Author Topic: Lychee problem - please help  (Read 5946 times)

wayne23

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Re: Lychee problem - please help
« Reply #25 on: August 09, 2017, 11:35:43 AM »














Top 4 images are from the 2nd flush.  Look closely at images 2 and 3 you will notice the new growths appeared torched.  Also leaves do not flatten out like a healthy lychee would. 

Images 4 and 5 show the crape myrtle tree in the background. 

Images 5-7 taken this morning. 

I did a deep flush this morning and moved it out of shade.  It should see about 6 hours of sun light.

andrewq

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Re: Lychee problem - please help
« Reply #26 on: August 09, 2017, 12:12:08 PM »
Thanks for posting the pics, hopefully someone will be able to make sense of it.

My 2 cents about each image:

Image 1:  wide shot of tree
- nice canopy and branching
- old leaves: hardened, dark green. no burn. black spots on the under side of some leaves??
- new leaves: starting to harden, some structural damage (wind damage?)

Image 2-3:
close up images
- new leaves are starting to harden. the left background has a leaf that is curling in the middle, which looks very characteristic for wind damage
- the browning/dried new growth: i think this is expected. The vegetative flush had been going on for 2-4 weeks already since some of the new growth is already large and starting to harden. it's not unusual for any new growths to shrivel like at the end of the flush.
- tips are browning

Image 4: close up shot of next flush
- new growth: left side shows very early growth that is healthy, no damage or discoloration
- new growth: top of the screen: leaves look large and good color. no burn
- new growth: middle back has some structural damage. looks characteristic for wind damage to me
- old growth: all the old growth is starting to show browning at the tips

Image 5: wide shot.
- new growth: none
- old growth: hardened leaves with browning at tips/edges

Image 6: wide shot. smaller canopy
- new growth: none
- old growth: hardened leaves with browning at tips/edges
 
image 7: soil
- layer of mulch (ok)
- soil looks predominantly peat moss
- perlite is tiny



andrewq

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Re: Lychee problem - please help
« Reply #27 on: August 09, 2017, 12:25:24 PM »
- the leaves that were forming looked mostly healthy, some minor wind damage but not terrible. the dried tiny leaves looked to be at the end of a flush and i see that at the end of every growth cycle on my lychees.

- old hardened leaves in all the later pictures are browning. I suspect it is fertilizer burn or solute buildup. Were you flushing the soil regularly?

- what are those lack dots in the early pictures? i don't see them in the later pictures. i don't recall fungus being a major issue for lychees


In picture 4, the lychee is putting out some very nice new growths, which makes me think that it is getting enough water, it isn't too hot, and there is only mild wind. The old leaves getting burned like that looks like fertilizer burn. The tree also might have died back due to being repotted.

keep it watered, flush it out regularly. lychees don't mind wet feet, so adding a wick is optional.

also, do you have access to pine bark fines (or PB mulch?). I think you should consider making your own soil mix since it allow your plants to grow better (and its cheaper). You've got a lot of containers!

Jose Spain

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Re: Lychee problem - please help
« Reply #28 on: August 09, 2017, 02:56:26 PM »
I'm seeing now that one main problem for new growers of lychees is that we become disoriented by their weird growing habit (at least in driest/hot seasons/regions). I opened a similar topic few weeks ago because when I found the dried tiny leaves at the end of a flush of my recent planted lychees I thought I was doing something wrong, and in fact I was (they were not ready for full sun). This is the topic:

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=24795.0

But after reading the explanations of Andrew (thanks!) now I know that the drying of the tips in the new flushes is kind of normal and that I should not worry as much as I did. Very interesting your experience with the differences between the 1st to 3rd flushes (I'm in the first yet since I bought my trees) and the 4-5 when we should expect a more normal growing habit. The comments in this topic brought new questions about when to plant two of my lychees still in pot, but I will expose them in another topic to don't interfere with this one. Good luck with those trees wayne23. Lychees are picky, tricky trees, but without these challenges our hobby wouldn't be that funny.  ;)


wayne23

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Re: Lychee problem - please help
« Reply #29 on: August 09, 2017, 03:09:06 PM »
- the leaves that were forming looked mostly healthy, some minor wind damage but not terrible. the dried tiny leaves looked to be at the end of a flush and i see that at the end of every growth cycle on my lychees.

- old hardened leaves in all the later pictures are browning. I suspect it is fertilizer burn or solute buildup. Were you flushing the soil regularly?

- what are those lack dots in the early pictures? i don't see them in the later pictures. i don't recall fungus being a major issue for lychees


In picture 4, the lychee is putting out some very nice new growths, which makes me think that it is getting enough water, it isn't too hot, and there is only mild wind. The old leaves getting burned like that looks like fertilizer burn. The tree also might have died back due to being repotted.

keep it watered, flush it out regularly. lychees don't mind wet feet, so adding a wick is optional.

also, do you have access to pine bark fines (or PB mulch?). I think you should consider making your own soil mix since it allow your plants to grow better (and its cheaper). You've got a lot of containers!

thank andrew. 

I've not flush regularly due to fear of root rot.  but I will try to flush it once in a while.  I've heard of lychee need to be wind protected so I had placed it in the least winded spot, next to a 20 feet height neighbor's fence. 

I stopped using fertilizer or chemical spray since the first flush died back.  the 2nd flush came out better (pic #4) then everything went south. 

I got few large bags of pine mulch from a neighbor who chopped their tree.  but probably not enough to start mixing my own soil.  I heard good things about Pro Mix so I will use it until I find something better and cheaper  :)