Would love to see picture of those big lychee and mango tree on your granpa's farm. As for guava, I like the crunchy Thai type since I grew up in Thailand. Not a big fan of those soft pink flesh type. Do you guys have any of the Taiwanese type growing there on the island? I'm currently growing two Taiwanese guava "Emperor" and "Pearl". You know anything about these two variety, I can't seem to find any info on them on the net. I also have a Ping pong longan, heard that it's grown on the island but I can't find any information on that cultivar either. Mind telling me what you might know about the guava and longan I mention?

Seng

soaht, im not to sure about the taiwan guava, i know Plant it Hawaii on the Big island sells a white indonesian and a philipine swirl variety, my grandpa is growing the white indonesian variety, it seems crunchy, but i really dont care for guava so im not to sure.As for the taiwan guava growing in hawaii, someone told me they were growing a taiwan variety but they never got back to me on how it tasted. For the longan, ive never heard of anyone growing it here in Hawaii, the main varieties we have here is biew kiew, sri chompoo, egami, kohala in some places, poamoho, i may think that ping pong may be some kind of biew kiew or sri chompoo but they may just give it a different name.
Im going to the Big Island in March and hopefully i get to snap some shots of the trees, i know that all of my grandfathers lychee, mango, abiu, rambutan, longan, pulasan is flowering now possibly fruiting already,my uncles 15 acre lychee, longan, rambutan farm is going off right now!! last year we helped him harvest 4000 pounds of lychee, they were shipped to cali, idk which part if you guys see kaimana lychee from hawaii being sold, it could be from my uncles!!
~HawaiiFruitGrower

Wow 4k pounds of lychee, must be nice to have a family member with a lychee,longan, and rambutan farm. Fresh lychee,longan and rambutan whenever you want just sent to you from your uncles. The lychee would most likely be sent down to southern California since there is a huge oriental population down there especially the Chinese and china town. Here in central Ca, we mostly get the Maruritus(common) type grown from Mexico and then they taste just ok since they are never tree ripen and picked too early like any other store bought fruit. If we're lucky we can sometime find fresh ones but mostly they are frozen. I haven't had fresh longan and rambutan before only had frozen ones, but they were still nicely flavor and sweet. Bet it doesn't compare to fresh tree ripen one at all. Would love to get some from Florida since the lychee and longan grow well there. So they have fresh fruit available, but California has such strict agriculture laws that almost nothing plant related could get here. Also rambutan and pulsan are way to tropical to grow here on the mainland even in Florida where the lychee and longan thrive. Can't wait to see all those wonderful picture, make sure to take lots of them. I'm sure everyone here would love to see them.

(P.S. I'm so envious of you right now.)

Ya soaht, it took about 9 hours to pick the lychee, you should try to acquire a kaimana lychee tree, the kaimana is the best variety here in Hawaii. It is a big fruit about the size of a golf ball, it's super sweet with a lot of juice and a small chicken tongue seed!! If shipping wasn't so hard I would send you an air layer of the kaimana! But the restrictions and laws are so strict it makes it hard!! Fresh longan is the best, I usually sit under two trees and eat my best to I get tired of eating lychee/longan! I just got some fruit from my grandpa in the mail today, it was abiu, have you ever tried it?? To me this is the third best fruit I have ever eaten, besides lychee and mangosteen!!

The kaimana sounds similar to the Sweet heart lychee, golf ball size with chicken tongue seed as well. I will be getting one of those soon from a fellow member from here. That would be awesome if you could send me an air layer kaimana, but darn those strict plant import laws. We also have some here at the nursery but, it's a whooping $65-$85 for a small 3 gallon. I saw a craigslist ad in HI for kaimana that were only $20. Man I wish We could get lychee/longan plants for that cheap here in California. Although you can get plants from Florida for around that cheap since they grow them there as well. Luckily I got my two freshly cut air layer lychee from Florida for only $14 a piece. I didn't get so lucky on my kohala longan that I paid $50 for from an online nursery that advertise the plant to be a grafted 5 gallon but, look small like a #3 plant. My lychees only came through because they were freshly cut and didn't have any soil, other wise they would have require a pyhtosanitary certificate and an other $55. I haven't try the abiu, but someday I will.

