Question on Lychee's growth

[Samu]

I have Mauritius and Brewster lychee plants planted at the same time earlier this year, from same gallon size, having same watering and feeding schedule and only 7 feet apart.

But I am puzzled as to see they grow so differently, the 1st photo is the Mauritius, with lots of young green leafs, but the Brewster next to it has not shown any new growth at all. (Both had flowered and bear some fruits, but as of today, there are only 1 fruit left on each.)

Is this normal for Brewster?
If not, what do you think it's the problem Brewster? Thanks for the help!

Mauritius:


Brewster, with Mauritius in the background:


edit: reduced images size

[simon_grow]

I'm not exactly sure but I've heard people saying that Mauritius is more adaptable to higher pH soils. By the looks of your Brewsters leaves compared to your Mauritius, this may in fact be the case considering both plants are grown in the same manner.

Try to remove all weeds around both trees and apply a top dressing of compost and mulch. It is extremely difficult for me to push the growth of Lychee plants, I've killed 4 Lychee trees trying to push their growth with N-P-K fertilizers.

Leo Manuel has a very large Brewster in his yard so I know they can get big here.

Simon

[bsbullie]

They are planted mighty close together.   You will have problems in the future.

when the trees are that small, do not let them set fruit.  They need to put growth on.

from the looks of the leaves,  they have been starved for water which will cause growth issues.

[Tropicaliste]

Do Lychees generally prefer humidity with the heat or drier conditions? I ask, because my tree has pushed growth, then stopped. My Sweetheart is in my plastic greenhouse, and it reaches about 95, and humid, it stays about there well after dark. Should I remove my Lychee from the greenhouse? Maryland is pretty humid in the Summer, but it's like a sauna in the greenhouse.

[bsbullie]

Do Lychees generally prefer humidity with the heat or drier conditions? I ask, because my tree has pushed growth, then stopped. My Sweetheart is in my plastic greenhouse, and it reaches about 95, and humid, it stays about there well after dark. Should I remove my Lychee from the greenhouse? Maryland is pretty humid in the Summer, but it's like a sauna in the greenhouse.

They do not like dry conditions.

[simon_grow]

Agreed, Lychees love humidity with the heat. Hot dry conditions along with winds will dry up the leaves.

Simon

[Samu]

Thanks Simon and Rob for responding and kindly giving advice.

Simon, am not certain which area you referring as weed (some cut green grass might have intermixed a bit), those within the circles are dry leaves etc. intended to function as mulch. Outside the circles are old grass area that only recently I stopped watering trying to letting them dry and barren.(One of my strategy to reducing water consumption).  There are a couple of green leafy young plants near the trunk, those are young lychee seedlings I planted for the purpose of doing multi rootstock grafting, someday.  I started giving them some worm castings a week ago, so the result of this may have to wait.

Rob, I realize they are really close to each other, my plan is to prune them as such so as not to interfere with one another; due to my limited yard space.
I wonder, did anyone ever tried planting 2 lychee trees in one hole?

So, I will add more composting materials (to reduce the pH) and increase the watering...and...to increase the humidity, I could also add a mister that I can fashion using the existing irrigation and on auto timer as well.
Thanks again, guys!

edited: changed "function as 'compost' " to: "function as 'mulch' "

[Waterfall]

I have 2 in one hole but its early days. Left is B3, right is Salathiel.

[Tropheus76]

At work so the pics do not come up for me, but I have sweetheart, Mauritus, and Bengal. Aside from Emperor(tried one of those too at one point) they are fairly tough trees. Water appears to make the biggest difference. My Mauritus is fairly slow growing. I have two Sweethearts growing about 15 foot apart, and a Bengal on a small mound. All are on the same watering regimen. The Mauritus is the slowest grower for me, with a Sweetheart as the fastest. Out of the two Sweethearts, one is subjected to yearly flooding and generally spends a week or two underwater, as in its base is under about a foot of water right now. It is by far the biggest of all of them. The other Sweetheart is bigger than the Bengal or Mauritus. The Bengal is just plain tough. It survived the irrigation system dying for a period of three weeks in the dry season while I was deployed(they all did actually and suffered, but its in the driest location of the four), lost all of its leaves, branches turned brittle and died. But it came back with a vengeance and has almost as many leaves as the mauritus  and has more coming. The Mauritus hopefully will show some kind of new growth after the current flooding(more than normal so its right at water level) ends. These are just my observations on lychee growth patterns.

