Author Topic: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!  (Read 3243 times)

BestDay

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I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« on: March 12, 2020, 05:03:28 PM »
I went to Champa Nursery and talked to Jimmy the owner there.  He is very knowledgeable and helpful.  There nursery is very clean and well organized.  All plants are clearly labeled and they use different color spray paint on the pots to also identify the plants.  I felt safe that I wouldn't buy a mislabeled plant.  I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor lychee plant.  He only had one Emperor.  It was healthy but very small for a 15 gallon pot.  The plant is about 3.5' tall.  He only had two small 3 gallon Kaimana.  The one I bought is about 1.5' tall.  He buys his Kaimana from Hawaii so they should be the real deal.  I bought a Kaimana Lychee from California Tropical Fruit Trees several years ago.  But after a while I started doubting if what they grow as Kaimana is the real deal.  The fruit from their trees are small-medium is size and not dark red.  So I sold that tree. 

I like Kaimana because it is early season, large fruit and a small tree.  I like the Emperor because it is late season, large fruit and a small tree.  Both of these should complement my Brewster.  Who here in California has fruited Kaimana?  What did the fruit look like?

I'll attach some pictures soon.

Bill

Johnny Eat Fruit

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2020, 05:22:00 PM »
Last year i was considering purchasing a Kaimana lychee tree at Mimosa Nursery in L.A. They has several nice looking specimens available at that time.

I had a frank discussion with the owner of mimosa as he planted a Kaimanda at his house eight years ago. He indicated the fruit quality was very good but production was very low. I appreciated his honesty. I decided against the purchase and bought a Brewster and Mauritius lychee instead.  I hope you have better luck with fruit production on your Kaimana than he did.

Johnny

BestDay

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2020, 05:41:07 PM »
I wonder where they acquire their Kaimana from?  My plan this summer is to visit as many local Lychee growers as I can.  I want to figure out who is growing what varieties and see the fruit for myself.

Bill

BestDay

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2020, 06:33:32 PM »
Emperor








Kaimana






Thanks,
Bill

Tropheus76

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2020, 08:46:54 AM »
Emperor is late season in Cali? Its the first thing that blooms in Florida in my experience. I have fruitlets on my tree right now as I wait for my inactive sweethearts to figure out Spring has started.

BestDay

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2020, 11:06:16 AM »
Yes, late season.  Even in Florida is my understanding.  Supposedly it is one of the first lychee to bloom and the last to mature.  Time will tell.  I'm sure there are much larger trees planted in the ground in SoCal.  We just need those people to speak up.

Bill

simon_grow

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2020, 11:07:50 AM »
See this post for a picture of Kaimana. Kaimana is an excellent fruit that is large and has a small seed as is Emperor. Emperor is an early flowerer and it sets fruit well in SoCal as long as you have other varieties around with a different flowering progression. Some Lychee start with male flowers and some start with female.

Kaimana has more Lychee/rose flavor than Emperor and Brewster has significantly more of that Lychee/rose flavor than both combined. All three are great selections that Brad and I are growing out at the orchard.

Simon

simon_grow

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2020, 11:09:17 AM »
Here’s the link.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=16458.msg209052#msg209052

That is correct, it is one of the first to bloom but because of our cooler weather and the large fruit size, it matures late, often after September.

Simon

palingkecil

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2020, 08:32:25 PM »
Is Brewster a better polinator for Emperor? Because I am planning to get Mauritius and Emperor, since productivity is my priority.

Johnny Eat Fruit

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2020, 10:34:52 PM »
If productivity is your priority then get a Mauritius.  This is the most consistent lychee producer.

I would avoid Kaimana outside Hawaii as production is low to inconsistent based on my research at the time.

Johnny


palingkecil

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2020, 11:31:20 PM »
If productivity is your priority then get a Mauritius.  This is the most consistent lychee producer.

I would avoid Kaimana outside Hawaii as production is low to inconsistent based on my research at the time.

Johnny

Thanks!

