The Tropical Fruit Forum

Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: lycheeluva on February 07, 2012, 01:04:31 PM

Title: seedless lychees?
Post by: lycheeluva on February 07, 2012, 01:04:31 PM
the website Jay pointed to, in the post titled myrica rubra, claimed to have seedless lychee trees for sale. after Jacob's post about that website owner's strange behavior, I was starting to wonder whether the entire website was a sham from begining to end- seedless lychees included. so I googled seedless lychees and have come across a few hits- it might be for real.

see
 http://samsbakejournal.blogspot.com/2007/06/seedless-lychees.html (http://samsbakejournal.blogspot.com/2007/06/seedless-lychees.html)

and

http://www.ecplaza.net/trade-leads-seller/fresh-seedless-lychee-export--3507328.html (http://www.ecplaza.net/trade-leads-seller/fresh-seedless-lychee-export--3507328.html)

and

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lychee.html (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lychee.html)
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: fruitlovers on February 07, 2012, 07:11:45 PM
the website Jay pointed to, in the post titled myrica rubra, claimed to have seedless lychee trees for sale. after Jacob's post about that website owner's strange behavior, I was starting to wonder whether the entire website was a sham from begining to end- seedless lychees included. so I googled seedless lychees and have come across a few hits- it might be for real.

see
 http://samsbakejournal.blogspot.com/2007/06/seedless-lychees.html (http://samsbakejournal.blogspot.com/2007/06/seedless-lychees.html)

and

http://www.ecplaza.net/trade-leads-seller/fresh-seedless-lychee-export--3507328.html (http://www.ecplaza.net/trade-leads-seller/fresh-seedless-lychee-export--3507328.html)

and

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lychee.html (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lychee.html)

Hi Lycheeluva,
Although i'm the eternal optimist type, i don't think any of these 3 links provide any proof. The first is only a photo, where the seed could have been easily taken out for the photo. The second a chinese website, whereby seedless they could just mean the seed has been mechanically removed (pitted). The third is a link to Morton book, where it says clearly by seedless they just mean a shrunken seed, ie an aborted seed.
I will ask Dr. Francis Zee, who is our resident lychee expert. If it truly exists i'm sure he'll know about it.
Oscar
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: simon_grow on February 07, 2012, 07:40:15 PM
I've never had a seedless lychee but I did on several occasions have lychees whose seed was the size of about an ant.  The abortive seed was still hard but it was pretty much just the shell.  I found several of these nearly seedless, most people would probably consider them seedless, Lychee fruit at Exotica Nursery.  It was either a Brewster or Mauritius fruit.  These nearly seedless fruit were obviously smaller in size compared to the rest of the fruit growing next to them.  The Sweetheart Lychees that Phase001 grew in his backyard and also the ones we ordered on Lycheesonline had very small chicken tongue seeds with the smallest ones being literally the size of a small chickens tongue.  For those of you that may never have raised chickens, its about 1.5cm long and shriveled.  I posted a pic of some cut open Sweetheart Lychees on the other forum a while back.
Simon
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: fruitlovers on February 07, 2012, 08:00:12 PM
I've never had a seedless lychee but I did on several occasions have lychees whose seed was the size of about an ant.  The abortive seed was still hard but it was pretty much just the shell.  I found several of these nearly seedless, most people would probably consider them seedless, Lychee fruit at Exotica Nursery.  It was either a Brewster or Mauritius fruit.  These nearly seedless fruit were obviously smaller in size compared to the rest of the fruit growing next to them.  The Sweetheart Lychees that Phase001 grew in his backyard and also the ones we ordered on Lycheesonline had very small chicken tongue seeds with the smallest ones being literally the size of a small chickens tongue.  For those of you that may never have raised chickens, its about 1.5cm long and shriveled.  I posted a pic of some cut open Sweetheart Lychees on the other forum a while back.
Simon

Some lychee cultivars have 100% chicken tongue seeds (aborted seeds), like Groff. But this is bottom of my list of favorite lychees. The taste is not so good, and also the groff lychee is quite small, so you don't gain all that much by having an aborted seed on an already quite small lychee.
If watermelons are any indicator, seedless fruit often is a not so good fruit. I find the seedless american grapes to be also quite terrible.
Oscar
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: simon_grow on February 08, 2012, 12:40:26 PM
Hey Oscar, I know what you are talking about, especially the watermelons although with research and genetically modified seeds, they are producing sweeter and tastier fruit without the seeds.

An example of a fruit that tastes the same without seeds is the Tango Tangerine.  It is basically a seedless version of W. Murcott.  It was produced by irridatiating W. Murcott causing a mutation that likely renders the pollen inactive. 

