lychee question

[fyliu]

What do you guys do for fruit splitting due to the skin drying out? Is this something that's specific to growing in desert climate?

These are halfway ripe. Fragrant but still has some tartness. There's another tree with smaller fruits that are just beginning to size and color up and half of them are cracked.

[simon_grow]

Awesome tree, is that yours? I forget where I read it and what fruit it was specifically referring to but I've heard that lack of Calcium and inconsistent watering may cause cracking. Ideally, your tree will have roots that go deep into the soil where moisture levels are more consistent. I find myself often watering my trees, perhaps too often, and encouraging shallow roots. I know most Lychees are from air layers but I have dug up several air layers I planted and they do send roots deep down into the soil.

I'm sure desert conditions such as dry winds can also be the cause of the cracking. When I went to my dad's Lychee Lychee grove in China, it was relatively humid and not windy.
Simon

[fyliu]

It's my mom's Hak Ip tree. We have lychee grower relatives in China that she calls up for advice each year. Their main problems are spring rain (flower/fruit drop, no pollination) and thieves (sleep in the grove with dogs and shotgun during harvest season).

The trees are not watered anymore since the cracking. It was watered once a week, so not consistent moisture, but roots should be deep. The tree is 18 years in ground. It's been pruned to 9 ft tall by 11 ft wide is my estimate.

This is the best angle on it (south facing) and that's probably 1/3 of all the fruits on the tree.

[simon_grow]

Boy that tree is beautiful! I have a theory that during warm weather, the metabolism of trees are greatly accelerated. If given too much water during hot weather, the fruit expands faster than the shell expands because the fruit has a higher percentage of water. I would remove and eat all cracked fruit so that more energy can go into the remaining fruit. That tree is really amazing!
Simon

[fyliu]

Yeah, eat all the cracked ones before the June beetles do. Last year we thought the birds were eating the fruits and we netted the trees. That allowed the beetles to feast on the fruits where the birds couldn't get to them. I remember having to kill at least 10 of them everytime I went by the nets, even in the same day. The earlier season this year meant that the bugs haven't been out bothering the fruits until now. Now they're crashing into things around the yard. Hopefully the birds do control some of them.