Author Topic: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?  (Read 1734 times)

BestDay

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Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« on: September 15, 2021, 09:50:04 PM »



I have a small one year old Emperor Lychee tree.  It is in a 15 gallon pot and about 30" tall.  It set many small fruit this year.  I tried to remove them all because I wanted the tree to put its energy into vegetative growth instead of producing fruit. Well apparently I missed four fruit.  All I have to say is WOW.  These things are huge!  Who needs Erdon Lee when we can grow these?  Below are some photos of the fruit with a silver dollar and tennis ball for size reference.  I know you can play tricks with a camera and make things look larger then they are by putting them closer to the camera.  I tried not to do that.  These pictures show how big these fruit truly are.  So my question is, is this normal?  Do Emperor normally get this big?

























Bill

Galatians522

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2021, 09:56:59 PM »
Yes, if they are thinned they get that big. If the tree is overloaded, the fruits will be much smaller. Occationally, there is a polination issue and fruits are nearly seedless.

LycheeLust

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2021, 04:59:39 AM »
Awesome! Where did you get your tree? I couldn’t find one anywhere

BestDay

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2021, 12:04:54 PM »
Last year I bought the last one at Champa Nursery.

Bill

fruit4me

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2021, 01:15:51 PM »
Hi Bill
How you like the fruit? Did it have big or small seeds? The shell on your Emperor looks different then mine. Makes me think if I have the real Emperor or not. Most of my Emperors had large seeds and only a few aborted seeds

sc4001992

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2021, 04:55:41 PM »
Bill, your photo of the emperor next to the tennis ball seems to be out of scale. Is it really that big?

When you pick the fruit, it would be nice to see one cut open. Nice looking fruit.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2021, 07:58:59 PM by sc4001992 »

palingkecil

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2021, 05:51:08 PM »
Following. If the seed is thin and the taste is better than Brewster or Mauritius, I will get an Emperor.

BestDay

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2021, 06:08:31 PM »
I haven't tried the fruit yet.  I plan to try them soon.  I will weight the fruit before I eat them to see how much they weight.  I'll compare the three varieties I have fruit on.  The picture with the tennis ball is to scale.  I lined the fruit up exactly on the middle of the tennis ball to try and get the scale right.  I'm saying these things are huge!

Here is are some pictures of my one Kaimana fruit.  It is also from a very small 2' tree.








And here are some pictures of my Brewster.









You can tell the Emperor is waaaaaaay bigger.  I would guess double to triple the size.  When I eat them I will weight them before I eat them.  Then I will weight the remnant seed and skin to see how much meat there is to each variety.

Bill

Galatians522

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2021, 06:47:39 PM »
If it is a typical Emperor, the seed will be huge. The tiny seeds are almost always in smaller fruits. Your tree is small but it was thinned, so I am going to guess that your fruit will weigh in the 50-60 gram range.

sc4001992

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2021, 08:11:30 PM »
Your fruits are huge ! Congrats.

You must be feeding them good fertilizer. That emperor fruit must weigh more than 60 grams. My brown turkey fig that's about the size of a tennis ball weighed from 120-181 grams. I just made a measurement of 3 Brewster fruits and it weighed 58 grams so maybe 60-70 grams is correct.

BestDay

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #10 on: September 16, 2021, 08:56:16 PM »
According to some articles Erdon Lee average weight is 70-80 grams and can weigh up to 100 grams.  So we will see how these Emperor stack up.  Does anyone know how to tell when the Emperor Lychee are ready to pick?  From looking at pictures on the internet it looks like these will continue to grow until the skin gets smoother.

Bill

Lovetoplant

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2021, 12:04:40 AM »
Usually they are picked when the skin turn red.

marklee

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2021, 11:27:46 PM »
I eat my Emperor lychees when they are still a little green and they taste fine, the bigger ones do have a bigger seed, the small to medium ones are almost seedless. My tree is a very slow grower, I think because they like a more acidic growing medium.

fruitlovers

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #13 on: September 18, 2021, 01:58:48 AM »
The fruits from my emperor were very big, not as big as tennis ball, but still giant. But the seeds inside are also huge.
Oscar

Mike T

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Re: Are Emperor Lychee usually this large?
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2021, 03:50:39 PM »
Several years ago I posted pics of the local large fruited selection of FZS on the ruler and on the scales. They were averaging over 50g and I believe that is what we have here.