I really like the Sweetheart Lychee for the extremely large, golfball sized fruit and the shrivelled seed.  Some other examples of fruit that tastes good if not better with atrophied seeds are Durian and mango.  From my personal experiences, I have purchased several Durians with atrophied seeds and they tasted much sweeter and creamier than their large seeded counterparts.  Also, for Manilla type mangoes(and probably others), I always try to select the Thinner fruit as they often have atrophied, very very thin seeds compared to the larger wider fruits with the fully formed seeds.  My theory is that the energy that would have gone into producing the seed went into the formation of more sugars.  This is just what I have noticed and I could be totally wrong 8)
Simon
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: zands on February 08, 2012, 01:47:18 PM
@lycheeluva
It could be that seedless lychees don't have much to them. I see seedless grapes and seedless watermelons as jokes. As inferior to the seeded kind. It's a shame to see seedless grapes and watermelons taking over the markets. Gets harder to find them each year. Consumers must be voting for them. grrrr...
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: lycheeluva on February 08, 2012, 02:11:38 PM
if a lychee seed is small enough, i just swallow them!
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: Felipe on February 08, 2012, 02:53:53 PM
I have eaten last November 100% seedless Emperor lychees. They came from the canarian research institute, from plants growing in a glas house. They told they were still studying this. The fruit was big, nice taste, but unfortunatelly not completely ripe. Amazing the amount of flesh!

Sorry I didn't take any pics  :-\
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: murahilin on February 08, 2012, 03:38:18 PM
I have eaten last November 100% seedless Emperor lychees. They came from the canarian research institute, from plants growing in a glas house. They told they were still studying this. The fruit was big, nice taste, but unfortunatelly not completely ripe. Amazing the amount of flesh!

Sorry I didn't take any pics  :-\

Did they mention how they got the fruit to be seedless?
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: nullzero on February 08, 2012, 03:46:07 PM
Sounds like plant hormones or some sort of treatment lead to aborted seeds.
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: fruitlovers on February 08, 2012, 04:49:37 PM
Hey Oscar, I know what you are talking about, especially the watermelons although with research and genetically modified seeds, they are producing sweeter and tastier fruit without the seeds.

An example of a fruit that tastes the same without seeds is the Tango Tangerine.  It is basically a seedless version of W. Murcott.  It was produced by irridatiating W. Murcott causing a mutation that likely renders the pollen inactive. 

I really like the Sweetheart Lychee for the extremely large, golfball sized fruit and the shrivelled seed.  Some other examples of fruit that tastes good if not better with atrophied seeds are Durian and mango.  From my personal experiences, I have purchased several Durians with atrophied seeds and they tasted much sweeter and creamier than their large seeded counterparts.  Also, for Manilla type mangoes(and probably others), I always try to select the Thinner fruit as they often have atrophied, very very thin seeds compared to the larger wider fruits with the fully formed seeds.  My theory is that the energy that would have gone into producing the seed went into the formation of more sugars.  This is just what I have noticed and I could be totally wrong 8)
Simon

I think that in the case of durians the selected varieties, like Monthong, are ones that have aborted seeds. Don't think the atrophied seeds cause higher sugar content. Monthong was selection for higher ratio of pulp to seed that makes a lot of the selections have those small or aborted seeds. Case is similar in avocados. You can easily tell a seedling avocado here because they tend to have huge pits. Almost all the selected avocado cultivars have very small pits. That is just one of the important criteria for choosing a cultivar.
I agree with you though that seedless fruits don't necessarily need to be tasteless fruits!
Oscar
Oscar
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: Felipe on February 08, 2012, 05:13:24 PM
Did they mention how they got the fruit to be seedless?

I didn't pay attention when they told me. Sorry, fruticultural stimuli/information overload that day ;)

I will ask them again..
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: fruitlovers on February 08, 2012, 05:19:06 PM
if a lychee seed is small enough, i just swallow them!

Don't think that's such a good idea. Many of the sapindaceae seeds have toxic elements in the seeds. Think Blighia.
Oscar
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: fyliu on May 24, 2012, 03:11:55 AM
I'm one of the guys involved in the recent Myrica rubra import. I saw the seedless lychee and was also very interested. Ultimately it was the 2 year post-entry quarantine that made me give up. An experienced Chinese nursery owner told me it's not going to survive the winter here in SoCal. But Hawaii or Florida might work?

Anyway I found this page that compares the physical difference between seeded and seedless lychee. There's no guarantee that the Myrica seller is selling the this kind.
http://www.chinabxg.com/shtml/news/2005/0525/556.shtml (http://www.chinabxg.com/shtml/news/2005/0525/556.shtml)
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: AnnonAddict on March 01, 2014, 03:00:03 PM
I found this neat picture of a seedless lychee on daily's fruit today...

(http://s22.postimg.cc/jhq2kn0bx/supply_seedless_litchi_trees_7942.jpg) (http://postimg.cc/image/jhq2kn0bx/)
Title: Re: seedless lychees?
Post by: Mike T on March 01, 2014, 03:55:07 PM
That same picture has been around for a while on one of the major chinese nursery distributer sites. I think it was Jasons.