What is a "best friend"?
You will definitely say that the sideline is litchi! This is because there is a saying by Du Fu in Shu that once made Luoyang paper expensive, that is, "there are longan on the side and litchi on the side", so poets all call litchi the side.
I think all the villagers in Fujian who are homesick when litchi is red, and I am no exception. After leaving my hometown for more than 60 years, I often dream of returning to my hometown, and I am addicted to the artistic conception of "peeling like crystal food and disappearing like crimson snow". When I wake up, my pillow is wet, and I don't know if it is saliva or tears!
I remember when I was a child, I thought durian was too greasy and longan was very light, but litchi was sour, sweet and cold, leaving no residue, and I never got tired of eating it. Eat until your stomach is full of pain. At this point, only a few spoonfuls of soy sauce can stop.
Later, I read Su Dongpo's poem "300 lychees a day, and I don't hesitate to be a Lingnan person." I find it incredible. If I take 300 tablets a day, I won't last! Later, I learned that this is an artistic exaggeration, but it is not true.
Pu Weng's exaggeration does not matter. The world thinks that Guangdong litchi (such as Zengcheng hanging green and laughing branches). ) should be the best in the world! However, Cai Xiang said in "Litchi Spectrum" that "Chen Zi" in Putian, Fujian Province is the best litchi. He came to this conclusion after investigating litchi varieties in Fujian, Guangdong, Sichuan and Guangxi. He said, "Minzhong ... is particularly heavy for Chen Zi, a wealthy family with a huge family. If you are old, you may not be able to taste it, although you are not satisfied with thousands of other products. " So, what is the value of Chen Zi? Cai Xiang went on to say, "If Chen Zi wants to pick it, he must first close the door, put the money in the partition and use it to spend money. The winner thinks he is lucky and dare not compare with his value. " You can get Chen Zi, even if you have the luck to eat it. How dare you care what is worth it? Gold is valuable, but Chen Zi is priceless! It depends on the "spectrum" that it is Li's masterpiece, and Cai Xiang is not the kind of "moonlight how bright at home!" .
There are 32 varieties of litchi in Fujian recorded in Litchi Book, among which there are many excellent varieties. Besides Chen Zi mentioned above, there are many others, such as Volcano, Fangjiahong, Eighteen Niangs and Song Xiang.
"Volcano" is an early-maturing variety with particularly bright colors. From a distance, it looks like "sparks between Wan Li" and "a flame wants to fly to the sky"; The quality is also good. "Although there is no cream, it tastes better than alcohol and cheese." It is obviously a rare species. It was once widely planted, but it was lost for some reason. What a pity!
Fangjiahong is also a good variety. According to Rongzhai Essays and Dunzhai Lanlan, there was a litchi tree in the Song Dynasty, which bore thousands of fruits every year. In order to improve his social status by the celebrity effect, Fang chose 200 pieces to give to Cai Jing, the powerful minister of the dynasty, pretending that this tree only bears 200 pieces every year, and gave them all to you. Cai Jing was naturally happy, so he named it Fang Guhong. Since then, the trees have grown stronger, but when they mature every year, they have not grown to more than 200. People say that Fang's lies have come true. In fact, this is just a legend. People despise Fang's persistence in powerful people. At the same time, I hate Fang Jiahong because I hate Cai Jing, the six thieves in the world. Just like Cai Jing's calligraphy is good but spurned by the world.
The variety "Eighteen Niang" has a deep red fruit and a slender shape, which is compared to a girl. According to legend, the king of Fujian has a daughter, eighteen Niang, who loves litchi on this branch very much, hence the name "eighteen Niang". According to legend, there is a tomb of Eighteen Niangs in Dongguobao Temple, Putian County, and there is a poem chanting "Eighteen Niangs" next to the tomb: "White jade is wrapped in crimson capsules, containing fairy dew and dew; There are many green silk cages in the south of the city, vying for the eighteen mothers of the Wang family. " It can be seen that the dignitaries at that time were vying for this good product. In Qing Dynasty, Wu Changshuo also praised "Eighteen Niangs" in poems with pictures. "Who knows the taste of eighteen niang? Yanzhou in June is full of incense. No one in Jiangnan and Jiangbei knows, so I wrote English rule and Junwei. " This shows how popular this excellent product is.
"Song Xiang" litchi was named after being trapped in the Song ancestral hall. In the early 1950s, Mr. Song, a Chinese teacher in Putian, told a touching story about "Song Xiang". It is said that during the uprising in Huang Chao in the late Tang Dynasty, soldiers passed by and tried to cut down this litchi tree for firewood. As soon as they got off the axe, several women rushed forward to protect the tree, caressing it and crying, hoping to live and die with Song Xiang. The soldiers were moved and stopped, which saved Song Xiang. Song Xiang, a Millennium pear, was listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in Fujian Province in 1980s.
Litchi has strict requirements on terroir conditions, so it is not widely distributed. Fujian is rich in litchi. Some big growers, "one family has it, as for ten thousand plants", "I don't know how many trillion plants I want to produce at the age of one." In addition to domestic sales, fruits are also exported overseas. Therefore, "the more businessmen sell, the more rural people benefit." Ji Zheng so lyrically described the scene of Xianyou Fengting Li Xiang. "The silver nest flies over the cloud water town, leaning on the carved column to keep the moon cool; Going home at midnight, the wind is full of sleeves, and it is fragrant with lychee in Jiajiamen Lane. "
Litchi has been planted for a long time, and its experience is naturally rich. For example, in the Song Dynasty, fruit farmers had mastered potted plants. According to the Records of Three Mountains, in Song Huizong, fruit farmers used to "put the seedlings in clay pots, sail them to Quexia (referring to Kaifeng, Henan Province) and transplant the Yihetang." Hui Zong also wrote a poem for this purpose: "Densely move to Fujian Mountain, and prohibit the new planting of litchi Dan."
Rong Zhai's essay on Putian litchi said, "Famous products are born in nature. Although it is planted by seeds, it is not like roots. After that, no, but the survivor was Sun Xun. After Chen Zi, there is no Chen Zi, and the wall is called Chen Xiaozi. " Hong Mai clearly pointed out the main defect of sexual reproduction of fruit trees, that is, the female parent's goodness could not be preserved.
But later generations found a solution to this problem in production practice, that is, the "tree cutting method". The so-called "tree cutting method" is the "high-branch layering propagation method" commonly used in gardening now. The method of "grafting propagation" was widely used in Ming Dynasty, which was more advanced than the method of "transplanting trees".