Lychee in hot equatorial climate

[booeyschewy]

Anyone have experience fruiting lychee where temps don’t dip below 18c essentially ever? Any varieties?

[Finca La Isla]

We have some lychee trees that occasionally produce. They’re seedlings from a tree planted long ago in this province at an area slightly higher elevation than our own. Low temps here don’t go below about 21. It’s really not worth it.
We grow a longan, Diamond river that does very well.
Peter

[booeyschewy]

We grow rambutan commercially and I greatly prefer it to longan. I’m trying to get pulasan going but it’s very sensitive as saplings and it’s hard to get seeds or saplings here. We just love lychee. I guess I’ll skip it then. We already have one tree not producing.

[Finca La Isla]

There are so many great equatorial fruits. Pulusan grows well for us as well as rambutan. Lychee is nice but I would concentrate on the many fruits that are easy to grow where you are. They are the envy of those who can’t grow them.
Peter

[Lumi-Ukko]

Agreed on Lychee. I have two trees and it's a constant battle keeping them happy here in Merida Yucatan. They've never flowered at all, so I look at them as ornamentals with the hope of one day seeing a fruit.

For reference, we get down on rare occasions to 14c at night on the coldest nights, but they are one or two occasions a year. Most often, our night temperature in January is about 17-18c and  daytime high of 29-30c. May, our hottest month can have nights in the low 30s celsius and as high as 45c in the day. Just too extreme for lychee. Pulasan and Longan trees are still young but seem to be much happier with our climate.

[happyhana]

Have any of you tried pruning to encourage bud formation during coolest temps?

[TropicalFruitHunters]

People in the Bangkok area have same issue.  There are some lychee varieties that do better in these climates.  The following was pulled from an agricultural paper.  We've had more than a few discussions concerning this topic, so you might want to do a search...ya might find some more info on this.

Lychee cultivars growing in Thailand can be divided into 2 groups based on their cool temperature requirements. 

(i) Moderately low temperature cultivars: Cultivars in this group normally possess Thai names and are grown mainly in the lowland and the central area (including eastern and western regions). Adaptability of these cultivars to the local climate is probably the main season. More than 10 cultivars have been recorded but the most famous one is the ‘Kom’ (dwarf) cultivar due to its compact canopy size. Other cultivars of less importance are Kra-lok Bai-Yaw, Sampao Kaew, Sa-rack Tong, Jean, Jean Yak, Tai, Tai Yai, Chor Rakum, Kiew Waan, Dang Payom, Kratone Tong Pra-rong and Kra-lok Bai Dum. Recently, ‘Pantip’ lychee variety emerged and is grown mainly in Kanchanaburi province.

(ii) Low temperature cultivars: There are a few cultivars in this group which are grown mainly in the north. The lowest temperature requirement belongs to ‘Hong Huay’, which contributes more than two-thirds of the whole group. This is followed by Chakrapad, Kim Cheng, O-Hia and a few other less important cultivars. Chakrapad usually fetches the highest price due to its larger fruit size.

[booeyschewy]

That’s what I’ve seen here but I remain skeptical. Brazilians advertise Bengal and a Hawaiian variety Kaimana as producing in higher temps?

With pulasan I’m struggling both planting them and in the nursery. When humidity hits maybe 60%ish and it doesn’t rain the leaves dry out and it killed two plants so far. We have no dry season here and the longest it’ll go without rain is max 2 weeks so I’m a bit shocked. I haven’t met anyone growing them in the true tropics in Brazil but subtropic people use humidity domes. Every other Indonesian plant here thrives clove, nutmeg, casturi, all the artocarpus etc

[TropicalFruitHunters]

I'm betting even with a variety such as Kom lychee, it probably won't be as productive.  It certainly doesn't taste as good as the main ones.

I'd love to have humidity in the 60's.  Many times here in the Bangkok area, humidity will be in the 20's during out drought season.  The pulasan take a beating, but I've kept them going thru this period with daily watering and shade cloth.  I'm hoping if they ever reach maturity, they won't be quite as finnicky. 

[booeyschewy]

Oh yeah it’s bonkers. I can’t imagine the native range is much better. We have more consistent rain than the Amazon! Our pulasan is in a professional nursery with 50% shade cloth and I water twice daily. I might install misters even. I put it next to other taller saplings to shade it more. Rambutan on the other hand grows like a weed and survives without any water or attention.

