Author Topic: Lychee Bloom 2020 (Read 4326 times)

Frog Valley Farm · « **on:** December 20, 2019, 07:59:25 AM »

I just noticed some bloom on a couple of our lychees. Our trees are all over the place from new foliage, budding to dormant. More than half have some sort of new foliage some with just one branch with new growth. I’d love me some Demeter USA (Biodynamic) certified lychees this year.

gnappi · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2019, 08:33:31 AM »

My sweetheart has not bloomed this early, and the Moricius has been stubborn like the sweetheart was. The longan is still way too young to think about it blooming.

murahilin · « **Reply #2 on:** December 20, 2019, 05:00:30 PM »

Quote from: Frog Valley Farm on December 20, 2019, 07:59:25 AM

I just noticed some bloom on a couple of our lychees. Our trees are all over the place from new foliage, budding to dormant. More than half have some sort of new foliage some with just one branch with new growth. I’d love me some Demeter USA (Biodynamic) certified lychees this year.

Please let us know how the taste of your "certified" lychees differs from the uncertified. Are you going to turn this post into an ad for the sale of your property as well?

Frog Valley Farm · « **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2019, 05:22:23 PM »

Quote from: murahilin on December 20, 2019, 05:00:30 PM

Quote from: Frog Valley Farm on December 20, 2019, 07:59:25 AM
I just noticed some bloom on a couple of our lychees. Our trees are all over the place from new foliage, budding to dormant. More than half have some sort of new foliage some with just one branch with new growth. I’d love me some Demeter USA (Biodynamic) certified lychees this year.

Please let us know how the taste of your "certified" lychees differs from the uncertified. Are you going to turn this post into an ad for the sale of your property as well?

Merry Christmas

Frog Valley Farm · « **Reply #4 on:** January 03, 2020, 07:55:47 AM »

It looks like we have bloom starting on at least half of our 31 little Lychee trees. Like everything else it’s very early. All this rain has been very beneficial for us.

JoeP450 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 15, 2020, 04:46:46 PM »

Last year got 16, 1 gallon bags loaded with sweetheart chicken tongue seeded lychees... will 2020 top that?!? Strong bloom so far.

-joe

Frog Valley Farm · « **Reply #6 on:** January 20, 2020, 08:04:09 AM »

I love Lychees. Let me know if you want to sell/trade some. I’ve just gone thru our 31 small trees and it looks like we will have 90 percent bloom. I figured we wouldn’t get bloom on the trees with new growth we had in December but they are also pushing flowers.

johnb51 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 20, 2020, 08:25:03 AM »

Chris at Truly Tropical made a video about a new-to-Florida pest that has attacked her lychee trees. Thrips that suck the life from the leaves. Anyone else experiencing this problem? Do you think it will spread statewide?

Jani · « **Reply #8 on:** January 20, 2020, 01:11:14 PM »

Good bloom on Sweetheart and Mauritius.
Surprised about sweetheart as it dropped at least 1/2 its leaves a few months ago (huge tree at least 20 feet tall)

johnb51 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 20, 2020, 01:34:59 PM »

Quote from: Jani on January 20, 2020, 01:11:14 PM

Surprised about sweetheart as it dropped at least 1/2 its leaves a few months ago (huge tree at least 20 feet tall)

Not due to insect problem?

Jani · « **Reply #10 on:** January 20, 2020, 03:13:07 PM »

Not sure, its the second year in a row this has happened. Always in the fall when I stop watering ..a ton of leaves will start looking stressed all at once and after a couple days of futile watering they dried up and fell in mass.

So I've been thinking I over did it with holding back on watering. After that leaf drop I gave up on getting any fruit this year but surprisingly its pushing a lot of flowers and also some vegetative growth in other spots. Which i dont mind, as I want the tree to fill out again and I suppose the tree will need some energy if it is to hold any fruit.

Jani · « **Reply #11 on:** January 20, 2020, 03:19:55 PM »

Heres some pics of the leaf drop , and branches of leaves curling up dried and ready to fall, in October..

Anyone else get this with sweethearts (mine is about 10 years old and over 20 ft high.) Or as I suspect it just didnt get enough water?

simon_grow · « **Reply #12 on:** January 20, 2020, 06:00:09 PM »

There’s is some disease that I believe is fungal in nature that causes The leaves of Lychee trees to dry up and hang on the tree before eventually falling off. It sometimes kills the entire tree but I’ve also seen it where it only affected about half the tree.

If you look at the branches that the dried leaves are attached to, you will notice that The vascular tissue is wrinkly and dried up. I’m not sure if it’s a single disease or if there are multiple diseases causing these symptoms.

Leo Manuel has lost one large Sweetheart tree and one large Brewster tree. I’ve lost one small Sweetheart tree and was able to save another small Sweetheart tree by spraying it with a systemic Fungicide.

I hope this isn’t what’s showing up in Florida.

Leo Manuel planted two small Brewster trees in the exact area where his larger Brewster died so if these two small trees survive, it may rule out pathogens attacking from the rhizosphere.

