Lone lychee

[gnappi]

My sweetheart has been in the ground 8 years (purchased as a nice 7 gal?) and has bloomed  but no fruit was ever set. Today while trimming the sweetheart on the side that was shading my heavily blooming and setting fruit purple caimito I found a single bright red lychee at the top of the tree.

So before the critters could get it I did. I was very juicy and much like some mango I've had this year it was not very sweet.

I've been toying with the idea of pulling it but Rob has suggested I be patient with it , and so far I have taken his advice :-)

Maybe I'll wait another year. I sort of dense packed my trees allowing that I may want to pull one or more to make room for more productive trees. If the caimito holds on to the fruit and next year the Lychee does not I'll start by hacking the side near the caimito and I just may lose it totally in the fruiting season of 2020.

So on a weak sample of one, has anyone else's lychee tasted bland given all the water we have received?

[andrewq]

you can try spraying auxin to reduce fruit abscission

[Orkine]

My Brewster and Mauritius lychee didn't do too well this year, I had to beat he birds and picked most a little early.  I live close to an orchard and have bought pounds of lychee this year the the taste has improved as has the season.  Last batch a week ago was perfectly ripe and spectacular.
My emperor is only now beginning to ripen.  I took a few today but it was still too tart.  The taste was not great but I hope it will improve with time.  This tree usually makes tasting fruit, I hope it isn't washed out.

[Cookie Monster]

Lychee fruit lose some flavor if allowed to hang too long on the tree. And, the mauritius I've had so far this year were a little watered down.

However, my SweetHeart -- which gave me a grand total of 4 fruits this year -- were ridiculously delicious, just like in years past. This is the 3rd year in a row that it's borne fruit, on a tree planted in 2011 if memory serves. This year's crop would have been a lot better if hurricane Irma hadn't torn it apart. It's never given me more than a few pounds of fruit though.

If memory serves, your tree is also a SweetHeart. It's a bit odd that it hasn't fruited yet, as it had already fruited for me in the pot before it made its way to your yard, and your tree is older than mine which has borne thrice to date. It seems like there is some environmental situation that it's not fond of.

At any rate, the SweetHeart should be blissfully sweet with a hint of tart and a floral note that rounds out what is an exquisitely delicious fruit. When it starts bearing, you will understand why you waited so long.

PS -- that tree should be somewhere around 14 years old by now. It originally came from ECHO as a nice 7 gallon in 2006.

[SoCal2warm]

Lychee are a very finnicky fruit, but the payoff when you do get a good harvest is well worth it. It can be a little hard getting lychee to reliably fruit in their optimal habitat (in Southern China). All the more so when they are in a less than optimal climate. Southern Florida probably has the climate closest resembling Southern China, more so than California (dry) or Hawaii (almost no Winter cold whatsoever).

[andrewq]

anyone know what cultivation factors affect lychee taste?