The evergreen tropical longan tree grows in China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. Its juicy, sweet fruits taste something like grapes. The whitish, transparent pulp with a black or red bone inside the section resembles the dragon's eye and this is how the name of the fruit is translated from Chinese.
Material Content:
Longan: description and useful properties
The longan fruit is small and resembles small potatoes. Its juicy flesh is covered with a thin inedible peel that is easy to clean with hands. The pulp has a pleasant, unobtrusive grapefruit flavor.
The fruits contain less than 1% protein, about 18% carbohydrates, as well as such beneficial substances:
- calcium;
- magnesium;
- potassium;
- phosphorus;
- iron;
- manganese;
- zinc;
- copper;
- vitamins C, B1, B2, B3;
- bio acids.
The use of longan in food is beneficial for the health and youth of the skin. Fruits are used in traditional Chinese medicine, since it is believed that when dried, they have a calming effect on the human nervous system.
- Fresh fruits are eaten to increase tone, relieve fatigue, with dizziness and a rapid heartbeat.
- Phenols have been found in the pulp of Longan, which have a healing effect on liver cells and reduce the negative effects of chemotherapy on the body.
- Fruits have anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties. They are useful for gastrointestinal upsets, blurred vision, and fever.
In China, not only the pulp of fruits is considered medicinal, but also the seeds, leaves and flowers of longan.
Seeds, according to folk healers, can absorb snake venom if applied to the bite site.In crushed form they are used to reduce perspiration and as a hemostatic agent.
The nuances of growing at home
When grown in an apartment, the longan rarely bears fruit and is quite moody. This heat-loving plant does not tolerate air temperatures below -2 ° C, therefore, in the middle zone of Russia it cannot be grown on a personal plot.
Puddles with a plant in the summer are taken to an open loggia or to the garden, as longan is useful in fresh air and plenty of sun. In winter, it must be protected from drafts and cold.
The plant does not tolerate dry earth and consumes water in large quantities. Care must be taken to ensure that the landing tub has good drainage. Top dressing is added in the form of granules or liquid. They can be introduced all year round, since the plant has no dormant period. In winter, the longan suspends growth a little, but does not shed its leaves.
Planting material and planting dates
For planting, use the seeds of a ripe longan. They have 100% germination if taken from fresh, ripe fruits. It should be noted that the shelf life of ripe fruits does not exceed 5 - 6 days, so unripe fruits are ripped off for export. And their seeds can germinate poorly or not germinate at all.
It is advisable to buy longan for seeds in those countries where it is cultivated.
Growing a longan is also possible from cuttings and seedlings. Different varieties and varieties are sold in China. Planting dates in indoor conditions are not tied to the time of year, but seedlings planted in the spring develop best.
Soil and capacity for growing
The plant does not show special requirements for soil. A universal soil with neutral acidity is suitable for its normal development.
Capacity for growing needs bulk, since the tree has a large, well-developed root system.
Longan is a plant that needs an annual transplant, during which the planting capacity is increased as the roots grow.
After watering, the soil must be loosened, so that it has good permeability, it is light and fertile.
Sowing fruit seeds
Seeds are planted in small containers with universal soil or in peat tablets. It is advisable to place each seed in a separate planting container. It is not difficult to do this, since the seeds are quite large.
When planting, the seed is placed in the ground with a bright spot to the side and buried in moist soil by 1 cm. You can cover the seed with a transparent jar until a sprout appears, but this is not necessary.
Crop and seedling care
Seedlings after planting a seed in the soil appear rather quickly, within a week.
- They need an air temperature of about + 24 ° C.
- When the seeds hatch, the sprouts will require bright light. You can use the clock illumination with a fluorescent lamp in the first decade of seedling development. On short winter days, it is imperative that the plants grow strong and do not stretch.
- It is often watered with filtered water at room temperature. Seedlings, like adult plants, are very fond of moisture, and if it is lacking, they stop in development, can discard foliage and die.
- The soil must be constantly moist.
- They also maintain high air humidity by spraying leaflets of a seedling from a spray bottle.
Pick
It is advisable to plant Longan seeds in separate deep glasses, because these exotics grow rapidly. In this case, the pick can not be done, and when the seedling grows up, it is simply moved to a large landing capacity without destroying the earthen coma.
Longan tree care at home
In indoor conditions, the plant is particularly affected by the drying of the soil in the pot, poor lighting and drafts. But with skillful care for a longan, a pretty evergreen tree with large leaves can grow.
For a plant, it is necessary to allocate a place near the brightest window, often spray, water and fertilize with fertilizing for decorative and deciduous indoor crops.
It is advisable to alternate mineral and organic additives. In warm time, the intensity of top dressing is the same as that of most indoor plants - 2 times a month.
Fruiting period
The fruiting period begins at 3 or 7 years of the tree's life. At room conditions, the tree does not reach large crown sizes due to the limited space for root growth. The height of an adult plant grown in the room is about 2 meters. In nature, these trees reach more than 10 meters in height.
In indoor conditions it is difficult to achieve longan fruiting; there is no available information about the fruits received by someone. In the southern regions with a warm tropical climate, the tree successfully bears fruit in the garden. Fruits appear in large clusters, they are harvested in the summer.
What to do if the leaves of a longan turn black
At home, the longan can be attacked by pests, like other indoor plants. Particularly carefully you need to observe the plant in the summer, when it stands outdoors in the garden or on the loggia.
Dry air contributes to the reproduction of spider mites. The appearance of an insect on a plant can be detected by a thin cobweb entangling the leaves. Simply spraying the leaves with water cannot fix the problem; the use of acaricides is necessary. Relatively safe drug acaricidal-insecticidal action is Fitoverm. It helps to destroy not only the spider mite, but also the scale insects, aphids, mealybugs and thrips.
Fans of exotic plants will be interested in growing healthy fruit from a small seed. The fruiting of the indoor tree will be a real triumph, but even if this does not happen, its appearance will not disappoint amateur gardeners. Large green leaves make longan quite attractive for growing at home.