Simon

pineislander · « **Reply #13 on:** January 20, 2020, 07:39:08 PM »

Quote from: johnb51 on January 20, 2020, 08:25:03 AM

Chris at Truly Tropical made a video about a new-to-Florida pest that has attacked her lychee trees. Thrips that suck the life from the leaves. Anyone else experiencing this problem? Do you think it will spread statewide?

Lychee erinose mite
here is her video sorry to hear it has spread to the east coast.

The video was published November and she said Dept of Ag was due to come out and treat it "within a month". I don't think they have a clue and it will be endemic in Florida forever as it has been in Hawaii and China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LVKJg_Kvw

Quote

Up to 23% of honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus) collected from flowering lychee trees, severely infested with the lychee erinose mite (Eriophyes litchii Keifer), were found to be carrying live mites which were picked up as the bees foraged.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01246570

Jani · « **Reply #14 on:** March 03, 2020, 04:17:42 PM »

Noticing a lot of new blooms starting now about 6 weeks after the first set of blooms...must have been the big cold snap a few weeks back?

gnappi · « **Reply #15 on:** March 03, 2020, 06:52:09 PM »

The sweetheart exploded in blooms, and it attracted bees! I haven't seen a bee in my yard in years.

Jani · « **Reply #16 on:** March 03, 2020, 06:56:22 PM »

Noticed the same in my yard the last couple years..bees don't come out for mango blooms (houseflies are the main pollinators for mango) but appear in abundance for lychee blooms.

Squam256 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 03, 2020, 10:32:15 PM »

Our Mauritius flushed growth. Yawn.

Cookie Monster · « **Reply #18 on:** March 04, 2020, 07:00:10 PM »

My 14+ year old mauritius gives me 20 to 40 lychees per year.

The 10 or so year old sweetheart has been a better bloomer (prolly 20% bloom each year), but fruit set and retention is terrible. I've been told that even the slightest drought stress will cause them to abort fruits and / or fail to set. And fruit set happens during the driest part of the year usually.

I'd tear them out, but I like the shade.

Quote from: Squam256 on March 03, 2020, 10:32:15 PM

Our Mauritius flushed growth. Yawn.

JF · « **Reply #19 on:** March 04, 2020, 08:00:41 PM »

My sweetheart is in full bloom. Last it was loaded this tree has been in the ground 6 years.
Simon, Leo loss his Brewster And sweetheart in the front yard?? That Brewster was loaded every year.

Cookie Monster · « **Reply #20 on:** March 05, 2020, 11:19:32 AM »

Lucky. You guys actually get nighttime temps below 60F. We're lucky to get a couple dozen chill hours a year.

The ideal lychee growing area in FL keeps moving northward. At present, I think it's somewhere around the Jupiter area. I was told that 30+ years ago, Homestead had adequate chill hours.

Even 10 - 15 years ago, Broward lychees did reasonably well.

Quote from: JF on March 04, 2020, 08:00:41 PM

My sweetheart is in full bloom. Last it was loaded this tree has been in the ground 6 years.
Simon, Leo loss his Brewster And sweetheart in the front yard?? That Brewster was loaded every year.

skhan · « **Reply #21 on:** March 05, 2020, 11:36:13 AM »

From my understanding, the first lychees brought to Florida were from southern China and they were grown in Homestead.
Then a freeze came and killed them so they brought trees from more north and grew them in Lakeland.

Looks like with our current climate it would be nice to get back some trees some of the originals

Cookie Monster · « **Reply #22 on:** March 05, 2020, 02:00:34 PM »

The owner of Growing Bananas in Homestead, who had a lychee orchard, had told me that two factors led to the demise of lychee growing in Homestead -- lower prices due to imported lychees and less chill hours than before. This was about 10 or 11 years ago, and he was in the process of tearing out most of his lychee trees.

Quote from: skhan on March 05, 2020, 11:36:13 AM

From my understanding, the first lychees brought to Florida were from southern China and they were grown in Homestead.
Then a freeze came and killed them so they brought trees from more north and grew them in Lakeland.

Looks like with our current climate it would be nice to get back some trees some of the originals

JF · « **Reply #23 on:** March 05, 2020, 02:01:23 PM »

YesJeff, we get 70 to 400 chill hours per year. This year it’s been mild yet I counted 167 chill hours. This is a Brewster I planted 2 years ago, slow to bloom but starting.

Cookie Monster · « **Reply #24 on:** March 05, 2020, 02:23:22 PM »

This year was a colder year for us, and we got 8 chill hours

. Many years we get 0. When I first moved here, though, we got quite a bit more. I remember actually having to worry about freezes and having to bring plants indoors during cold spells. The last time I had to do that was almost 10 years ago. On the bright side, chill sensitive crops now become more and more feasible (eg, breadfruit, mangosteen, etc).

Quote from: JF on March 05, 2020, 02:01:23 PM

YesJeff, we get 70 to 400 chill hours per year. This year it’s been mild yet I counted 167 chill hours. This is a Brewster I planted 2 years ago, slow to bloom but starting.

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Author Topic: Lychee Bloom 2020 (Read 4326 times)