BestDay

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2020, 10:37:36 AM »
Simon, the fruit pictured in your link does look like kaimana. The fruit from the Kaimana trees at California tropical fruit tree nursery look different. They are smaller and not as red. So I’m not sure if they are growing the wrong variety or that is how Kaimana looks when grown in SoCal. The problem is, if they do have misidentified trees, they have been selling them all over SoCal. So when I had a chance to by a Kaimana tree that came from Hawaii I jumped on it. Jimmy at Champa seems like an honest guy. He said that one year one of his small Kaimana lychee trees held a couple fruit. He said the fruit was large and dark red. I guess I’ll have to wait and see. I like Kaimana because it is supposed to be an early variety. But Ong says Sweetheart is the earliest variety in Socal. He says it is the first lychee every year. He says it is about a month before anything else. So I plan on getting one of those also.

Bill

simon_grow

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2020, 02:41:10 PM »
Quang is correct that Sweetheart is one of the earliest varieties but Sweet Cliff and Groff can be earlier but it depends on your microclimate.

Kaimana has a unique fruit shape that is large and often wider than it is tall. It looks short and wide is what I’m trying to say. It also has this vertical line that other varieties also have but is very obvious in this variety. It also has a small seed.

For cross pollination, you want a consistent bloomer year in and year out, Brewster, Mauritius and Emperor are all consistent bloomers here because cold weather is the main stimulus for floral induction.

I’ve tried overwatering my trees during fall/winter dormancy to prevent blooms and it didn’t work for me. High levels of nitrogen pre bloom also didn’t work for me. If you want more blooms however, a dry period pre bloom is highly recommended.

The secret to Lychees vegetative growth is ample amounts of Iron along with your basic orchard fertilizer regimen.

The secret to( nutrition wise) to better blooms and fruit set is a good quality cold pressed seaweed/kelp emulsion pre bloom and and throughout fruit sizing up. Yeast supplements may also be beneficial for fruit retention as is girding or cincturing but this is a technique best left to experts unless you are not afraid to lose the branch.

I also don’t want to scare anyone away from trying girdling however. If you’ve been successful at air layering a Lychee or Longan, you can probably reap the benefits of girdling.

Simon

OCchris1

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #13 on: March 15, 2020, 01:27:26 AM »
I have an Emperor and 2 Kaimana's and this is the first year for the Emperor. The Kaimana's are shy bearers but have awesome fruits. They're big, pretty smooth and are ripe around the same time as my other lychees. I think it's a bit dependent on the Winter. Good luck



Brewster on the left and Kaimana on the right


-Chris

Seanny

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #14 on: March 15, 2020, 05:54:15 PM »
Those look so pretty.

ManVFruit

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2020, 02:21:37 AM »
I am growing Kiamana, Sweet Heart, No Mai Tsze. Just grafted Groff , Tukhmia , Yok Ho Pau , Yok Ki Lun, Yu Her Pau (yellow). .

My Kiamana is over 7 foot tall and it produces great amount for its size. Top tasting variety, good size and good flesh to seed ratio:




BestDay

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #16 on: March 16, 2020, 10:50:33 AM »
Manvfruit, I’m not expert but to me those don’t look like Kaimana. Your fruit is more heart shape and the skin is very rough. Does anyone else agree?

Bill

simon_grow

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2020, 12:14:43 PM »
I am growing Kiamana, Sweet Heart, No Mai Tsze. Just grafted Groff , Tukhmia , Yok Ho Pau , Yok Ki Lun, Yu Her Pau (yellow). .

My Kiamana is over 7 foot tall and it produces great amount for its size. Top tasting variety, good size and good flesh to seed ratio:



Your fruit does look different than what I’ve seen from other Kaimanas. The bumps on the skin of your fruit is sharp and pointed and not flattened out. This may be caused by environmental factors, perhaps lack of water or harvesting early but but I’m just throwing out guesses.

Lychee fruit often start out with pointed bumps like in your picture but as they fully ripen, the bumps will get get flat, especially the Kaimana variety.

Simon

ManVFruit

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #18 on: March 16, 2020, 12:26:45 PM »
I am growing Kiamana, Sweet Heart, No Mai Tsze. Just grafted Groff , Tukhmia , Yok Ho Pau , Yok Ki Lun, Yu Her Pau (yellow). .

