Favorite Lychee Variety

[BMc]

Erdon Lee and at least 2 seedless types are in Australia but in lockdown and are unlikely to be available to hobbyists in thr foreseeable future.

Mike, the Large Seedless one down here should be freely available in the not-too-0distant future. Give it 5 or so years and you should see them stocked in bunnings  .  Let me know if you get anywhere with the Erdon Lee connection. I've got nothing but space, time and the perfect growing conditions when it comes to the next gen lychees.

[Mike T]

BMc it is good to hear someone is at ease with the space, time continuum.As I am now a space cadet I am forced to turn my back on some excellent trees.My tentacles are all unfurled ready to hook anything that comes in range.It is good to know that if a bunch of seedless or erdon lee lychee trees get thrust upon I can send them to a good home.

[fyliu]

It would be nice someday to grow seedless lychees!    Wish we could get them over to the U.S. 

Brad

You can order them from at least one source in Guangdong, China. If I can get my place approved for post entry quarantine I'll go bring a few back in December. I wonder where all the other sources in China are.

Fang

[bradflorida]

Hi Fang

If you end up being able to go tbrough with the purchase of seedless or erldon trees, i would be very interested in speaking with you to try to arrange getting a tree.

Thanks

Brad

[fruitlovers]

Today I quizzed a tropical fruit expert who has done many projects on lychees on what he believes are the best.He has visited china,taiwan and thailand many times collecting lychee varieties for introduction and sampling them.He suggested that the seedless types of guangdong are very good and definately a step up from the standards and there are a number of them.He also advised that erdon lee was probably better than the seedless because of the great taste and very large size like most seedless.His favourite lychee remains fai zee sui because he has a real affinity for its distinctive flavor and also it is bigger than the ol strandards.Erdon Lee and at least 2 seedless types are in Australia but in lockdown and are unlikely to be available to hobbyists in thr foreseeable future.

Thanks for the report Mike, interesting information. But i'm sure if you quizzed all the top lychee experts in the world they would all have different favorites. I'll try to aks Dr. Zee here same question. He's our local top lychee expert, and also happens to be Chinese, so really crazy about lychees. He's done trials and research on lychees here.

[simon_grow]

Anyone know how bad the quarantine is(if there is one?) for scion material from these new Lychee varieties?  If we get enough good quality scions, I'm sure some of the members here will be able to get some grafts to take on their Lychee trees. 
Simon

[fruitlovers]

Anyone know how bad the quarantine is(if there is one?) for scion material from these new Lychee varieties?  If we get enough good quality scions, I'm sure some of the members here will be able to get some grafts to take on their Lychee trees. 
Simon

There are two sets of laws when importing plants from outside USA, one is federal (USDA) and the other is state law, in your case California ag. I think the quarantine rule applies to all states. Plants have to be kept at a preapproved location for 2 years, cannot be sold or propagated during that time, and can be inspected at will by ag officers. I don't think California has additional restrictions on lychee as that is not a commercial crop in California. Florida however does have additional restrictions on lychee because it is considered a commercial crop there. So i'm guessing it would be easier to import those lychee plants to California, or even Hawaii, than to Florida.

[fyliu]

Thanks for the report Mike, interesting information. But i'm sure if you quizzed all the top lychee experts in the world they would all have different favorites. I'll try to aks Dr. Zee here same question. He's our local top lychee expert, and also happens to be Chinese, so really crazy about lychees. He's done trials and research on lychees here.

I hear his name a lot but didn't realize he's Chinese. I wasn't aware of different varieties when I left China. I'm interested to know what expert tasters think about them.

My parents still won't buy lychee from markets here because the membrane breaks easily. I guess they're picky about the texture.

[fruitlovers]

Some interesting tidbits about lychee from David Karp:
http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=57

[Mike T]

Interesting article Oscar.If you get to chat to Dr Zee I would be interested to know his opinion on the 'big guns' Erdon lee which is from Hainan and A4 seedless which is from Guangdong and is the largest seedless.His opinion on Fai zee siu and the different cultivar numbers of it woul be very interesting also.He may be able to shed some light on Yook ho pow that seemed full of promise.It was supposedly an elite and just disappeared but the fruit I tried were great and very large.
As an aside most lychee specialist here never use the name mauritius insisting that it is standard Tai so.Apparently there are variations of Tai so which are larger,have more chicken tongues or different temperature tolerances.

