The extreme challenge of longan! If the high temperature does not blossom in winter, the yield of longan fruit will be reduced by 90%, and not a drop of longan honey will be harvested.

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Ghost Festival can't find longan, which is rare over the years! The abnormal climate this year has led to a reduction in the production of various crops, of which longan and litchi have been reduced the most. In China's well-known longan producing areas, such as Dongshan in Tainan and Wufeng in Taichung, the total output is only 10% to 30% of that in the past, and even some areas are completely zero! Fresh longan has reached more than 300 yuan per kilogram in the market, but the total amount is very small. Longan farmers said that for the first time they have encountered such a tragic situation, they can only rely on natural disaster relief to survive this year. Want to eat longan has become a luxury! If the high temperature does not blossom in winter, the yield of longan will be reduced by 90%.

The reduction in longan production has also affected honey. Domestic honey is mainly longan honey and litchi honey. The flowering rates of the two crops are very low this year. Bee farmers who rely on longan flowers and litchi flowers as honey sources have also suffered heavy losses, or even failed to harvest honey. Fruit growers and bee farmers know that extreme weather may continue to affect longan industry, but they can only take it one step at a time.

In the past, Ghost Festival's essential longan is extremely rare this year (photo / Lin Yijun) Tainan Dongshan Longan hanging zero

Longan is a perennial fruit tree with a life span of more than a hundred years. From November to January of each year, when the weather turns cold, longan trees spit out buds one after another, and then bear fruit, and the harvest begins in August and September.

Dongshan, Tainan, which is famous for its dried longan, is the area with the longest history and the largest planting area of longan in Taiwan. the dried longan produced in Dongshan District is made from earth kiln and firewood to produce dried longan with unique flavor. what's more, it is the purchasing material designated by Wu Baochun, the world bread champion.

Li Qingxiang, who is in his 70s, is a typical longan farmer in Dongshan, as well as a bee farmer, inheriting a longan garden and a soil kiln. "my longan tree has been in my family for more than 100 years from Grandpa to the present. I have been taking care of longan trees for more than 50 years and keeping bees for more than 40 years." Talking about the poor harvest of longan this year, Li Qingxiang instantly stopped smiling. "it's the first time that there has been no harvest after planting longan for so many years, but farming is just watching heaven to eat!"

Longan orchard, there is a beehive under the longan tree (photo / Lin Yijun) Dongshan farmers follow the ancient method, only to adapt to the weather

Compared with the 30% reduction in longan production in Wufeng, Taichung, there is almost no harvest of longan trees in Dongshan, Tainan, and there is no longan in Nanxi, where Li Ching-hsiang is located, let alone dried longan. Dongshan longan is planted in a variety of varieties, mainly "Lutenzi" with high sweetness and taste, taking care of longan trees extensively, rarely spraying chemicals, dwarfing old trees at most, and a small number of farmers will promote flowers. even if most people know the technology, they still don't like to do it.

"We (Dongshan) people here all watch Ah Gong's longan grow up and don't like to change the way longan trees grow." Li Qingxiang said slowly that in the past, he was invited by the agricultural reform farm to go to various places to observe the planting methods, but even if he learned all kinds of techniques, whether it was promoting flowers, laying heavy fertilizer, spraying control agents, and so on, few people did so.

This year's harvest failed, and we can only rely on the government's natural disaster relief funds. Li Qingxiang smiled faintly: "there is no way. This is the way it is. Farming, just let nature take its course."

Photography / Lin Yi all Wufeng longan fruit growers promote flower, variety adjustment, the fruit rate this year is about 30%

Wufeng in Taichung is also one of the main producing areas of fresh longan in Taiwan. last year, the planting area was 1192 hectares, with an annual output of 8826 metric tons. Wufeng area is the main export area of fresh longan fruit in China. in the past, the older generation planted longan in an extensive way, while the management mode of longan tree gradually developed in Wufeng area, including dwarfing, fruit thinning, increasing longan fruit size and quality, and promoting the introduction of flower technology, the overall yield will be increased.

In the past, the annual fruit rate of longan depended on whether there was enough low temperature to stimulate longan blossom in the previous winter. as a result of this warm winter, the flowering rate of longan trees in Taiwan was close to zero, the yield was reduced by 90%, and the fruiting rate of Wufeng was maintained at 30%. Thanks to early flowering.

In addition, Wufeng fruit growers also adjust the yield season with different varieties of longan at maturity time, and the harvest time of the most "flat wheel shell" is about September, and recently they have introduced "early-maturing Bayi" in August and "tough stalk" in October to prolong the harvest period.

Chang Chung-Jing, the first monitor of the Wufeng fruit tree production and marketing class in Taichung, folded a handful of "precocious August 1" longan with his backhand. The thin flesh tasted light and elegant, while the other kind of "flat wheel shell" tasted thick, Q-bullet and balanced in proportion to sour and sweet. Despite the good quality of longan, Chang Chung-Jing lamented, "at this time, the whole mountain used to be yellow longan, but this year it is green."

Flat wheel shell 1 of most longan varieties in Taiwan (Photography _ Lin Yijun)

Precocious Bayi 1 (Photography _ Lin Yijun) hundred-year-old fruit trees are dwarfed and easy to harvest

Zhang Zhongjing, who is in his seventies, is also the third generation of longan farmers. during the Japanese occupation, his grandfather began to plant longan in Tonglin in Wufeng. By the time he was in the third generation, he began to take care of longan trees with his father after graduating from elementary school. So far, he has never worked in any other industry. I watch longan blossom and bear fruit every year.

Walking into Zhang Zhongjing's longan garden, all the longan trees have been seen for more than a hundred years, and the branches are stout and extended left and right, which is the result of the dwarfing of longan trees. "the longan tree was so high that the pickers climbed up to pick the fruit and came down to tell me that I was dizzy. I knew it wouldn't go on like this!" In order to take care of the safety of longan miners, Zhang Zhongjing began to dwarf longan trees.

The dwarfing of longan means that the upward branches of longan trees are removed, leaving only the left and right extended branches, and the subtracted nodes will still grow flowering branches upward, and these new branches are the location of fruit harvest every year. Compared with the traditional tall longan trees, the management of orchards requires workers to climb to the trees to do fruit thinning, pest removal, and so on. The advantage of dwarfing is convenient management, whether it is harvesting or the usual arrangement of pastoral and fruit thinning, which can save a lot of manpower.

Photo / Lin Yijun litchi stink bugs, waste gardens, powder beetles, squirrels and monkeys all harm longan

Apart from the loss of longan harvest caused by the weather, litchi Toona and other insects and animals are a major concern for longan farmers.

Zhang Zhongjing said that the litchi stink elephant likes to eat the flower buds just out of longan, even though it blossoms this year.