Someone just brought a branch in to work, which was purchased from an Asian store. I love it! Tastes a little like lychee!
And you know where my mind went immediately! Yep, you guessed it! Can I grow these babies in a pot in zone 6b? They obviously would need to be brought inside during the winter.
Is anyone successfully growing these in pots in a colder area?
They are usually pretty large trees, so I would imagine they might be a challenge to grow in a pot, but I’ll be curious to hear the answer, too. Sometimes it’s surprising which enormous trees will still produce when kept small.
There are videos on youtube about folks from FL getting lychee friot from container trees. Definitely a lot of work and not as forgiving to attempt it in zone 6.
The good news is if you want to try, the seeds are super easy to sprout. Planted seeds from eat fruit sprout immediately.
I saw the videos on YouTube. I’m a little confused as to whether the seeds create a true to type tree. I know the trees as self-pollinating. I might give them a try in a pot and see what happens.
I planted both Lychees and Longan from seed about 10 years ago. I’ve gradually reduced the number (mostly by ignoring/under-watering as is my habit with potted plants) and am down to 3 Longan trees and no Lychees. I’ve never gotten any fruit from them, though I did get a pineapple one time.
One Longan:
Two Longan in fabric pots:
We have a jackfruit tree growing in our house. It’s maybe 8 feet tall now. Almost got a sunroom addition out of it, since my wife started the seed.
2 out of 2 longan seeds germinated for me in between a moist paper towel. The rational voice inside me is telling me: “Great! That was fun. Now abort mission ASAP.” I also here a silly voice telling me to pot the germinated seeds. I’ve been trying to tell the silly voice to go away for the past week or so, but I haven’t had the heart to toss the germinated seeds. I know that this experiment is not worth the trouble.
