Author Topic: Lychee Thread  (Read 26509 times)

fruitlovers

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #50 on: January 03, 2014, 12:42:27 AM »
Lychees don't need chill hours in the same way that temperate fruit trees do. It would be more appropriate perhaps to call what lychees need as "stress hours". Different things can provide lychees with needed stress to flower:1) cold, as in night time temperatures below 55F (chill hours for temperate trees are much lower: below 45F), 2)dry spells, or turning off irrigation system to mimic droughts, 3) girdling or cincturing cuts, to cut off flow of carbohydrates to the limbs.
Different cultivars have different requirements, and some are adapted to tropics need little or no stress in order to flower and fruit. For example, Kaimana and B-3 will fruit here where temperatures almost never drop below 60F and where we have no dry spells. No Mai Tze on other hand will not fruit here as it never gets cold enough to trigger flowering.
Oscar

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #51 on: January 03, 2014, 06:35:00 PM »
Thanks for the links on air layering! That doesn't sound too hard.

Brandon, thanks for the great data on vegetative vs bloom growth on your trees.

Fruitlovers, thanks for the great description of stress requirements! That is very interesting to know that some varieties require less stress than others. Do you know where emperor (what I've got) falls on the amount of stress needed scale?

fruitlovers

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #52 on: January 04, 2014, 12:13:22 AM »
Thanks for the links on air layering! That doesn't sound too hard.

Brandon, thanks for the great data on vegetative vs bloom growth on your trees.

Fruitlovers, thanks for the great description of stress requirements! That is very interesting to know that some varieties require less stress than others. Do you know where emperor (what I've got) falls on the amount of stress needed scale?

I would guess that emperor is in mid range of stress requirement for fruiting. Emperor is succesfully grown in nothern Thailand where it doesn't get too cold. I'm hoping some day to fruit them here, if we ever get long dry spell in winter. Dry winters happen every few years here during El Nino weather conditions.
Oscar

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #53 on: January 04, 2014, 08:19:18 AM »
Thanks for the info on emperor Oscar!

LEOOEL

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #54 on: January 04, 2014, 03:52:24 PM »
Top Tropical Nursery in Florida, USA, now has available for sale 'seedless' lychee fruit trees. The given description is that it's a large and late fruit. I would probably have picked one up, but since there's no info. on the productivity or the yearly reliable production, I'll have to pass.
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Mike T

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #55 on: January 04, 2014, 05:19:05 PM »
With lychees there is some chilling required if that is the right word. A time below 10c is needed for most types although B3 and Thai so (Mauritius) it is about 14c.There is a bit of a spectrum in 'chilling' requirements. There is a growing area near Bangkok with truly tropical varieties but these have not got into wider circulation as their quality is a bit lower than the main commercial sub tropical types.

Camillo Alexis

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #56 on: January 04, 2014, 09:17:31 PM »
Hi I have a few lychee seedlings, It's interesting to have read that they do not necessarily need chilling hours to bear, unfortunately I don't know what variety my seedlings are,
I'll post pics
 

The plants are 5 months old I had them out side and they were badly damaged by the wind I have since brought them inside and given them some rabbit manure and they have started putting out new flushes of leaves.



you can see the new leaves now in one plant



another plant they all basically look like this with the brown tips at the end of the leaves I know some of it is wind damage but there may be some nutrient deficiency as well. I don't know I haven't grown lychees before.
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fruitlovers

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #57 on: January 04, 2014, 10:11:28 PM »
With lychees there is some chilling required if that is the right word. A time below 10c is needed for most types although B3 and Thai so (Mauritius) it is about 14c.There is a bit of a spectrum in 'chilling' requirements. There is a growing area near Bangkok with truly tropical varieties but these have not got into wider circulation as their quality is a bit lower than the main commercial sub tropical types.

