The Tropical Fruit Forum

If you have a friend or neighbor with a large, healthy lychee tree, you can request to dig some soil to inoculate your soil with any beneficial microbes it may have. Also, Lychees love a thick layer of mulch beneath their canopy and out past the drip line. The thick layer of mulch and the deterioration of plant matter and whole microbial ecosystem it supports significantly increases the rate of growth of Lychee trees. The mulch also holds in more moisture and can increase the ambient humidity which may benefit leaf growth.

If the edges of your Lychee leaves look burnt, your water quality is probably poor. Rain, pond or RO water is very good for Lychees. Most hose end water filters are useless. Better water quality and a wind break for younger trees is extremely beneficial.

Once a lychee tree gets some size, city water is fine and a wind break is not necessary.

Lychees love Iron and I drench my trees with chelated Iron throughout the growing season.

Simon

It's probably because the root system is not strong enough. I had many of my purchased air-layer lychees do the same thing (4-5 plants died) even after 6-9 months of keeping them in pots in the shade. Lychee seems to be a weak plant until it has some good root system which might take a year or so. Since your plant is in ground you might have issues with the soil mixture. I have two small plants like yours in ground now and one died after 9 months, the other is still alive. Of course in my case it could be due to the fact that I don't regularly water my plants, if I remember I will water it once a week so it probably doesn't like the inconsistent watering it gets.

Once it starts showing new growth it should be good. Other forum members will probably give you better advice on the soil and watering since they seem to have no problem with them. The only lychee tree I have that is no maintenance is my 25yr old Brewster which is a large tree (18'x20') and doesn't need any special care except to trim back the tall branches each year.

I'm sure Simon and others with more experience growing lychees will provide feedback here.

Also in SFV and my banana plant looks in  quite similar condition to yours. I am a beginner myself so I'm interested in following this thread. I have noticed that my bananas would have leaves looking lush and after about a month begin to look like the leaves in your picture and then shrivel up. I only give my banana plant a bunch of steer manure and compost (the bagged one from home depot) and a lot of water.

99 ranch has yangmei flavored chips right now. I've never tried the fruit so now I have some idea what it tastes like.

Can anyone recommend a good foliar fertiliser for micro nutrients and trace elements preferably in Australia?  Im already using powerfeed and seasol for foliar but i dont believe either of these are for micros.