Author Topic: Organic lychee management  (Read 5578 times)

Mike T

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #50 on: November 20, 2020, 04:02:52 AM »
Haak yip is a heat loving early bearer with low chill requirements and its daughter kaimana needs even less chill. Maybe the least of all. Brewster has identity issues and likes it much cooler.

850FL

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #51 on: November 20, 2020, 07:58:01 AM »

A lot of that depends on the size of the tree, how long the cold lasts, and the conditions leading up to the freeze. The larger and more dormant the tree the more it can take. 32 can kill a 3gal size tree, but typically won't even burn a leaf on a 20' monster. When we had 19 here in Sebring I am told that mature Brewster trees were frozen back to the main scaffold limbs and trunk.

Interesting! Just the info I needed actually.
You’re right about dormancy. Last year the first cold event happened where it went from 80 to 40 F within 6 hours, with no acclimation period before hand. That scalded  a couple leaves on almost every lychee seedling (although it didn’t kill any).
Then as the winter progressed dormancy must have kicked in because it hit 27 F several times and 30F a few more times (about 10 light freezes total). Interestingly none of these actual freezes had any negative effects on any of the lychees,  not even the 3 inch seedlings (because by then they were all acclimated).. so your info about 32 F killing a 3 gallon sapling I must laugh at. Lol

850FL

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #52 on: November 20, 2020, 08:01:37 AM »
Haak yip is a heat loving early bearer with low chill requirements and its daughter kaimana needs even less chill. Maybe the least of all. Brewster has identity issues and likes it much cooler.

???

I heard haap yik (the chicken tongue blackleaf lychee) takes the cold better than almost any other lychee..??
so why would it’s chill requirements be in the lower tier?

Isn’t sweetheart also a descendent of haap yik?

850FL

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #53 on: November 20, 2020, 08:59:39 AM »
And even though at 19F when the mature trees were burnt back to major limbs, they did sprout new growth from those limbs though, right?
Also do you know the duration of that particular freeze??

fruitlovers

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #54 on: November 20, 2020, 06:06:55 PM »
Haak yip is a heat loving early bearer with low chill requirements and its daughter kaimana needs even less chill. Maybe the least of all. Brewster has identity issues and likes it much cooler.
The pink Kwai mi (B-3) is a much more consistent bearing lychee here. So would guess it has even less chill requirement than Kaimana.
Oscar

Julie

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #55 on: November 20, 2020, 06:32:27 PM »
At this point I wish I had planted a better variety.  I'm planting a Mauritius lychee tree now and I wish I had just planted this variety instead but I wasn't educated about it 7 years ago.  Mauritius lychee is the best performing lychee in South FL or at least that's what all the commercial growers have planted here.  We love Mauritius lychees so much it's worth it to plant a tree, even though it will not produce well and also take up a lot of space.

cbss_daviefl

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #56 on: November 20, 2020, 08:20:22 PM »
I have 18 trees lychee trees with 8 different varieties planted.  I got 10 pounds of fruit last year. Based on the current tree size, I could be getting a few hundred pounds.  They flowered well but there were lots of males and rainy weather during flowering caused fungus issues. I have a wild honey bee hive squatting in my barn so pollination was not an issue. My longan trees produced even less.  If I could do it over, I would take a different approach. It is relatively easy to buy lychees from local growers. They don't taste better when you grow them yourself.  I would recommend using the yard space for something that cannot be easily sourced locally, tastes better when home grown, or minimally is consistently productive.
Brandon

Mike T

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #57 on: November 20, 2020, 09:15:09 PM »
Oscar Kwai mai pink and tai so Mauritius are at the limits of bearing before  there isn't enough chill and kaimana is a 3rd variety starting muscle in at this frontier. Going upslope or south more varieties kick in and heading north no varieties fruit or rarely do.Rain during flowering like for mangoes is a perennial issue.

Julie

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #58 on: November 20, 2020, 09:16:25 PM »
I agree with you but I have to have at least 1 lychee on my property since it's one of our favorite fruits and not easy to find organic here and also super expensive now.  I agree space is at a premium with my property since I don't have acres of land.  It's definitely a mystery why local growers can grow lychees here but they don't produce well in the home landscape.  I will try some of the suggestions here.

