potted them before (mature trees), sometimes it works.

Good to hear that the opuntia should be true to type. The fruit was emerald green when ripe and very intense flavored. I'm not sure how many fruit I can get off of a pot bound plant. I'll decide if it is a keeper after it fruits. It is big enough now so this should be the year. I have a couple of winter hardy optunias in the yard so I can get fruit each summer - it isn't the best quality though.

My normal plan is to grow things from seed to see if I can keep them alive and happy for 5 years then if I like them I buy a grafted named cultivar. I'm at that point with sapodilla and white sapote (forgot to mention them earlier). I've been getting rid of the suriname cherry plants, the fruit tastes like Black Currant to me and I have them in the garden already. My cherimoya is huge and blooms continuously all summer, I keep trying to hand pollinate it but so far my efforts are fruitless. It may end up in a smaller pot so that I can move it outdoors for the summer. Greenhouse space is precious so you gotta produce fruit if you want a prime location.