Lychee dried during shipping

[lebmung]

I am new at growing lychee.
I had a small plant sent to me that took 7 days in shopping.
Here was a sudden cold and snow coming.
I suspect the tree had been exposed to freezing temperatures during night travel by truck.

Any chance to re over? How ll

[Nyuu]

I will give it check to see the trunks are burned . Give it a scratch and see if it's green if not you can give another scratch and check to see where you might find green .
If it's brown the branches you can cut off because those branches will be dead .
Good luck

[lebmung]

Thanks for the answer. Trunk near soil seems to be green. The plant was airlayered.
I think the air temperature got down for few hours to 20-23 F
Do lychee survive this?

[Nyuu]

Yes it could survive down to 20 Fahrenheit there's a leech groves in Avon Park I know they use microclimates but it's because it gets to cold it might lose the crop that year .
This year they went down to about 24 or 26 Fahrenheit and I've been very mild winter in Florida .

[sc4001992]

In my experience with purchasing lychee plants that looked bad when I received them, it was not good. Lychee plants seem to be very sensitive to any stress, the dry leafs do not look promising. You should keep it in the shade and cross your fingers.

I did a similar scratch test per vendor and I cut the dry branches back, it only made my tree die. I may have 3-5 shipped trees that had similar problem. Some trees that looked green with healthy leaves for 6 months still died on me. I did 10 air layer cuttings and only 3 survived even though it had roots, just a touchy tree when they are young.

Best to buy it from a local nursery that you can pickup to keep it healthy.

[shot]

Small tree can not take temps in the 20s.It is not a sturdy mature tree!
I would not trim anything, make a humidity tent.It does not look good.

[Nyuu]

In my experience with purchasing lychee plants that looked bad when I received them, it was not good. Lychee plants seem to be very sensitive to any stress, the dry leafs do not look promising. You should keep it in the shade and cross your fingers.

I did a similar scratch test per vendor and I cut the dry branches back, it only made my tree die. I may have 3-5 shipped trees that had similar problem. Some trees that looked green with healthy leaves for 6 months still died on me. I did 10 air layer cuttings and only 3 survived even though it had roots, just a touchy tree when they are young.

Best to buy it from a local nursery that you can pickup to keep it healthy.

I'm surprised you had such bad luck with them . I got them freshly air layer and barely a month in a pot and did what they call California stack / meaning you lay plants on top each other to max out the amount of plants you can put in a small vehicle . And didn't lose a single tree .

[Nyuu]

Small tree can not take temps in the 20s.It is not a sturdy mature tree!
I would not trim anything, make a humidity tent.It does not look good.

And yes you're correct small plant most likely will not tolerate those temperature
Plus the stress of being shipped.
Now my opinion cutting off the dead branches shouldn't hurt as long as you're not moving to root system of the plants should be okay .

[bsbullie]

Young lychees in pots are very fickle.  They do not like to be dried out and they are known to have issues with proper uptake of water and nutrients.

In the OPs case, for whatever the reason for the condition of the plant, just because the trunk or branch is scratching green does not mean it will survive.  When lychee dries dry out and their leaves dry out AND hold on to the dried/dead leaves, that is a bad sign.  I would drench the soil and spray down the leaves and try to keep as humid as possible...of course, it may all be for naught and a delaying of the inevitable.

I don't know if its the pictures or not but the leaves look like the tree may have had some prior poor care from disease/pests.

[sc4001992]

Rob, what you say makes sense, the only lychee I purchased (about 5 gal size pot) that is still alive for me is the one that I put into the ground immediately. The other 4 plants in pots died within a year. I may not have properly watered them since I just left them in the shade under my loquat trees and watered once a week.

[lebmung]

This is in a deep pot like a feet and half, 50cm.
The roots at the bottom look white and fresh.
The soil was not dry when I got it.
Just all the leaves very dried.
In the same pack I had a cherimoya which also had the leaves dried, but trunk still green and health after a cut.

Unfortunately big snow came here yesterday. All last week was a nice weather then studding snowed.
This tree came from 2000 miles and it took 6-7 days.
It went for 6--8  hours though mountains, I think the temperature went down to 20-25F then back to warehouse where it was maybe 40-50 F
I didn't know the lychee are hard to grow. This is a small variaty Wai Chee.