My Kiamana is over 7 foot tall and it produces great amount for its size. Top tasting variety, good size and good flesh to seed ratio:



Your fruit does look different than what I’ve seen from other Kaimanas. The bumps on the skin of your fruit is sharp and pointed and not flattened out. This may be caused by environmental factors, perhaps lack of water or harvesting early but but I’m just throwing out guesses.

Lychee fruit often start out with pointed bumps like in your picture but as they fully ripen, the bumps will get get flat, especially the Kaimana variety.

Simon

Not sure what causes it, but it differs from crop to crop. The taste is identical though. Having said that, what you describe is also noticeable with many other lychee; top of my head OHIA, and even ripe EMPEROR have tendencies to do that here, I noticed this at nursery farm earlier last year.. I will try to find more photos but I can only find these online for now:




Can anyone idetify Kiamana by leaves?


ManVFruit

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #19 on: March 16, 2020, 12:49:41 PM »
I have an Emperor and 2 Kaimana's and this is the first year for the Emperor. The Kaimana's are shy bearers but have awesome fruits. They're big, pretty smooth and are ripe around the same time as my other lychees. I think it's a bit dependent on the Winter. Good luck



Brewster on the left and Kaimana on the right



I think our climate is not that much different, my micro climate may be more on the dry side. My kaimana are not that flat skinned, were those harvested off your tree in SoCal?

OCchris1

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #20 on: March 19, 2020, 12:58:12 AM »
Yes, they were from my trees. The morphology of the fruit has been consistent season to season although, the fruit reaching maturity has varied and I'm thinking it could be a nutritional issue. My hand full of fruits in the first pic were from 5 years ago and the second pic with the Brewsters were from last year.
-Chris

BestDay

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #21 on: March 19, 2020, 12:43:05 PM »
Manvfruit, where did you obtain your “Kaimana” tree?  The fruit looks a lot like the fruit on the “Kaimana” trees at California tropical fruit trees. Like I said before I don’t think they have the real Kaimana. They sell their trees to other nurseries. Now that I have seen Chris’s SoCal grown Kaimana and they look like the real deal I don’t think it is an environmental issue. I think their are a lot of mislabeled Kaimana trees being sold in SoCal.  Hence me buying mine from champa nursery where they get them directly from Hawaii.

Bill

spaugh

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #22 on: March 19, 2020, 03:13:21 PM »
The kaimana in Chris' photo looks like real kaimanas.
Brad Spaugh

ManVFruit

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #23 on: March 20, 2020, 12:21:47 AM »
Manvfruit, where did you obtain your “Kaimana” tree?  The fruit looks a lot like the fruit on the “Kaimana” trees at California tropical fruit trees. Like I said before I don’t think they have the real Kaimana. They sell their trees to other nurseries. Now that I have seen Chris’s SoCal grown Kaimana and they look like the real deal I don’t think it is an environmental issue. I think their are a lot of mislabeled Kaimana trees being sold in SoCal.  Hence me buying mine from champa nursery where they get them directly from Hawaii.

Bill

Bill thanks for confirming yes It was purchased from them about 2 years ago, It does get flat skin from year to year but not as flat like Chris's photo.

I won't be selling mine or getting rid as it tastes insanely good, productive with decent amount of flesh as you can see in the picture compared to some of my other lychee.

You got me wondering what it could be though, and obviously now wanting to add Kaimana to my collection. I am not likely to go up to champa any time soon but, do you you think they have the real deal? is it grafted /air-layered ?


BestDay

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Re: I bought a Kaimana and an Emperor Lychee tree!
« Reply #24 on: March 20, 2020, 01:19:32 AM »
I don’t know if champa is selling the real Kaimana for sure but I think so. They source their plants direct from Hawaii. Jimmy the owner said that a couple of years ago a small plant fruited and the fruit was large, red and round. So it sounds right. Kaimana is very common in Hawaii so to find the real Kaimana isn’t difficult.

Bill