Lychee harvest

[Lovetoplant]

The last time I saw Brad’s trees, I was surprised at how well they were growing.  I can’t seem to get mine kick started and I live in a similar climate.  I have killed a ton of seedlings and had no luck with air layers.  I’m probably planting them when they’re too small even though I have them under shade cloth.  Or fertilizing them wrong.  Whatever, I’m going to keep trying because I want raw fingers from peeling so many Brewster lychees. 
Lychees have to be one of the most beautiful trees when full of ripe fruit. Nice haul Spaugh!

I think soil media plays a very big role for growing any kind of trees especially fruit trees.  Brad's land is probably has very fertile soil, consists mainly of granite rocks.  Those rocks have a lots of mineral especially Phosporous which promote root growth and fruit settings.

[spaugh]

Heres some seedless lychee pics.  About 95%+ are seedless and the ones that are nit have a large seed and the fruit are larger. 

[spaugh]

The last time I saw Brad’s trees, I was surprised at how well they were growing.  I can’t seem to get mine kick started and I live in a similar climate.  I have killed a ton of seedlings and had no luck with air layers.  I’m probably planting them when they’re too small even though I have them under shade cloth.  Or fertilizing them wrong.  Whatever, I’m going to keep trying because I want raw fingers from peeling so many Brewster lychees. 
Lychees have to be one of the most beautiful trees when full of ripe fruit. Nice haul Spaugh!

I think soil media plays a very big role for growing any kind of trees especially fruit trees.  Brad's land is probably has very fertile soil, consists mainly of granite rocks.  Those rocks have a lots of mineral especially Phosporous which promote root growth and fruit settings.

The guy SHV lives not far from here and has similar soil I believe.  Pretty much all the countryside hilly areas in san diego county are granite.  Its not especially fertile but it drains well and plants really like that.

[sc4001992]

Wow, nice seedless fruits Brad. Is your tree large or still under 6 feet?

[spaugh]

This tree is very small and loads up with way too much fruit for its size.  It is very precocious.  I think next 2 or 3 years I will strip the fruit and let it grow. 

[sc4001992]

Did the fruits taste good?

[spaugh]

Yeah they are good, kind of just taste like lychee.  I would say the brewsters are better.  But free lychees are pretty awesome no matter what type.  My whole family goes out and we stand around the trees and eat them until we are stuffed. 

[spaugh]

I guess they werent free either that tree was 200$ but its paying itself down. 

[Jeramyl]

Visited a Large Brewster tree with super tiny seeds today.

Just following up on the thread here. Went to a friends house with a large backyard full of fruit trees today and stopped by his Brewster. It’s around 12 feet tall now and loads up with fruit each year.

 I know Simon has been to his place with me in the past, but it’s a regular fruit forest.

An interesting thing happened today, that seems to align with some of the other comments here. He said almost all of the fruit this year had really tiny seeds. We picked probably two dozen fruit from the tree as we stood there talking and only three had large seeds.

Furthermore, in the category of small seeds, there were very small seeds and remarkably small seeds. The very small seeds were what I would consider “chicken tongue” seeds, but the smallest of seeds were may be the size of a pencil eraser?

The property is in University City, San Diego and I’m wondering if some thing about our Weather this year is linked to so many people reporting a higher percentage of small seeds?  we’ve had a very unusual weather year and near the coast, it’s almost like summer never hit. This tree has been around for a while, and they have been enjoying fruit on it for many years but this year, the seeds were distinctly different.

Just an interesting observation, and I thought I would toss it in here with the rest of the comments. It will be interesting to see if it reverts back to large seeds next year. In prior years, I remember being surprised if I found a small seed.

[BestDay]

My Brewster tree, in Long Beach, also has mostly small seeds this year. It must have been a change to our spring weather that caused this.

Bill

[MarktLee]

Those Brewster's are probably the "Farwell Ranch" Brewster variety. They have chicken tongue seeds, the real Brewster doesn't seem to get that many "Chicken Tongue" seeds.

[spaugh]

I think if you thin the fruit down and more energy goes into each fruit then they would have more seeds or larger seeds.  It seems to be fruit not fully developing, not enough energy to fully complete seed development before the fruit turn red.

I noticed my brewster had a lot of small fruit that ripened last and they had hardly any seeds but fruit were not big enough.

Im planning to start thinning the fruit on lychee trees that set to many going forward.  I dont really think the smaller seed gets you more flesh, its just a smaller seed in a smaller fruit.  I really dont mind a big brewster with big seed.  Gives you something to work on with your mouth each time you eat one. 

Its kind of like sunflower seeds with no shell or pistachios with no shell.  Personally I like having to remove the shells.  Its kind of boring without them.  I think the whole seedless lychee thing is overhyped.