Lychee Thread

[sc4001992]

All of Johnny's fruit trees grow excellent and large. He feeds them super food.

[love_Tropic]

Any idea why my mauritius lychee flushing are not looking good?

[fruit4me]

Any idea why my mauritius lychee flushing are not looking good?

My smaller younger tree looks the same way. Probably cold nights condition. Older trees are flushing out nicely though

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

I thought I would post some photos of my Mauritius lychee tree I planted in August 2020 along with a recent photo for compairson. I am really pleased so far with the impressive growth of this tree which requires little care. The only thing I do is give it plenty of water (lychees love water), apply some azomite from time to time and give it some organic fertlizer every few months. I wish all of my sub tropical fruit trees grew this well.

The first two photos show the root ball of the Mauritius prior to planting in the ground. Even though this tree was in a #15 pot the roots did not fill the bottom half. The root ball looks closer to something you would see in a #7 container. The third photo shows the tree just after planting three years ago. The last photo was taken a few days ago. I love growing lychee trees.

Johnny



Mauritius lower Rootball (8-20-2020)


Mauritius lower Rootball #2 (8-20-2020)



Mauritius Lychee Tree after planting (8-20-2020)




Mauritius Lychee Tree (11-16-2023)

[joe_OC]

Johnny - that’s amazing growth!   I feel more confident about my lychees.

[SHV]

That’s a great looking tree!  Impressive growth in just three years.  I swear, I’m doing something wrong.  Maybe I should stop planting twigs and get that 15 gallon sweetheart lychee recently posted for sale.  I would love to get just one good sized Lychee tree on my property. Is that too much to ask?  Everything else grows fine.

[johnb51]

This thread goes back 10 years.  How are Florida people doing with their lychee trees?  The mites have done in many trees, and the warmer winters aren't helping with blossoming.  Our big neighborhood Mauritius tree had fruit in 2021 but not since.

[Galatians522]

John, lots of lychee trees here in central Florida are still doing fine. We were the center of commercial lychee production for 30-40 years before the major freezes of the 50s, 70s, and 80s. Many of those old Brewster trees had excellent crops this past year. So far, most of the really old trees have escaped major mite damage.

[K-Rimes]

That’s a great looking tree!  Impressive growth in just three years.  I swear, I’m doing something wrong.  Maybe I should stop planting twigs and get that 15 gallon sweetheart lychee recently posted for sale.  I would love to get just one good sized Lychee tree on my property. Is that too much to ask?  Everything else grows fine.

I think the bigger airlayers may indeed be worth it, but don't be convinced by the size of the pot. I bought one of those 20g Sweethearts from Champa for cheap recently and rootball was tiny, no bigger than a 3g, chilling in a 20G for $$$.

Planted a 3g Brewster at my gf's family house in Goleta about 3 years ago and it is only now accelerating, first few years basically did nothing. Takes awhile, it seems.

[johnb51]

John, lots of lychee trees here in central Florida are still doing fine. We were the center of commercial lychee production for 30-40 years before the major freezes of the 50s, 70s, and 80s. Many of those old Brewster trees had excellent crops this past year. So far, most of the really old trees have escaped major mite damage.

That's great to hear.

[Tropheus76]

I have a sweetheart that has been in ground in east Orange county(FL) since 2012. Its one of my original trees I planted after Bob from Green Jungle(RIP) gave me some fruit from his trees. I was hooked. My tree is about 15 feet high and about 10 wide. Never had any cold or frost issues while nearby longons, which are supposedly more cold hardy, froze. I have also never even had a flowering. Really flipping annoying for one of my most otherwise successful trees. My Texas plum at least blooms.

[spaugh]

I have a sweetheart that has been in ground in east Orange county(FL) since 2012. Its one of my original trees I planted after Bob from Green Jungle(RIP) gave me some fruit from his trees. I was hooked. My tree is about 15 feet high and about 10 wide. Never had any cold or frost issues while nearby longons, which are supposedly more cold hardy, froze. I have also never even had a flowering. Really flipping annoying for one of my most otherwise successful trees. My Texas plum at least blooms.

I havent gotten much fruit off sweetheart either.  Thry also get lanky and break branches. 

[Galatians522]

I have a sweetheart that has been in ground in east Orange county(FL) since 2012. Its one of my original trees I planted after Bob from Green Jungle(RIP) gave me some fruit from his trees. I was hooked. My tree is about 15 feet high and about 10 wide. Never had any cold or frost issues while nearby longons, which are supposedly more cold hardy, froze. I have also never even had a flowering. Really flipping annoying for one of my most otherwise successful trees. My Texas plum at least blooms.

Sorry to hear your Sweet Heart is not reliable. What plum do you have from Texas that blooms in 9b? Maybe it just needs a pollinator?

[Mike T]

The world of lychees is bursting at the seams with good new varieties popping up. Hopefully the US can get a slice of some of this action but confusion will probably reign as varieties seem to get local names making it hard to research. The tally of existing varieties and past ones trialled in my local area is well over 50 now but that info with productivity, wt/fruit, chill hours etc would be much use unless the names are matched and even then there are frequent mis identifications so it might be harder than converting imperial to metric or would that be digital to analogue? Anyway Erdon Lee and San sue lin are still sending lychee enthisasts hearts in Queensland aflutter but there are big guns coming after them. Tai So (Mauritius) and kwai mai pink are still the most common types in my area at the warmest end of lychee tolerance.