Thanks for the warm welcome Ethan (and Gerry) It's good to see that everyone has moved to a more user friendly spot.
Gerry, to answer your Qs:
- I also have a Brewster and hak ip that are just growing like weeds...not flowering though. I just re-potted the brewster into a keg tub with no holes in the bottom, and it is loving the constant supply of water...did the same with the emperor, but being a mountain lychee (vs a water lychee like brewster) it looks to be having a slightly harder time coping.
- I bought the sweetheart in 2007, and the pickering in 2010...that pickering flowers like a champ, but it's too small to let fruit set, I think.
- it was a tiny little BB fruit...I actually think one of the ferrets knocked the panicle off the the tree...#@!%$ miscreants! I saw today that another tiny mango has started on another panicle...we'll see what happens.
- I have a Mallika, and Nam Doc Mai...they are both getting very large trunks now, but at the moment, are just spider mite fodder. The mangoes tend to flower when I put them out in March/April, which is ideal.
- Yep...lychees must be hand pollinated when inside. You just use a tiny 10/0 natural brush and dust the pollen onto the pistil. I was actually able to cross pollinate this year between the emperor and sweetheart. I'm still amazed that sweethearts put out females then M2 males, then more females...opposite of emperors. They timed it nicely though.
- The lights I use are just regular 100w CFLs in the light fixture...high color temp is necessary ~5700K or better. This is clearly not enough though; because, the leaves get huge (a sign of not enough light) and they get a ton of sunburn on the leaves when they go out.
- I wasn't expecting anything from the emperor this year, since I re-potted it, but it did shoot out some panicles after all.
Anything happening with your Mauritius?