[fyliu]

Is A4 actually a cultivar name? It seems to me the seller sells 4 types of lychee including kwai mi and no mai chee and the seedless variety is the 4th on his list.

[Mike T]

Fyliu you may be right but the poor translation of the jason nursery site overwhelmes clarity on this and people are calling it A4.To me it appeared that seedless came in 2 forms each with different average weights and flavor descriptions ie seedless and A4 seedless.

[fyliu]

Fyliu you may be right but the poor translation of the jason nursery site overwhelmes clarity on this and people are calling it A4.To me it appeared that seedless came in 2 forms each with different average weights and flavor descriptions ie seedless and A4 seedless.

I think it's fine to use the name to distinguish it from other seedless ones. His English has improves a lot over the last year from westerners pestering him about yumberries and lychee.

He wants to sell more kinds of fruits but he doesn't know what might become popular. What other Chinese fruits are good and not exported yet? I only know of citrus, Chinese gooseberry, loquat, wampe, peach, pear, longan, lychee, yumberry. Most are too common that it's not worth buying from afar.

[bradflorida]

Anyone here getting a Kaimana lychee tree to be productive?  (I already know Harry has one that is productive).


Brad

[HMHausman]

Anyone here getting a Kaimana lychee tree to be productive?  (I already know Harry has one that is productive).

Brad

Except for this year....but that was a general lychee thing, and not peculiar to kaimana.

Harry

[fruitlovers]

Anyone here getting a Kaimana lychee tree to be productive?  (I already know Harry has one that is productive).

Brad

Except for this year....but that was a general lychee thing, and not peculiar to kaimana.

Harry

I remember hearing through the grapevine that Kaimanas don't fruit so well in Florida, but don't know if this is really true?

[fyliu]

I remember hearing through the grapevine that Kaimanas don't fruit so well in Florida, but don't know if this is really true?

A FL university researcher who gave a talk in SD last year said FL produces mostly one type, and a much smaller amount of another. Everything else is insignificant. I can't remember what they were.

[fruitlovers]

I remember hearing through the grapevine that Kaimanas don't fruit so well in Florida, but don't know if this is really true?

A FL university researcher who gave a talk in SD last year said FL produces mostly one type, and a much smaller amount of another. Everything else is insignificant. I can't remember what they were.

I would guess the one main type in Florida to be Mauritius. And much smaller amount of Brewster?

[Tomas]

Hi,

If I could just revive this topic for a little bit. I would like to know which lychee variety has the most complex flavor. I am not so much interested in which one is the sweetest.

Tomas

[Charlie23]

thought sweetheart used to be on everyone's favorite list... guess not anymore?

[Mike T]

Tomas beware the word complexity.It is often used as code for a hydrocarbon taste in mangoes,metallic taint in papayas and sourness in lychees.It should refer to the interplay of pleasant and unique flavors and good acid/sugar balance.Kwai mai pink is a classic for simplicity with a sugar and water flavor profile but a Mauritius (really a form of tai so) has a better acid/sugar balance withslight rosewater and musk overtones (undertones?).

[bradflorida]

To me, Mauritius has a complex flavor.  Nice blend of sweet and acid.

Brad

[bradflorida]

Perhaps noone voted for Sweetheart, because of the questions of its authenticity (i.e. hak ip/sweetheart same thing or not), and perhaps its taste is almost the same as hak ip, that it has been categorized as hak ip in the poll here.

Brad

[bsbullie]

Tomas beware the word complexity.It is often used as code for a hydrocarbon taste in mangoes,metallic taint in papayas and sourness in lychees.It should refer to the interplay of pleasant and unique flavors and good acid/sugar balance.Kwai mai pink is a classic for simplicity with a sugar and water flavor profile but a Mauritius (really a form of tai so) has a better acid/sugar balance withslight rosewater and musk overtones (undertones?).

nuances

[Mike T]

A friend posted this pic on an australian forum of the seedless lychees in the supermarkets in Brisbane.At $4.50lb, they were imported from china as local ones are not commercial yet.The 50c piece is the largest Australian coin being 32mm across (about 1 and 1/3 inches).