[Finca La Isla]

Pulusan is more delicate than rambutan, grows slower and yields less. But it’s worth growing. I am surprised you’re having so much problem with it. We air layer pulusan and it grows fine. There’s other stuff that, for me, are slower and more difficult. My weather is something like what you have in Bahia I think. We are a cacao growing area as well.
Peter

[cassowary]

We have not had any sucess at all, when we got our place we had about 6 huge lychee trees, girth more then 1.2m. I have gotten 2 fruits from them in 7 years.
Nothing I did made it better, pruning, minerals, irrigation etc.
None of our small ones are mature yet. Have a few Erdon Lee seedlings that I am trialing.
I only know of one prolific lychee tree in the area, but it is in mossman where it is a bit coler then here.
Most lychee trees in the area are fruitless most years, it's even a struggle up in the high land here. They are more prolific 28 degrees of the equator, like NSW.

As others have mentioned there are more superior Sapindace fruits for your climate.

Booey, I agree with you, Rambutan is like a wed compared to Pulasan!!

[Galatians522]

That’s what I’ve seen here but I remain skeptical. Brazilians advertise Bengal and a Hawaiian variety Kaimana as producing in higher temps?

With pulasan I’m struggling both planting them and in the nursery. When humidity hits maybe 60%ish and it doesn’t rain the leaves dry out and it killed two plants so far. We have no dry season here and the longest it’ll go without rain is max 2 weeks so I’m a bit shocked. I haven’t met anyone growing them in the true tropics in Brazil but subtropic people use humidity domes. Every other Indonesian plant here thrives clove, nutmeg, casturi, all the artocarpus etc

I have not noticed either of those having a lower cold requirement here in Florida. Sounds like you have a lot of rain. Cool and dry is better for flower induction. Dry places like Israel can fruit even the high cold need varieties (like No Mai Chee) regularly with no issue. I am thinking that you will even have trouble with low cold need varieties if you have regular winter rains.

[Finca La Isla]

Florida gets a lot colder than the places we are talking about.  The lowest low here is about 73f. South Florida gets way colder.  Whitman was struggling with cold in North Beach to be able to grow equatorial zone fruits that grow well for all of us.  Why do you think you can’t grow durian in Florida?  It’s too cold.  Great for lychee and longan.
Peter

[Galatians522]

Florida gets a lot colder than the places we are talking about.  The lowest low here is about 73f. South Florida gets way colder.  Whitman was struggling with cold in North Beach to be able to grow equatorial zone fruits that grow well for all of us.  Why do you think you can’t grow durian in Florida?  It’s too cold.  Great for lychee and longan.
Peter

With a low of 73 I am shocked that any lychee fruits ever. I am certain that is not enough to trigger Kiamana or Bengal.

[Finca La Isla]

It’s very rare that they fruit and not really worth it. I mentioned the temperature because you seemed to think it had to do with rainfall. In our climate it never gets as hot as in Florida either since days in the summer are much shorter than further north. The temperature might range from 75-86 or so.
Peter

[Gone tropo]

Pulasan seems to grow fine here I have only two trees and they have never had shade cloth or any irrigation whatsoever other than when they were newly planted to get them established. They are both seedlings one flowered already at 3.5 years old unfortunately looks like male, the other is yet to flower they are 4 years old. 

Like others have said ramutan are at least twice as vigorous and are amongst the toughest trees in my yard, many of them get flooded regularly disappearing completely underwater and doesnt faze them.

I have two lychee trees in my yard both too young to fruit however lychee are generally a disgrace here producing fruit maybe every 3 years if your lucky, because they are such an excellent fruit i had to plant two trees anyway just for that once every 3-5 year chance of a crop.

[Galatians522]

It’s very rare that they fruit and not really worth it. I mentioned the temperature because you seemed to think it had to do with rainfall. In our climate it never gets as hot as in Florida either since days in the summer are much shorter than further north. The temperature might range from 75-86 or so.
Peter

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking that he was saying people near him were getting Kiamana and Bengal to fruit eratically. I don't view either of those as "tropical" varieties from personal experience. Tai So (Mauritius) has actually been more consistent in our grove. Unfortunately, the Thai "tropical" lychees are not available in Florida. So, I have no personal experience with them. The articles I have read say that even they need weather in the low 60s to bloom.

Since we always get sufficient cold to encourage lychee bloom here in central Florida, the timing of rain and cold become the primary factors. We only get eratic bloom if the weather has been rainy into the late fall/winter. On the other hand, dry weather lets the tree rest between flushes, promoting the production of plant hormones that contribute to a good bloom.