I had heard a lot of people say that they have tried many times to grow Longan from seed, but it never germinated. I had also read that the seeds are only viable when fresh. It turns out that the people I had been hearing had zero success were using seed from store bought fruit which has been separated from the plant for weeks or months.

2022 September 4

Planted fresh longan seeds from the CRFG demo garden at the Maricopa County Cooperative Extension office.

2022 September 20

Sprouts are emerging

2022 September 24

Planted these in the front yard

2022 September 27

I Put aluminum can rings around the sprouts to protect them from cut worms.

2022 October 10

I applied SFA to the soil and watered it in.

2022 November 13

Growth update

2022 December 30

I have kept these under a frost cloth with lamps for heat on a thermostat set to 50F. One of these plants is putting on new growth at the end of December.

2023 May 13

These seem to be doing ok but not great. I recently applied chilated iron because they were chlorotic.

2023 May 29

Applied 3.5lb of 90% agricultural sulfur covering a 5ft diameter circle around the plant.

2023 November 7

Only one of the seedlings survived the summer.

I covered the plant with frost cloth and put a string of incandescent C9 lights under the frost cloth on a thermostat set to 50F.

2023 November 19

I changed the thermostat setting to 45F.

2024 March 3

Barely hanging on. Looks like something ate through the stem part way up.

2024 June

These couldn’t take the sun. They all died. I think I should have grown them out in a pot until they were much larger before putting them in the ground.

2024 September 27

I just stumbled on one of these that has put out new growth. Literally almost stepped on it. They had all completely defoliated during the summer so I though they were toast.