lychee experts how do you pick out a good young airlyared lychee tree?

[boxturtle]

Assuming general health of the tree is good what else do you look at?  For any other type of fruit tree I would look at trunk size over form of the tree.  But it seems to me for lychee form of tree is a lot harder to correct.  You cant prune too heavily in fear they might not bounce back and new growth seems to grow pretty erratic and unpredictable.  So I find myself looking  for a tree that is straight and looks like a tree vs. a branch that is heavy on one side.  Am I doing this wrong?  if so how do you correct the form of lychee trees? 

[behlgarden]

Prune it right. I have had issues growing lychee, lost over 4 plants and $500 total. finally figured out, its water and sulfur. need both these optimum at all times. now my plants are thriving and growing well. After I pruned it got excellent shape and forced vigorous growth. The plant is Hakip, it also has graft of Sweetheart and No Mai Tze that took.

[boxturtle]

Prune it right. I have had issues growing lychee, lost over 4 plants and $500 total. finally figured out, its water and sulfur. need both these optimum at all times. now my plants are thriving and growing well. After I pruned it got excellent shape and forced vigorous growth. The plant is Hakip, it also has graft of Sweetheart and No Mai Tze that took.

glad to hear you figured it out behl....behl do you wait until the tree is a little older to prune or do you try to correct it early on?

[simon_grow]

Try to find one with a thick trunk and one that already has good branching. Many of the Lychee trees have scale on them so inspect the trees carefully. Lychees will naturally fill out into a dense rounded canopy, some varieties like Sweetheart can be a little more lanky.

Watch out for soil and water quality. If the pH of the soil is around 6.5, your Lychee will be pretty happy as long as it also gets good water. They love rain or RO water. If you can get good water, a garden water hose filter works wonders.

Mulch heavily and the Lychee will be happy. Lychees also love Iron.

Here’s a small Fei Zhi Siu air layer that I grew out in a pot for one year before planting at my mother in laws house a few months ago. 

Simon

[boxturtle]

Try to find one with a thick trunk and one that already has good branching. Many of the Lychee trees have scale on them so inspect the trees carefully. Lychees will naturally fill out into a dense rounded canopy, some varieties like Sweetheart can be a little more lanky.

Watch out for soil and water quality. If the pH of the soil is around 6.5, your Lychee will be pretty happy as long as it also gets good water. They love rain or RO water. If you can get good water, a garden water hose filter works wonders.

Mulch heavily and the Lychee will be happy. Lychees also love Iron.

Here’s a small Fei Zhi Siu air layer that I grew out in a pot for one year before planting at my mother in laws house a few months ago. 

Simon

Simon if you had to chose one with thick trunk but bad branching vs thinner trunk with good branching which one would you pick? some of the ones that I saw that had thick trunk was just a a stick with only couple leaves on them.  Also from your experience does most sweethearts want to weep?  I have an older one and that's all it wants to do and I gave up and let it do its thing....

[simon_grow]

It would depend on each individual tree. If both of them had healthy leaves and both show signs of good health such as buds starting to pop on the trunk and branches, I may go with the one with thicker trunk but it really depends. I would examine the tree and try to determine why the one with thicker trunk has such few leaves. Sometimes the person that air layered the tree will air layer a lower shaded portion which may be the reason it has fewer leaves, in this case, it would be ok. If it looks like the tree with thicker trunk was pot bound for a long time, I would avoid it.

Avoid any tree that looks like it’s been in the same container for a long time. Air layers should be potted, acclimated to full sun, allow roots to just fill the pot and then planted immediately. This way you keep it in growth phase. Some air layers that may have been sitting in the same pot for 1-2 years will be stunted and may grow very slowly for another few years before picking up the pace.

Sweetheart seem to have longer more lanky branches that droop a bit. If it’s in partial shade, it will exacerbate the issue. Lychees should be planted in full sun.

If your tree is too tall, you can always perform maintenance pruning to re shape your tree.

Simon

[boxturtle]

thanks simon and that's an awesome looking tree Sir! short but already have full shade canopy!

[andrewq]

i’ve always gone for the lychee with the thickest trunk, as long as it looks like it is in good health (as demonstrated by recent growths that look healthy), even if the canopy isn’t huge.

i’ve found lychee to be able to give vigorous growth after pruning or damage (eg heat/drought damage) - ive harmed many lychees by accident and they die back a little but put out vigorous growth. the thicker the trunk, the more vigorous the growth. the main danger is if it happens in the fal, the tree will go into dormancy instead of push regrowth. another danger is if the tree isn’t protected from wind or has salt burn (use osmocote plus or foliage pro, use rain water RO or filter) it won’t grow back well.

if the canopy shape doesn’t look ideal, just let it grow wild for 1 season to let it get established, then in the second year prune the canopy as soon as you see the first vegetative growth of the spring (if winter is over).

my lychees don’t seem to mind wet feet, and almost all were mildly root bound at purchase but gave healthy growth with wind protection, rain water, good soil (pH 6), and foliage pro fertiligation (with half dose osmocote plus)

[boxturtle]

Simon and Andrew which water filters do you guys recommend?