If you are concerned I would say water more. Lychees love their water.

[Tropicaliste]

Thanks y'all. Going to leave it in the greenhouse then. I hope I didn't distract too much from your question, Samu. I thought the answer would benefit you too.

[Samu]

Thanks y'all. Going to leave it in the greenhouse then. I hope I didn't distract too much from your question, Samu. I thought the answer would benefit you too.

No distraction, yes in fact, it help to convince me to ensure these Lychee trees  get plenty watering and moisture! So, thanks for your contribution Tropicaliste!

Simon, do you think adding Mychorrizae fungi could also help the Lychees at this stage? If so, what is the proper way to apply it...now that the trees are already in the ground.  (I received my fungi order just yesterday.)

[simon_grow]

I inoculated all my Lychee trees. I inoculate my Lychees when I plant them into the ground or if I ever need to up pot. Since your trees are already in the ground, you can dilute the spores per instructions and water the soil with the solution inside the drip line and also going out past the drip line. I recommend using Reverse Osmosis water or rainwater but tap water will also work but it's best to leave the tap water out for 1-2 days.

I like to add about an inch or two of compost and mulch in order to prevent the emerging mycelium from drying out. You may see some mushrooms or other blobs of fungus after inoculating but this is perfectly normal.

Before watering with your spore solution, you can carefully remove the top layer of soil to expose the top feeder roots and then water with the solution. This will be more like a direct inoculation and the mycelium will not have to run through as much topsoil before colonizing the roots.

Specifically for Lychees, I highly recommend trying to collect soil from the rhizosphere of an older healthy and heavy fruiting Lychee tree. I believe there was research showing that there is a particular organism associated with heavily fruiting Lychee trees and I'm not sure if that organism is in the commercial mixes or not. I can't remember the name of the organism and I'm sure the commercial spore mixes will work just fine.

Simon

[Samu]

Thanks a lot Simon, for the detail instructions and advice. No instruction on how to apply for plants already in the ground is given, so your reply is much appreciated. Meanwhile, I got 5G bucket filled with tap water prepared...

[simon_grow]

You're welcome Sam. If you want to go all out for your mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria, you can do a molasses drench but it's definitely not necessary. It just helps to provide food for some of the organisms in the inocculant mixed.

Simon

[Samu]

I have 2 in one hole but its early days. Left is B3, right is Salathiel.

Hi Waterfall,
That looks like a healthy young pair of Lychee trees in one hole! It'll be interesting if we can the updates of this duo, the growth, the effect on the fruits --if any-- and the management of them. So, keep us updated from time to time...Thanks!

[Vernmented]

I have 2 in one hole but its early days. Left is B3, right is Salathiel.

Hi Waterfall,
That looks like a healthy young pair of Lychee trees in one hole! It'll be interesting if we can the updates of this duo, the growth, the effect on the fruits --if any-- and the management of them. So, keep us updated from time to time...Thanks!

I am going to attempt the same thing here. I am working with limited space so I was going to plant two lychees in the same hole and two longans in the same hole since it is very difficult/impossible to multi graft them. I wish you the best with those. I am also going to inoculate with mycorrhizae when I plant and maybe I can grab some dirt from around an established healthy tree. Keep us posted for sure!

[Samu]

If you are concerned I would say water more. Lychees love their water.

Got it Tropheus76, my Lychees are getting more water from now on, thanks!

[Samu]

I'm not exactly sure but I've heard people saying that Mauritius is more adaptable to higher pH soils. By the looks of your Brewsters leaves compared to your Mauritius, this may in fact be the case considering both plants are grown in the same manner.

Try to remove all weeds around both trees and apply a top dressing of compost and mulch. It is extremely difficult for me to push the growth of Lychee plants, I've killed 4 Lychee trees trying to push their growth with N-P-K fertilizers.