Here is my cherimoya

[pop_kun]

did what they call California stack / meaning you lay plants on top each other to max out the amount of plants you can put in a small vehicle

Im glad there is a term for how I transport my trees in my Acura RSX hatchback. I have no self control.

[Seanny]

I was given a Sweet Heart that wasn’t watered for a month, had 0 leaves.
It’s doing well a year later.
Give your leafless tree some sun but not full sun.

[K-Rimes]

I think it'll come back. Mine is totally leafless due to cold snaps but I'm confident it'll recover each year.

[lebmung]

Any suggestions if I order another tree again, how to make it survive the transportation. Maybe cut the leaves to stop the transpiration. Next month there will be no more freezing, but only cool temperatures.

[K-Rimes]

Any suggestions if I order another tree again, how to make it survive the transportation. Maybe cut the leaves to stop the transpiration. Next month there will be no more freezing, but only cool temperatures.

I would only have tropical or sub-tropical plants shipped when there is ZERO chance of freeze going forward. When they are on the tarmac going into the shipping plane, the temperature could be -20C if it routes through a very cold airport. They may sit on the tarmac for hours in those conditions.

Count this as a learning lesson.

[lebmung]

[/quote]

I would only have tropical or sub-tropical plants shipped when there is ZERO chance of freeze going forward. When they are on the tarmac going into the shipping plane, the temperature could be -20C if it routes through a very cold airport. They may sit on the tarmac for hours in those conditions.

Count this as a learning lesson.
[/quote]

I knew about that. It's just that weather forecast was not accurate.
This on 4 trucks then 3 warehouses. So I guess it was pretty cold.

So if the weather is warm night temp over 40F any suggestion how to make the tree survive 7 days?

[Seanny]

Look up the nurseries.
They stated no shipping for lychee due to loss of leaves.

You could ask shipper to add damp sphagnum moss to fully bagged tree to see if that help.

[lebmung]

Look up the nurseries.
They stated no shipping for lychee due to loss of leaves.

You could ask shipper to add damp sphagnum moss to fully bagged tree to see if that help.

So the lychee dies from lack of humidity during shipping?
I thought I need to treat lychee like mango dry.
I make my own arrangements for shipping as in Europe there are no sellers of lychee. Not my climate where to fit.

[sc4001992]

Seanny said, "I was given a Sweet Heart that wasn’t watered for a month, had 0 leaves.
It’s doing well a year later."

I have a question for you on this plant, what size pot was the Sweet Heart tree in ? Was the soil dried up?
I doesn't seem like it would survive a month without water unless it was in the shade/cold.

[Seanny]

Lebmung

I don't know the reason why lychee don't do well when shipped.
I'm only guessing of moisture lost, the most common.

My trees are from a nursery an hour drive away.
The nursery buy a truck load plants from Florida, the other coast of US where I'm living.
The trees are in the dark for 3 days during shipment.
A friend buy for me when new shipment arrives.
They all are in 3 gallon pots, look good.

sc4001992

It was in a 5G pot, 2/3 filled.
I was told it was in a GH, recently AL.
Husband died so wife didn't water it for a month.
A friend picked it and gave it to me.
I got it in winter.
I shortened all the branches until I saw green.

I didn't recall the condition of the soil.
I watered it often.
I never knew lychee was difficult so I had no concern about leafless.

The most impressive part on that tree is robust bracing, 2 stakes, 1 crossbar, all screwed to pot.
I read that the young roots tend to snap off from new AL tree when the tree sway in the wind.
I'm adding more bracing when I up pot lychee.

I read recently about survival rate of AL lychee.
Quite low.

[Seanny]

A couple of dead branches on that tree that I missed cutting.

[Galatians522]

We have kept potted trees in our garage for a week at a time durring cold snaps without water. If it is cold and the tree is not flushing it doesn't need a lot of water. Also, a Florida lychee grower that I know has shipped largely defoliated airlayers around the world without issue (I believe she removes 80% of the leaves or a little more before shipping). I think this was a cold issue more than lack of water.

[lebmung]

Yes this was a cold issue. Soil in was not dry.
I give it small chances to survive.