Longan

Siting: Longan does best in full sun on rich, well-drained soil that leans sandy to acidic; young trees need shelter from cold and from hot, dry winds, while hardened-off mature wood can survive short dips to about 22°F. Trees are somewhat smaller than lychee, so centers of 15 to 25 feet are appropriate.

Watering: Longan needs less water than lychee, roughly comparable to a lemon tree, and does not tolerate wet or flooded soil. Newly planted trees should be irrigated regularly to establish, and once bearing begins three to four years after planting, regular watering is mainly needed during the spring and summer flowering and fruiting period.

Feeding: Fertilizer data are limited; balanced fertilizers or manure applied after flowering have been used where longan is grown commercially.

Pruning: Pruning needs are minimal, generally limited to removing dead wood and shaping, though selectively thinning a few limbs each year and keeping trees around 10 to 15 feet high and 15 to 30 feet wide makes the fruit easier to reach.

Propagation: Seedlings are too variable to reproduce a tree reliably, and cuttings and grafting are difficult to root or graft successfully, so marcottage (air-layering) is the usual method of clonal propagation, with inarching also used in China.

Longan is generally considered freer from pests than lychee and can be nearly pest-free where grown in California, though Florida growers note occasional damage from the lychee webworm and several scale insects, with disease pressure otherwise low.

Harvest: Fruit is picked in clusters, with individual fruits later clipped for packing. In Florida the crop ripens from mid-July to early September, peaking in August; peel color turns a deep tan but pulp sweetness is the more reliable sign of ripeness, since fruit does not continue ripening once removed from the tree.

Storage: Picked fruit should be cooled promptly and is packed in polyethylene bags in the same way as lychee. Guidance differs on keeping time: one account suggests longan can store like lychee at 30° to 45°F for up to three months, while another describes a shorter shelf life of about five to seven days when refrigerated in a sealed bag.

Culinary: Longan fruit is eaten fresh and is also sold frozen, canned, and dried. Its musky, less-sweet flavor compared with lychee is an acquired taste for some, but is often preferred once appreciated, and the fruit is used in dishes such as fruit salads, smoothies, curries, and preserves, with dried longan also brewed into a traditional tea with red dates.

Medicinal: The fruit and seed have a documented history of use in traditional Chinese medicine for general health and healing.

Longan is native to Southeast Asia and southern China. China, Thailand, and Vietnam remain the largest producers today, together accounting for roughly 95 percent of global output. The species was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s and is now grown in Hawaii, California, and South Florida.