lychee season starts today with souey tung

[Mike T]

Lychee season began today with souey tungs coming out.They have flat tops and are wide.The fruit season has therefore begun for me.

[Ethan]

Congratulations Mike, I hope it is a bountiful and tasty season for you.  Are those lychee from the market or from your trees?  How is the flavor?  As winter approaches for us, I've jujubes, white sapotes and pomegranates with cherimoya and citrus season just around the corner.

[Mike T]

Ethan I chopped my lychees down as they are very common and cheap.I will eat maybe 15 varieties in the next couple of months.

[Soren]

Looking good Mike - here in Uganda there are a few old trees in Entebbe Botanical Gardens but they fruit irregularly with small fruits which likely is related to the tropical conditions here. I managed to get some seeds from trees in Mauritius when my brother was there a few years back - the climatic conditions should be very similar to central Uganda so hopefully they will produce better.   

[Mike T]

Soren mauritius and kwai mai pink have less cold requirement to stimulate flowering.If you get any nights below 14 or 15c it should be enough to trigger flowering.Many cv's need it to go right down below 10c for a couiple of nights at least for good flowering.Seedlings are not usually recommended as they can take a long time to begin fruiting.

[Soren]

Mike, the seeds I got were from trees growing in Mauritius -  not the cv by the same name - and I therefore hope to have a broader genetic variation for selecting a good type under the Ugandan conditions. The nights rarely ever reach 14-15c, so it will be a close call. I am aware about the seedling issue - as for many other highly cultivated species - but you know my trouble in getting propagation material into this country, so choices are limited.

[Soren]

Mike, the seeds I got were from trees growing in Mauritius -  not the cv by the same name - and I therefore hope to have a broader genetic variation for selecting a good type under the Ugandan conditions. The nights rarely ever reach 14-15c, so it will be a close call. I am aware about the seedling issue - as for many other highly cultivated species - but you know my trouble in getting propagation material into this country, so choices are limited.

Not to change topic, but got my Longans from Mauritius as well; what is the low-temp. you got in Cairns?

[Mike T]

Soren this winter temps here went down to 11c a couple of times so there has been a big flowering and setting of fruit in most varieties in the city.In the lychee growing parts of the Atherton tablends just to the west, temps were down to almost 0c and below in some spots.It is shaping to be a big lychee season for many varieties on the tablelands.
Longans also skip fruiting years or only fruit lightly in Cairns.



I an trying to do small marcots of this fai zee siu in the picture.

[HMHausman]

Lychee season began today with souey tungs coming out.They have flat tops and are wide.The fruit season has therefore begun for me.

I'm unfamiliar with this cultivar....at least by the name you are describing it with.  They do have some resemblence to Kaimana, however, my Kaimana tend to be larger and more uniformly colored.  Is this cultivar reglarly so varied in skin coloration?

[Mike T]

Haus souey tung is very similar to haak yip rather than kaimana which is also grown here but it is earlier than either.Those pictured are the first of the season so a bit smaller than expected but they have variation in coloring.There is a slight shape difference from haak yip but all else is close.

[HMHausman]

Haus souey tung is very similar to haak yip rather than kaimana which is also grown here but it is earlier than either.Those pictured are the first of the season so a bit smaller than expected but they have variation in coloring.There is a slight shape difference from haak yip but all else is close.

These look nothing like what we call Hak Ip.  Someone has this whole lychee ID screwed up.  They've thrown Sweetheart into the mix here and that makes it even more confusing.  Our Hak Ip is not as smooth in the skin. I encountered an older grower of what we were calling Hak Ip.  This was about 17 or so years ago.  He came to the conclusion that what we were all growing as Hak Ip was not Hak Ip at all.  He based it on the descriptions he read in the literature.  So he went and re-named his Hak Ip trees Kim Wah.  Don't ask me what or why (and I hope and pray that Recher doesn't stroke out with this revelation     ). But whatever the name, he used to sell them for $10/pound back that many years agio and had no trouble finding buyers.  In any case, I'll look forward to seeing what your Hak Ip look like.  Keep these updates coming....they are much appreciated.

[Felipe]

Here you can see some canarian grown 'Suey Tong' litchis. The name is thai and means 'beautiful gold'. I find this cultivar interesting just because the fruit rippens earlier in the season then other cultivars, in fact it's the very first to rippen over here. This is the reason why I will add one tree to my collection. The taste is average, there are tastier litchis out there...

[Mike T]

http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/AC681E/ac681e06.htm
In this link the description of haak yip describes how it can be distinguished fron souey tung which is also a smoothy. That looks like it felipe and it is reasonable quality on par with haak yip but certainly no fai zee siu.
Haus haak yip is clearly defined in australia and china.In australia at least 25 to 30 types are just the same as in china and there are pictures for Identification by retailers etc.
http://www.australianlychee.com.au/index.php/about-lychees/varieties
Here are a couple of pix.

[Tropicdude]

Soren mauritius and kwai mai pink have less cold requirement to stimulate flowering.If you get any nights below 14 or 15c it should be enough to trigger flowering.Many cv's need it to go right down below 10c for a couiple of nights at least for good flowering.Seedlings are not usually recommended as they can take a long time to begin fruiting.

I just got a Mauritius,  my first Lychee cultivar.  I have another seedling, of unknown variety, which is very small in 1 gallon.

Anyway I really hope, they are low chill.  the coldest it ever really gets in Santo Domingo is about 64 Deg.  or around 18C and this happens when we get a strong cold from the north, ( the kind that makes Floridians have to  use heaters on their plants ).

Anyway plants are small, even the one I brought over, is just now starting to bud to replace the leaves. the transplant made it drop all its leaves.

I wonder if you can stimulate flowering using ice water on them haha

[HMHausman]

Excellent links, Mike.  Much appreciated.  Whoever put that together must have been writing for the blind based upon the size of the text font.  Lots of information there. It is hard (for me anyway) to really make complete heads and tails of these verbal descriptions to accomplish good ID.  Pictures make the process considerably easier for me. It does look as if what we are calling Hak Ip is not as is described.  I try to not get too crazy about names as long as I grow what I like to eat.  It would be great to actually try all these varieties in a place that actually had the appropriate ID information.  However, as fun and interesting as that would be is about just how unlikely it would be that I would ever have the opportunity to actually exeperience it.

[Tropicdude]

Yes Mike very informative link, thanks.