Galatians522

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #59 on: November 20, 2020, 09:42:41 PM »

A lot of that depends on the size of the tree, how long the cold lasts, and the conditions leading up to the freeze. The larger and more dormant the tree the more it can take. 32 can kill a 3gal size tree, but typically won't even burn a leaf on a 20' monster. When we had 19 here in Sebring I am told that mature Brewster trees were frozen back to the main scaffold limbs and trunk.

Interesting! Just the info I needed actually.
You’re right about dormancy. Last year the first cold event happened where it went from 80 to 40 F within 6 hours, with no acclimation period before hand. That scalded  a couple leaves on almost every lychee seedling (although it didn’t kill any).
Then as the winter progressed dormancy must have kicked in because it hit 27 F several times and 30F a few more times (about 10 light freezes total). Interestingly none of these actual freezes had any negative effects on any of the lychees,  not even the 3 inch seedlings (because by then they were all acclimated).. so your info about 32 F killing a 3 gallon sapling I must laugh at. Lol

That particular freeze happened in the '70s, so I was not actually alive then but it came to mind because it had the same low as what you mentioned. But, this is what I rememember from what the "old timers" have told me. We had 1" of snow in Sebring, there was freezing weather on 3-4 consecutive nights, and it was still 28 at noon the day after we had the 19 degree low. Basically all the young trees were killed and the trees I mentioned being frozen back to main limbs and trunk were likely 30-40 years old at the time and were all near lakes. No one planted lychees for a long time.  :-\

Also, we actually start protective measures for our trees when the forecasted temp is 38. There are many reasons for this, but this post is too long already. I'll just say that nothing reduces your faith in the weather man like growing tropical fruit trees in central Florida. I have seen it all.

Galatians522

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #60 on: November 20, 2020, 09:53:42 PM »
Haak yip is a heat loving early bearer with low chill requirements and its daughter kaimana needs even less chill. Maybe the least of all. Brewster has identity issues and likes it much cooler.
The pink Kwai mi (B-3) is a much more consistent bearing lychee here. So would guess it has even less chill requirement than Kaimana.

Oscar and Mike,
Thank you for your comments on Kiamana. It helps confirm something we had suspected for a while now. All of our Kiamana were in a single row that gets pretty wet. It sounds like the failure to perform is the reault of not drying out sufficiently durring the dormant period more than the chill factor. We have planted more on high ground (based on that thinking) and will see how they fare.

fruitlovers

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #61 on: November 21, 2020, 04:48:09 PM »
I agree with you but I have to have at least 1 lychee on my property since it's one of our favorite fruits and not easy to find organic here and also super expensive now.  I agree space is at a premium with my property since I don't have acres of land.  It's definitely a mystery why local growers can grow lychees here but they don't produce well in the home landscape.  I will try some of the suggestions here.
Commercial growers have difficulties fruiting lychees also, not just home growers. You are just seeing the fruits at market from the few succesful ones and not hearing about all the failures. Lychees are tricky to get to fruit because they are not a well adapted plant outside of its home range and its preferred climate. Most plants are able to adapt and extend their range. Weeds are extremely succesful at this. But a few plants are not. I planted a lot of lychees in my orchard because it's my favorite fruit. Probably if i had known how difficult they are to fruit i would have only planted one tree. In the very many years i've been here have only had one bumper crop with many hundreds of pounds. All the other years it's just a trickle.
Oscar

850FL

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #62 on: November 21, 2020, 06:57:13 PM »
North Florida usually is more dry in the winter.. I wonder if with slight climate change they may produce more here..

Galatians522

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Re: Organic lychee management
« Reply #63 on: November 21, 2020, 08:34:13 PM »
If you do a google search for "Wen-Hsun Chen Culture of the Lychee", you will find an article that is full of the kind of information you need. Mr. Chen mentions among other things how his family gave their lychee to Rev. Brewster who brought it to Florida. Apparently the variety is over 1,000 years old! (Heirloom lychees anyone? Lol!) He also mentions that he was surprised to learn that lychees did not grow in Gainesville because his native town of Hinghwh had lower winter lows (even though its latitude corresponds more closely to Homestead). He claims to have seen lychee trees survive a low of 9 degrees in Hinghwh (although they did not fruit for two years afterward). He attributes this REMARKABLE feat to the degree of dormancy the trees achieve in China vs. in Florida. Its a fascinating read even if you don't agree with everything he says.