Author Topic: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?  (Read 5280 times)

Patrick

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Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« on: October 12, 2014, 09:42:56 AM »
I have been closely observing the growth on my four lychee trees and have notice that they continually flush, especially in areas that are being decimated by Sri Lankan weevils.  I wonder if the heavy loss of surface area acts like a steady pruning stimulating steady growth?  Is it possible that the weevils are keeping the trees from going dormant?

zands

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2014, 10:12:58 AM »
Who has a Florida lychee tree that is not being eaten by these damnable weevils?
My one lychee is Mauritius, being eaten same as yours. It does not get continual flushes. I have slow growth. I only mulch and ground fertilize w 8-3-9. So, your foliar nutrition program must make the difference. And making the constant flushing/repair. Have you gotten any fruit?

pj1881 (Patrick) foliar mix >>>>>   http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=241.msg2849#msg2849

also >>>>> http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=10534.msg136842#msg136842
« Last Edit: October 12, 2014, 10:17:37 AM by zands »

Cookie Monster

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2014, 10:36:38 AM »
Lychee seem to need high soil organic matter / soil fungi to prosper here. Despite my soil having alkaline PH, my lychee trees (which were planted in high compost areas) do very well and flush on a near continual basis. The lychee trees in all of my neighbors' yards are doing horribly.

While, your theory sounds plausible, we had 2 of the warmest winters on record, which is not good for lychee production. Lychees also seem to like to be fairly mature before they start regular production.
Jeff  :-)

Jani

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2014, 10:47:14 AM »
I used to have an issue with these weevils, but for about a year or slightly more they have almost disappeared.

I have a 4 year old sweetheart 8ft x10ft in the ground and a mauritius of the same age a little bit smaller, technically in a pot but grown through in the ground. Both trees used to be decimated by the weevils, with them having a preference for the sweetheart over the mauritius. But now I have no problem with them at all, very rarely I see the occasional lone weevil and squish it of course, but it's almost as though they have inexplicably gone away.

It seems that my trees have reached and passed some threshold where their ability to deal with the weevils (maybe in combination with established populations of predators - I have lots of spiders on these trees, they seem to love them) have dramatically increased.

I don't do anything special to control the weevils, they really just don't bother the trees anymore. Has anyone else had that experience?
Also the trees have flushed normally throughout this period with the young leaves having no issues with weevils.

Hopefully we are in line for a nice cool winter here in S. FL and production will be good.

always longing for a JA Julie

Jani

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2014, 10:50:13 AM »

Here are the trees:

Mauritius:



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Jani

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2014, 11:10:58 AM »
Had some issues resizing, here's the sweetheart:


always longing for a JA Julie

puglvr1

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2014, 02:56:34 PM »

After hearing from many members in FL that have issues with these very pesky annoying Weevils...I know how very fortunate I am I haven't had any issues with them since I planted my tree...I sure hope they don't show up! I know how devastating they are to Lychee trees! Good luck! Hope it gets better...

Cookie Monster

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2014, 08:02:48 PM »
Yah, the population of the sri lankan weevils had declined significantly here in the past year or so also.
Jeff  :-)

savemejebus

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2014, 08:31:29 PM »
Hmm noticed today that something is eating my sweetheart lychee. Time to check out the tree... with extreme prejudice.

Jani

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2014, 08:41:12 PM »
@ Cookie Monster, maybe it isn't just my trees that have adapted, I'm also in Broward (west miramar)...so perhaps there's some local environmental reason that's caused these buggers' numbers to sharply decline over the last year. ..?
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zands

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2014, 09:59:50 PM »
@ Cookie Monster, maybe it isn't just my trees that have adapted, I'm also in Broward (west miramar)...so perhaps there's some local environmental reason that's caused these buggers' numbers to sharply decline over the last year. ..?

I think lychees outgrow these weevils and put out something in the leaves that makes them less edible as the lychee gets older. I base this on a Kent mango tree growing next to my lychee which also used to have leaves eaten-shredded by these Sri Lankan weevils. I see almost no Kent leaves destroyed now, just a few Kent leaves now being eaten.This Kent is 6 years old. I used to despair of all the shredded leaves and thought about axing it. Procrastination paid off because I got 6o mangoes from it in 2014

But that corner of my yard was and is where Sri Lankan have been a pest...also on a citrus tree that eventually was pulled out after reaching 8' by 8' dimensions
« Last Edit: October 12, 2014, 10:01:36 PM by zands »

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2014, 11:07:07 PM »
Perhaps there has been in increase in populations of something that either feeds on or parasitizes it. Same thing happened with the spiraling whitefly, which was initially a big enough pest to make me question cutting down my coconut palm, but is now almost non-existent.

@ Cookie Monster, maybe it isn't just my trees that have adapted, I'm also in Broward (west miramar)...so perhaps there's some local environmental reason that's caused these buggers' numbers to sharply decline over the last year. ..?
Jeff  :-)

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #12 on: October 13, 2014, 06:01:00 AM »
I'm in Plantation, and there isn't any shortage of weevils on my Cogshall.  Every day I do a walk around and every day I am finding weevils.  Eating, mating, having a grand ol' time. 
Whiteflies haven't been around this summer.  But I know from past experience they begin to show up right about now and then the sooty mold becomes prevalent.

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #13 on: October 13, 2014, 11:51:19 AM »
At least the Lychee acts as a magnet and keeps the weevils off everything else.  Yes they absolutely love Lychee. And they seem to like the new tender leaves the best.    I have used Imidacloprid and it does work temporarily.  I know for a fact that Richard Wilson has used Orthene in the past...

But that all defeats the purpose of growing " naturally"

johnb51

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #14 on: October 14, 2014, 10:32:50 AM »
In my yard  they totally love the Neelam mango tree, but not the other mangos.  They also love the Viejo mamey.  They only like the Mauritius lychee when the leaves are young and tender.
John

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2014, 09:25:56 AM »
Today was Day 1 of my new war vs. the weevil. Just ordered some beneficial nematodes to get them at the root level and just spent about 15 minutes of tranquil peace squishing the little monsters between my fingers (protected by an orange rubbery glove because, you know, I'm a sissy).

These things are impossible to spot. I spent several minutes walking around two lychee trees and could not see a single one. I then went to the car, got a big black golf umbrella, and held that open/upside down under the lychee canopy. Shake the tree fairly vigorously and voila, weevils R' Us. The little devils fall right into the canopy and then they are easy squishing from there. Hopefully if I keep this up I can somewhat decimate their population. There was a lot of them.

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2014, 12:46:41 PM »
I kill anywhere from a dozen to few dozen weevils a day in my tiny yard.  They love to chew on lychee, plum, acerola.  Somewhat less but still eat mamey, loquat, miracle fruit leaves.  Their favorite seems to be plum leaves.

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #17 on: November 25, 2014, 03:31:09 PM »
I am guessing no lychees for me this year, I just noticed a flush of new leaves. those weevils will have a winter supply.

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Re: Sri Lankan Weevil = No Lychee?
« Reply #18 on: November 25, 2014, 07:19:25 PM »
We have the mango leaving cutting weevil who eat all my young mangoleaves, even from just grafted scions.  >:(

I have been putting fruitnets over the flushings but that's too much work.

Now the war is on, i bought something from Bayer yesterday and sprayed it. So far there are no leaves under my tree's.