14C = 57F  Like i said before, never gets below 60F here and B3 still fruits fine. I think these "requirements", like with chilling hours in temperate trees, are not well understood, and they vary depending on who you talk to.
Oscar

nch

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #58 on: March 10, 2014, 08:46:57 PM »
My Sweetheart#2 just put out male flowers. There are still some female flowers open. Hoping for some fruits this year.
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« Last Edit: March 11, 2014, 06:36:46 AM by nch »

simon_grow

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #59 on: March 11, 2014, 12:09:42 AM »
Nice Sweetheart lychee flowers. Mine has some small partial blooms on it at the moment. I think having another variety like Mauritius will help a lot with pollination. sweethearts tend to start with all females and then males start opening up when most the females are dried and then they finish with mixed blooms. Please keep us updated on the progress of your lychee fruit developement.
Simon

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #60 on: March 11, 2014, 11:14:30 AM »
Nice! My emperor is going to bloom -yah! I can see a few flower panicles just starting to expand. No flowers open yet - but definitely blooms!

gunnar429

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #61 on: March 11, 2014, 11:57:23 AM »
Anyone in FL have a fruiting emperor?
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nch

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #62 on: March 11, 2014, 06:32:48 PM »
My Mauritius with female flowers.
[][/]

Another pic of my Sweetheart#2 with both male and female flowers. It's in the front yard, while my Mauritius is in the backyard. Hope the bees visit them both. Actually, I have not seen bees on them, only 2 small flies. Same thing with my Glenn mango flowers. The bees are busy with my citrus trees.
[][/img]

fruit4me

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #63 on: July 18, 2016, 02:18:55 AM »
My little sweetheart lychee tree second year in the ground. Fruiting again. Wish i would have planted this variety years ago instead of my maurituis.





Here's my mauritius tree



Delvi83

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #64 on: July 18, 2016, 06:34:33 AM »
Nice photo, congratulation for your trees....they look very healthy and full of fruits :)

johnb51

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #65 on: July 18, 2016, 08:29:43 AM »
Who would have imagined lychees would grow so well there in San Gabriel?  Congratulations!  Both trees look great.  I grew up in South Gate (1950's, 60's).  Nobody dreamed we could grow tropicals at that time.  Of course, the Asian population was much smaller.
John

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #66 on: October 04, 2016, 01:17:43 PM »
My 15gallon sweetheart one year in ground.  So with all the info gathered from online and a good friend of mine who has like 9 lychee trees I have concluded that you need to use some inorganic fertilization to withold nitrogen.  Organic fertilizer containing nitrogen takes a long time to break down one reason it's so good for lychee trees but not so good if you want it to fruit.  For me I only use organic after fruit picking or pruning.   
      Another thing is don't let your young lychee fruit it reduces the growth dramatically.  I only did it because I wanted to make sure it was a sweetheart.  There was a little mix up and mine was mixed up in a group of Mauritius.  So far my tree only flushed twice where as the 1st year it flushed 6 times. 








« Last Edit: October 04, 2016, 01:21:49 PM by boxturtle »

knlim000

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #67 on: October 05, 2016, 08:25:33 AM »
My lychee are flowering now. Should I bring inside greenhouse during the winter? I bought it from topt about 3months ago, airlayer.


boxturtle

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #68 on: October 06, 2016, 11:18:39 AM »
Make sure it's not flower and not green flush.  If it is flower personally I would prune and see if you can get one last green flush before winter gets here.  Right now you want growth not fruit.  Even if you are lucky you might only get half a dozen fruits vs.  your tree will be able to at least double it's size if you withhold fruiting for a year or two.

knlim000

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #69 on: October 06, 2016, 03:20:51 PM »
thanks boxturtle. I will cut the flowers off tonight after work.

andrewq

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #70 on: April 19, 2017, 05:50:44 PM »
For pruning blooms from young lychees, how long do you wait? prune when it buds are starting or wait until the flower open?

i have a mauritius and sweetheart in the same pop up greenhouse. the mauritius was 90% defoliated in the frost and is starting it's second vegetative flush this year already. The sweetheart had mixed growth at the same time the mauritius had its first flush.

ChristineMessner

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #71 on: April 20, 2017, 03:43:08 AM »
Pics of my lychee trees.

Kaimana (left) and Sweetheart#2 (right)


Mauritius


Sweetheart#1


Brewster



Nice links!

andrewq

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #72 on: May 10, 2017, 12:29:45 AM »
has anyone used foliar phos spray?

specifically this one : https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CJJ0BCM/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

one of the reviews talks about using it on a sweetheart and Brewster.

any advice on dose and timing of application?

cmichael258

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #73 on: May 10, 2017, 11:18:47 AM »
I have used it on my mango trees with good results.
Michael

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Re: Lychee Thread
« Reply #74 on: May 10, 2017, 12:03:06 PM »
I have used it on my mango trees with good results.

do you apply it in the spring before growth? during or after each growth?