Cool. That's a pretty good price for rambutan.

Most fruits from Central and South America do not need to be irradiated. Last time I remembered reading about it the only thing I remember that was irradiated from that region was guavas from Mexico. The other irradiated fruit come from Thailand and India but only a few type of fruit are actually irradiated. Not every single type of fruit from those countries (Thailand, Vietnam, India etc.)

i got most of my seeds to germinate withing 2-3 days, but i have no idea what to do next. should i wait till leaves developed before putting them in the ground?

I'd put them in a pot. They will not be able to grow in the ground in your area. Rambutan are almost in the mangosteen catagory in terms of difficulty to grow.

Hey Sheehan,

Thanks for the Information......you learn something new everyday!

How did you get special order of that rambutan, in store or online? I want to but that rambutan for my wife as well. I checked whole foods store and the closet one like 40 miles away. I want to make sure they carry them before I make a trip there

Hello James,

There is a "Whole Foods" Store about 4 miles from my house so I just went in to see what Fruit they had available. I saw that they had some really old, bad looking Rambutan fruit on the stand. So, I asked the Produce guy if they had any Fresh Rambutan in the back under refrigeration. He said they didn't, and didn't know when they would be getting more in and offered to special order the flat for me. So I imagine you could either walk in and/or call and ask them to Special Order a Flat for you. Then, they called me the day it arrived. That Easy!

- Jacob

Amazing rambutan along wth the price ,,, but did the seeds sticks to the flesh ,, i only ate rambutan once but it annoyed me a little and it made me only eat 1 kilo ,, lol ,,

Amr

i think in little saigon in oc it's $3 a lb.

Have fun growing your rambutan, cause I know I'm trying my best to grow mine. Check out my blog, and comment or suggestion welcomed. It's not the best blog but it do for my purpose of recording my journey.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Rambutan in North Texas

Can you tell mewhere/how you ordered them for such a great price and how much was shipping?

Rambutan is related to Lychee. The seeds are very easy to sprout. First clean off the seed thoroughly (some people let it sit in a cup of diluted bleach for a few minutes to prevent mold growing on it later). Wrap a handful of the seeds in a moist paper towel and leave inside a sealed plastic bag for 4-5 days. Then plant the seed laying sideways under half an inch of moist soil. Rambutan is slightly more tropical than Lychee, but it is important that both be protected from the cold as young seedlings. If you live somewhere like Los Angeles, the pot can be left outside in Spring and Autumn, but in the summer you should have the seedling in part shade and continue to ensure that the soil remains moist, because the dry hot summers of Southern California can be hard on tropical plants, particularly young seedlings. Unless you happen to be in Hawaii or Miami, for most of the other people reading this, the young plant will do best indoors, somewhere warm under a grow light. One thing you should know, it is likely to take many many years before your Rambutan seedling grows big enough to start producing fruit of its own (I would guess 8-14 years).

I love Lychees, but personally I just do not like the flavor of Rambutan, or at least any of the Rambutans at the market I have had the opportunity to try. The exterior of the Rambutan fruit is definitely fantastic looking though. To me, Rambutan seems more like a rare curiosity. I mean, if you are a collector of rare and unusual tropical plants, it would be a great addition.

Rambutan fruit can fetch high prices in North America and Europe, if you can find interested buyers.

I live in a small back water town with no ethnic foods

I've tried fresh and canned rambutans, fresh and canned longans, canned lychees, and some of those lychee nectar type drinks. My thoughts on these. The lychee nectar basically tasted like pear juice, and one of the big ingredients in it was pear juice. So, no big surprise there. Canned lychees were good warm, but refrigerated, they seemed to have lost some of their fruitiness. Fresh longans either have no flavor or a mildly sweet flavor, and both fresh and canned longans have a disagreeable aftertaste, something like a water chestnut or onion or something. If you don't taste it right after eating them, you'll taste it when you burp or something an hour later. Interestingly, some of the immediate aftertaste from the canned longans disappears while being refrigerated. They're small, don't have enough edible flesh on them, and just not good, IMO.

Canned rambutans are very slippery and smooth, kind of feel like a rubbery squid ring or something and taste something like a canned pear or canned papaya. Fresh rambutans are sweet and have varying levels of fruitiness and juiciness to them. I would say that the best rambutans are the ones that have a maximum amount of deep red before they get a spoiled or fermented flavor, and really, we're probably talking about a period less than 24 hours between not the best and spoiled. They have much more flesh than longans have. Despite the seed coat sticking to most varieties of rambutans, I still find them enjoyable to eat. Even the canned rambutans have some of that outer seed coat stuck to them.

xentar_gw, you are really missing out if you've never gotten to try fresh Lychees. They are by far the best!

One thing though, Lychees are very perishable, and if not fresh enough can develop a sour lemony flavor. If a particular Lychee tastes sour it's no good anymore. A sure sign that Lychees are very fresh is when the exterior still retains a bight red color, but even if the red color has browned a little bit (as is often the case) that does not necessarily mean they are not still good to eat.

Just a quick description of the taste differences: Lychee tastes a little bit like green wine grapes and mandarins with the aroma of roses, some people describe it as a very perfumed fragrance, definitely unique. Longan has a much milder flavor that tastes like honeydew melon. The flavor of Rambutan is harder to describe, maybe slightly putrid with a slight tropical note, maybe just a small hint of papaya or passion fruit. The flavor of Rambutan brings out more of the mandarin side, maybe a bit lemony, and the texture is also more "waxy" with a more opaque appearance than Lychee or Longan.

I'll definitely have to try fresh lychee next season. It was a bit too late for them when I started going to the local Asian markets.