Ya it could be the same, but all I know the kaimana is the best lychee ever!! I will check if I could send an air layer maybe cut right of the tree, but You would have to pay the 15 dollars for the shipping? I have many air layers ready to be cut in two months, I will check or you could check on the restrictions, I think it would be easy since its cut right off the tree. Ya those lychee air layers on craiglist that were 20 dollars were cheap but their structure wasn't to good, it was too crooked and bent! Man I've been really looking for the sweetheart, and Mauritius variety lychee! If you could find me a air layer that would be great!! But as for the abiu it's so good, the abiu taste kind of taste like lychee in some way but its very very sweet!!

The kiamana might be different since we have both sweet heart and kaimana sold here at the nursery. I read on the net that the kaimana was develop in Hawaii from a seedling of I think it was Brewster or was it Hak Ip? The sweet heart was develop in Australia from a farmer that had an un label plant that grew and develop huge sweet fruit. The sweetheart and Mauritius are found more often than most other variety at the nursery. In fact Mauritius and Brewster are the most common commercially grown in Florida due to their good taste, consistency of production year after year and heavy crop set. The two I mention on the earlier post that I got from Florida is actually a Mauritius and and Emperor lychee. Mauritius is actually the cheapest one to get and the most available almost anywhere lychee plant are offer for sale. Ya those I saw on craigslist were of poor structure. The seller I got mine was an ebay seller and she still has them listed but as of today it's only a couple of hours left on the item. But she will re list them in a few days after the auction time is up. She has Mauritius, Brewster, Hak ip, Emperor, and Sweetheart, she freshly cut them off after you pay for it. So no soil and no requirement for a phyotosaintary certificate and extra charge. That was the only way I got mine from Florida as well. She only offer the sweetheart if you buy 5 of them and then only one sweetheart in that auction, but you could still get multiple of the other ones tho. I'm actually getting a sweeheart from a fellow member in sometime April or June and I will ask him if he could send them to HI freshly air layer w/o soil and then it might pass restriction that way. You could also ask the ebay seller if she can ship to HI, since hers aren't in soil based yet and just freshly cut off. I will check the restriction on plant import to CA and get back to you,because that would be awesome if you can get me one.

Here check out this link to the ebay seller, she has other item also check it out http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lychee-Lichi-Live-Plant-Nutritious-Fruit-Tree-Treat-Air-Layer-Nut-Emperor-Hak-Ip-/281056753325?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0amp;hash=item417049b6ad

This other link in the blue below is from pine island nursery on the different type of lychee

Here is a link that might be useful: pine island nursery

Oh yes that's right the kaimana was a seedling of the Hak ip, haha tidally forgot, I think here in Hawaii, 75 percent of the lychee tree being grown are of the kaimana variety, the other 15 percent consists of Brewster, and a variety they call "old lychee" or as mr.francis zee of the university of Hawaii lychee germplasm told me, the old variety is call tai so or Kwai Mei, the lychee is sweet, medium sized but has a huge seed! I have a small collection of kaimana, groff, Brewster, tai so, bosworth, and emperor. So that's why I would like to acquire the mainland varies like the sweetheart and Mauritius, hopefully the restrictions is minor so you can get a kaimana and I can get a sweetheart or Mauritius!! The lychee trees here are very cheap you can find some at the local nurseries or Home Depot/lowes for 15-30 dollars and the trees are air layered or some grafted, but thanks I will chech on those restrictions!!

HawaiiFruitGrower-

After doing a little research it looks like you already have a Mauritius, Tai so or kwai Mei is just the Chinese name. Now all you need is the Sweetheart, which I have email the guy that is supposed to get me one, but he has't reply back. I've also email CA USDA, now I just got to wait for a response on their regulation on importing fresh air layer from HI to CA. I will let you know what they reply when I get their response email back.

Hahah so I guess I have what I referred to as the old variety!! Ohh well I guess I will just keep it anyways! But yes I do want the sweetheart variety for my collection! Hopefully the restrictions are good, and shipping isn't fricken expensive! Please let me know what they say..