Leo Manuel has a very large Brewster in his yard so I know they can get big here.

Simon

Hi Simon,
I measured the soil's pH of Brewster, it registered 7.8. So, it seems that your suspicion is correct. (I know I need to also increase the watering and try to keep the moisture level higher as well; as others suggested).
Interestingly though, while trying to find a practical remedy to lower the pH using Steer manure or Kellogs' "Gromulch" , the pH on those 2 materialls also registered at 7.7 to 7.9. So, is there a better solution to lower the pH on the soil around a tree?

[OCchris]

Here is a pic of my little Kaimana lychee. Good luck Samu. Chris

[simon_grow]

Sam, the more you water, the higher your pH of the soil is going to be. Water quality is important but a top dressing of organic compost and mulch is highly beneficial. See what happens if you use rainwater or pHed Reverse Osmosis water. Your plant will be so happy but it can be a lot of work.

I occasionally drench my in ground trees with pHed buckets of water. You can also use Sulphur to gradually lower the pH of the soil. Sulphur can kill or inhibit the growth of many organisms including beneficials so use with caution.  I recommend the organic compost and mulch along with animal manures or even urine.

Ochris, that's an awesome fruiting Potted Kaimana! Did you like the flavor of Kaimana? I like it but wish it had more Lychee/Rose flavor like Brewster. There is a good chance the Kaimanas I've tried were not harvested at full maturity so I'll save my judgement until I get to try a fully ripe fruit off the tree. Please keep us updated!


One of the secrets of Lychee is that the fruit will taste as good as the soil the tree is grown in. This is one reason why the same variety of Lychee grown in one location can taste drastically different from the same variety grown at a different location. When Lychees are fruiting age, it's good to cut back on Chemical fertilizers and use more natural fertilizers like composted steer manure, fish pond water or kelp/fish emulsion.

Simon

[OCchris]

Hi Simon, the soil variety may have an effect on flavor like you mentioned. I have a Hak Ip (sweetheart), Brewster, and Kaimana. The Hak Ip crop failed for some reason after a nice one last year...maybe an every other year producer? My Brewster presently has its first crop, so I have been testing the fruits for perfect ripeness and its not quite there yet. The brewster has a large seed and little flesh and the kaimana is a monster with a tiny seed and tons of flesh. The "Hak Ip" I have had large fruit, very juicy, and with that "rosey" taste...kaimana so far has been good, sweet, but I am waiting for a bit more complexity (if I can help it I will in the future). I have potted kaimana because I have been trying to remodel a nice spot in my yard and its been taking forever so...the little guys just fruited in the pot while waiting on me to get their home ready. Soil Ph of high 5's (if you can do it) to mid 6's and (good) water consistency seem to be two keys for their success. Chris

[Samu]

Ok Simon,
Thanks again for taking the time to give more advice. Appreciated!

OCchris, yes, we are practically neighbors. Hope we can meet
one of these days...
Btw, where you able to consistently maintain low pH on your soil; if so
what method do you use...if you can share it, thanks!

[greenman62]

i think Mycorrhizae is very important with Lychee trees
really, soil biology in general.

i had several seedlings, but they were not really growing.
i used fish and molasses, comfrey and then added a few compost worms.
my little plants started taking off.

i think small containers dont really lend themselves well,
 to having a lot of live biology in the soil.
it might be because of temperature, especially, a small black container in the sun.
certain bacteria and fungi just wont grow at high temps.
just a thought.

i had several plants, so, i put one seedling in the ground last fall.
it wasnt more than 6 inches tall.
we had several nights 28F or under... its perfectly fine.
i was really amazed.

i found this site very helpful

8 Essential Factors for Growing Healthy Lychee Trees
http://www.lycheesonline.com/healthylycheetrees.cfm


Best Practices for Growing Lychee Trees
http://www.lycheesonline.com/Growing_Best_Practices.cfm



Inoculation with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Enhances Growth of Litchi Chinensis Sonn. Trees After Propagation by Air-Layering
http://www.lycheesonline.com/inoculation.cfm


Lychee Tree Root System and Development
http://www.lycheesonline.com/rootsystem.cfm