Seedless lychee

[spaugh]

I got one of Quang Ong's "seedless" lychee trees a couple years ago.  Its not that big yet but it made a lot of fruit.  Some are fully seedless and some have large seeds.  Its pretty strange.  The fruit are big and look like emporers.  Ill post a pic later when I get the photos off another device.

[spaugh]

[FruitGrower]

Congratulations! How was the taste?

[spaugh]

Tastes like lychee, nothing standout as far as lychees go.  Juicy and sweet.  Similar to brewster maybe.  I only ate a few and the kids a d wife ate the rest. 

[vin1]

How cool is that.

[FruitGrower]

Tastes like lychee, nothing standout as far as lychees go.  Juicy and sweet.  Similar to brewster maybe.  I only ate a few and the kids a d wife ate the rest.

Brewster is one of my favorites but I hate the big seed so this would be nice. What ratio of big seed/ seedless did you get?

If you ever propagate it I would be interested in buying some air layers.

[spaugh]

About half have no seed at all and the other half have big seeds like brewster but still more flesh than brewster. 

It will be a while, the plant is very young still but it is much more heavy fruiting at a small size than any of the other common lychee types.  Its very precocious.  My friend has one and his plant also fruited at a very small size.  My other lychee trees needed to get much larger to set and hold fruit. 

The guy Ong may have more trees available at his nursery.  He grows mother plants at an orchard in san diego county. 

Ill photo the plant tomorrow, it still has some fruits that are not all red yet on it. 

[pinkturtle]

From what I heard, if the seedless lychee planted next another lychee, the pollen from the other tree can potential pollinated the seedless one to be seeded.

[mangoba]

That's amazing! Lychees have been very challenging, any special care you give it compared to mangoes?

[spaugh]

Not really any special care.  Lychees like lots of mulch and water and low ph fertilizer and of course plenty of heat and sunshine to flush. 

[simon_grow]

Awesome Brad, I still remember when we picked up that tree!

Mangoba, Lychees love a thick mulch layer and they love Iron.

Simon

[Galatians522]

Emperor will set seedless fruit under the right conditions. I have been told that it relates to cross pollination. We had two Emperor trees separate from the rest of the grove that set all seedless fruit one year. Shortly after that they got flooded and died. So, the experiment couldn't continue. The ones that get good cross pollination up in the grove set very few seedless fruit. We also had a Brewster that had 100% chicken tongue seeds one year. We thought that we had something special, but the next year it put out normal fruit. Based on those observations, I am going to say that the fruits with a large seed got cross pollinated.

[CarolinaZone]

I'm jelly. Ong is open on the weekends right?

[spaugh]

I think Ong is open Saturday mornings.  Its at the guys house but he has a pretty big nursery setup in the city.  Thry dont speak english though so calling may be difficult. 

[spaugh]

heres the pics of the tree and fruit.  i ate a bunch more and more than half had seeds so the "seedless" thing is bogus.  Some fruits have no seed at all but most have a big seed.  They do taste good though and fruit are a nice size.

Does it look like a named variety to anyone?  Maybe its an emporer? 

[Galatians522]

heres the pics of the tree and fruit.  i ate a bunch more and more than half had seeds so the "seedless" thing is bogus.  Some fruits have no seed at all but most have a big seed.  They do taste good though and fruit are a nice size.

Does it look like a named variety to anyone?  Maybe its an emporer? 

The leaves and fruit do look very similar to Emperor. I can see in your picture that the stem meets the fruit at an angle instead of going straight to the fruit. Emperor is the only variety I have seen here in Florida that does that. Leaves are small and folded up like Emperor, too. It could also be an Emperor seedling that kept some of those traits.

[spaugh]

It seems to grow pretty well.  I got the tree just over 2 years ago and it was just a small 3 gallon airlayer.  It grew pretty fast and set a lot of fruit for its size.  Even if the seedless thing is bogus, its a nice tree. 

[Seanny]

Brad,

Are there any other lychee trees around your seedless tree?

[spaugh]

Yeah I do have other lychee trees not super far away.  Its possible bees are moving pollen between trees.  This one is kind of off on the end by itself but theres other trees around. 

Now I wish this one was planted way further away.  Maybe someday I can make a copy but this stuff takes forever to grow and make copies of. 

[JF Paso]

Is it small enough to try using some type of insect barrier netting next year to test for the effect of cross pollination?

[spaugh]

Is it small enough to try using some type of insect barrier netting next year to test for the effect of cross pollination?

Good idea

[CarolinaZone]

What do you feed your trees? Mine are that big but not as bushy. Mine live in 25 gal pots.

[Seanny]

Is it small enough to try using some type of insect barrier netting next year to test for the effect of cross pollination?

Good idea

Next step is to collect maggots to throw inside tent to help with pollination.

[CarolinaZone]

Flies pollinate lychees?

[Galatians522]

This study indicates that flies are one of the primary polinators for Mango, but for lychee the data was inconclusive.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341877615_The_Role_of_Flies_as_Pollinators_of_Horticultural_Crops_An_Australian_Case_Study_with_Worldwide_Relevance&ved=2ahUKEwi_nd3vlo76AhXclWoFHe3JDUIQFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2_3GjBaXS7-1egfNtDD4pF

Maybe someone has additional info on the topic.