Author Topic: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?  (Read 1824 times)

Weboh

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Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« on: June 09, 2018, 10:39:14 PM »
I've heard that lychee trees don't fruit often and are really susceptible to wind damage and parasites and the like, and really need to be pruned aggressively to fruit. However, recently, I noticed 4 lychee trees in my area. They're all at least 30 feet tall and loaded with fruit. I know at least one of the people owning a tree didn't do any maintenance on it—not even picking the fruit, as far as I can tell. I've read that lychee only fruits on new growth, (and that's why pruning is important) but that doesn't seem to be the case on that tree at least.

Is the reason people say they're finicky simply because they don't fruit every year without maintenance? Every single tree I've noticed has been covered in fruit (granted, the fruit may be the reason I recognize the tree. I didn't even know there were any lychee trees in the area before now. Then again, I've never known that lychees exist until recently...). They all survived a category 2 hurricane, so I guess they're beyond minor wind hurting them...

We did have an unusually cold winter where it approached freezing. Could that be the reason why every lychee tree appears to have fruit? Or does everyone just happen to have a good variety? (I was able to taste the fruit off of two of the trees. It tastes a lot better than the Mauritius lychee I've had before. They both had really big seeds and were about the same size. They tasted different, though; one of them was extra sweet. Brewster maybe? Or some hybrid grown from a seed? Would having a seed-grown root system make them hardier and/or fruit more often?)
« Last Edit: June 09, 2018, 10:59:53 PM by Weboh »

luc

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2018, 05:59:24 PM »
I have 4 producing lytchees , 2 Brewster at my house and 2 other at the orchard ( one is an air-layer ( Kaimana ) , the other from seed from a huge variety i brought back from Asia )

In general I prune all ( 40 - 50 cm ) every year . One ( Brewster ) in front of my house I have to take it 2 meters down every 2 years otherwise I loose my ocean view , this one will not produce the next year , but plenty the next . A cold winter is always beneficial ....I noticed ...
Luc Vleeracker
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Mexico , Pacific coast.
20 degrees north

Mike T

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2018, 06:27:37 PM »
some seedling never fruit. The range of minimum temps to trigger flowering ranges through say 7c to 15c and if you are not regularly getting below 10c flowering might not be induced. As a rule of thumb the earlier the fruiting season of a variety the more tropical it is so the late fruiting types don't fruit so well in warm climates.
Air layered trees have root systems just as good as seedlings once established. I don't think regular pruning improves the yield but just keeps them to a manageable size.

achetadomestica

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2018, 07:18:41 PM »
There are several factors that can influence fruit production. They seem similar to mangos
in that they need a cool dry period, I hear people who water 3X a week in the winter and
they complain about not getting fruit. I visited a guy selling lychees in Bonita Springs.
His tree was planted in 1967 and they thought it was a Japanese plum. He never waters or
prunes or fertilizes his tree and he gets fruit every year. The fruit was good but low pulp/
seed ratio. This year he got the most fruit ever and it seems like allot of people did, maybe
Irma pruned allot of trees for people? The one thing that will always effect production is that
the trees could flower like a mango and in our 9b area if we get hit with late frost in February,
 the bloom would be jeopardized. I met another person who has very mature mangos and
a longan on his property. He must have 10 or more large mango trees and all but a couple are
loaded with fruit. The longan is also loaded with fruit. He never water, fertilizes or prunes his trees.
He said every year his longan is loaded. I asked him if I could airlayer it and he said sure. I want
one of those on my property. I am very curious why the couple of mangos didn't have fruit on his
property? The trees didn't outwardly look different just no fruit.

boxturtle

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2018, 07:34:54 PM »
they hold fruit better as the airlayered tree mature, 3year and on.  I think it takes that long for them to grow a root system that can sustain fruit.   some would fruit early but its at a high cost a young tree.  They are sensitive to wind I think at any age of course damage is magnify when they are younger.  in my experience they are pretty resistant to disease.  I have mine for over 3 years and not once I have to treat it with anything.   they are picky eaters.  Mine likes oscomete, compost, worm casting and fish/seaweed emulsion.  Anything else burns their leaves even the generic oscomete

simon_grow

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2018, 11:57:16 PM »
From the research I’ve done over the years, timely pruning especially when combined with timely fertilization will improve/increase yields. Much of this has to do with pruning in order to set the trees current flush to coincide with predicted cold weather. The flush has to be mature enough with hardened growth so that it will be more receptive to the cold weather. As the new growth just begins, cold weather for a long enough duration should induce blooms.

Once the fruit is set, timely applications of appropriate fertilizers will decrease natural fruit drop. Decreasing leaf Nitrogen levels may also prevent untimely vegetative growth flushes. Lychees online has some great articles regarding timely pruning of Lychees for Floridians but their schedule may not be appropriate for people elsewhere. There are also several great Australian articles regarding pruning and fertilization of Lychees for increasing productivity and reducing natural cycles of fruit drop. Here’s just one article:
https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2009/may/lychee
Simon

simon_grow

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2018, 12:27:45 AM »
To Weboh, even though those large Lychee trees produced a ton of fruit this year, they will likely not produce this quantity of fruit every year, especially without maintenance. A large Lychee tree will likely have an extensive root system capable of taking up water and nutrients from far away but a heavy crop load one year will deplete much of the trees stored reserves.

After a bumper crop year, an un-managed tree will likely have a minor crop the following year or none at all. Look at the calories, fat, protein and minerals in a Lychee fruit and multiply that by how many pounds a huge tree produced. The minerals in the fruit must be taken up by the roots, leaves or produced/converted by the tree so that tree must replenish approximately that much through fertilization or from natural processes which provide the tree with major, minor and micronutrients.

Here are a few more articles:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac684e/ac684e05.htm

http://litchisa.co.za/Vol3%20Strategies%20for%20improved%20litchi%20production.pdf
Simon

andrewq

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2018, 02:19:36 AM »
check out lycheesonline.com video from this (2018) year. they take care of their trees and get variable yields.

the established trees are less susceptible to wind damage because they can push larger growths and also probably gets big enough for the exterior to block the wind from passing through the entire tree

. in some parts of the country, vermon isnt an issue.

andrewq

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2018, 02:48:13 PM »
i'll also give an interesting story:

i purchased 3 emperor lychees (all with Pine Island Nursery tags), which were all similar size (trunk, canopy, etc). all grown next to each other, on the same watering/fertilizer schedule.

1 emperor was slower (1 week later than the other two emperors), and the final fall flush was damaged by a cold front (the other two emperor growths had hardened off).

in spring, the 2 synchronized emperor bloomed first and had tons of small fruit but then suddenly dropped all of them. the slower emperor also bloomed, but a couple weeks late - this one has held onto all its fruit (3g pot purchased Feb 2017, now blooming and holding 33 fruit).

I took care of all 3 trees exactly the same and got completely different results. Not yet sure what caused the fruit drop, but my philosophy now is more trees and keep them smallish (4-6ft canopy) so i can fit more

pineislander

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Re: Are mature lychee trees less fincky?
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2018, 06:05:06 PM »
I don't have any mature Lychee trees, but my neighbor and others with large groves noted this year had exceptionally good bloom with fantastic bee activity but something went wrong in pollination and fewer than expected  small fruit developed. Our area does have the Lychee Erinose mite problem which seems isolated to our area and US Dept of Ag is working on a plan to eradicate them locally (Bokeelia, FL Lee County, SW FL).