Detailed Guide to Growing Longan in Pots: Learn to Grow Longan Easily

In my impression, longan seems to be available all year round, because longan from different places comes onto the market at different times, which is simply great news for those of us who love eating longan. After enjoying longan, don't throw away the seeds in the middle. Today, the editor will tell you how to make clever use of them!

How to Grow Longan in Pots

1. Buy ripe longan and share it with family or friends, and keep the remaining longan seeds, collecting them as seeds for the potted plant.

2. Remove the flesh and white soft tissue near the sprouting point of the longan seeds completely, then wash them; the longan seeds look like shiny black eyeballs one by one.

3. Put them in a basin of water to soak, and the water surface should cover the longan seeds. Then change the water every day and remove the impurities. After soaking like this for 4 to 6 days in a row, the outer shell of the longan seeds will crack slightly, and you can see the sprouting points faintly emerging. At this point they can be planted. After the longan seeds crack, you can soak them for two or three more days to speed up the emergence of new sprouts.

4. Choose a pot with no hole at the bottom, fill it with potting soil to about eight-tenths full, and spray some water on the surface until it feels moist. Choose longan seeds with roughly similar degrees of cracking and arrange them densely on top, finally sprinkling potting soil to fill the gaps between them.

5. Use small pebbles to spread a thin layer over the longan seeds, press gently with the palm of your hand, and then spray water two or three times back and forth. After that, spray water once a day.

Flower-promoting Techniques to Prevent Longan Flower Spikes from "Shooting Shoots"

1. For the "leaves wrapping flowers" type of flower spike "shooting shoots." In late January or early February, for any longan trees whose spring buds have not yet begun to sprout, you can spray the leaves with 25 grams of cytokinin mixed with 40 kilograms of water, plus 50 grams of multi-nucleotide mixed with 100 kilograms of water.

2. For the "flowers wrapping leaves" type of flower spike "shooting shoots," we can solve it by pinching. When the main inflorescence of the flower spike has grown 10~12 cm, carry out pinching; according to the thickness and strength of the flower spike, you can cut off 1/3~1/2 of the main inflorescence, which can effectively break the apical dominance of the bud and promote the sprouting of lateral buds and the rapid growth of lateral inflorescences.

3. For the "flowers on shoots" type of flower spike "shooting shoots," we can also use the method of spraying chemicals. You can spray once with 25 grams of "Zhuanghua Sha Xiao Ye Su" mixed with 30~40 kilograms of water, which can effectively shed young leaves, promote flower formation, make the flower spike become a pure flower spike, and improve flower quality.

What Is Shoot Control and "Shooting Shoots"

1. Shoot control refers to controlling the sprouting of winter shoots. Longan cultivation requires that from November each year to January of the following year, the nutritional growth of branches and shoots must stop and be in a dormant state, so that it can flower and bear fruit normally the next year. This period is the dormant period of longan, and the nutritional branches that sprout during this period are called winter shoots. Winter shoots generally find it hard to become fruit-bearing mother branches and cannot form fruit, so they have no economic value in production. Moreover, the growth of winter shoots consumes a large amount of nutrients. If the nutrients are all supplied to winter shoots, then it will inevitably affect the nutrients needed for normal flower bud differentiation. Therefore, in longan cultivation, you must learn to "control winter shoots." Promoting flowering is as important as shoot control; promoting flowering in longan refers to promoting flower bud differentiation.

2. The flower bud differentiation period is roughly from December each year to mid-April of the following year. The focus of work during this period is to prevent flower spikes from "shooting shoots." Longan flower spike "shooting shoots" is a common folk term. To be precise, it should be called leafy flower spikes. It refers to longan flower spikes during development being affected by changes in conditions such as temperature, humidity, and light, so that the flower spikes grow branches and leaves and form flower spikes with leaves. Such flower spikes cannot set fruit. In severe cases, they may even reverse into nutritional branches. This causes crop failure.

Notes on Longan Pruning

1. To cultivate a dwarfed trunk about 30 cm high, the main trunk of a young potted longan tree should retain 3~4 main branches distributed evenly, each main branch retaining 2~3 secondary main branches, and the remaining branches should be cut off. The main branches and secondary main branches form the skeleton of the tree crown.

2. Young trees of various longan varieties often grow vigorously, with longer branches, so attention should be paid to timely and appropriate pinching and heading-back pruning to promote branching. When pruning, be careful to permanently keep the main branches and secondary main branches positioned at the bottom on the tree crown. Wipe off rootstock sprouts, remove flower spikes, and thin out ineffective branches such as crossing branches, overly dense branches, weak branches, diseased and pest-damaged branches, shaded branches, drooping branches, and bent branches, so that the tree crown is open and lets wind and light through.

3. When the angle of the main branches is too small, methods such as propping and pulling can be used to open their angle; when the angle of the main branches is too large, bamboo or wooden strips can be used to support them to raise the branch tips and reduce their angle. The pruning of adult longan trees focuses on cultivating summer shoots as the base branches for producing autumn shoots. Carry out pruning in spring, summer, and autumn. In spring, when the amount of flowers is too large, thin out some flower spikes. At the same time, thin out ineffective branches, and for thin, weak, and not fully developed spring shoots, cut off the not fully developed parts.

So growing longan is actually this simple. Friends who are interested in growing it, after eating longan in the future, absolutely do not throw away all the seeds. You might as well learn the method the editor has taught everyone and grow a pot of longan at home. Looking at the leaves, some yellow and some green, it also has great ornamental value!