Lycheelova,
That looks great! Where did you buy your lights? I am looking at some from Charlie's Greenhouse, but I am wondering if there are better options. right now I have my tropicals in a bedroom on aplant table with flouresecnt lights. They are just plain ol fourescent bulbs and so far so good. My keylime is blooming and so is my Cogshall mango. Have you tasted the Fairchild mango? I am going to buy to more mangoes this coming week. I am hoping to get light system for christmas that I am going to install in the basement. Your trees look great good luck!
Andrew

Very nice Ger...just don't forget to water this year! LOL!

Nice setup, LL.

My Sweetheart is also having a growth flush right now, the biggest one I've ever seen by far. I had to pinch some of them back, the damn thing is getting too tall! Probably at precisely the wrong time to get a good bloom, eh?

SB- fraid i dont know whether a green flush now prevents a bloom in the spring. certainly be sure to make sure that the tree gets sufficient chill hours.

j- plants need water during the winter?

andrew- dont recall where i bought the big light- i just looked for the cheapest online source. bought the led light form ebay.

lycheeluva,
Very nice setup. Hopefully the feds dont raid your garage thinking youre growing something else.

Stressbaby:
Yes, you are probably right....the new vegetative flushes will not likely bloom this season. But...that isn't a for sure.....reason I say that is that you are growing where you can control the chilling. Ordinarily, lychees bloom when the new growth times with the previous onset of cooler dryer weather. You can control the coolness and can still perhaps harden off this new growth in time to get another flush...this time with blooms. Its a long shot...but I wouldn't give up hope. Sometimes, poorly timed vegetative flushes turn to bloom from the side buds that are produced in the axils of the new flush. I have seen that quite often here in Florida. If you are not that hopeful, and you don't mind risking some of the new gained height, you could cut the new flush off completely and then, in about 30-60 days you would have a better chance at having terminal bud bloom with the new growth. I prefer to let nature take its course....but that is just me. Good luck with it in any case.

What about the floor? Up here my garage floor is ice cold in the late fall/winter/early spring months... Do you have them up off the ground or on some pink foam or something? Nice looking plants!

thanks for posting LL,
what a beauty of a set up. It is nice to see posts like this so I can prove to my wife I'm not completely crazy (granted I dont live in z6/7).

-Ethan

Sorry Ethan...this only confirms that you are indeed as crazy as the rest of us!

Frank- my trees are all in large pots which are placed on large garbage can covers to catch water drainage to stop the water getting all over the other stuff I have in the garage.

I have a pretty powerful heater in the garage connected to my natural gas line, but i keep the heater on its lowest setting due to the crazy cost of heating the garage. just enough to keep the garage at above 40-50 at night, and 50-60 during the day.

J is more hardcore than me overall, but when it comes to lychees, i am definitly the craziest. I am known to wake up in the middle of the night and search for utube vids on lychees. when my wife wakes and "catchs" me ogling lychees in the middle of the night, she doesnt know whether to be relieved i am not looking at women, or nervious that im starting early dementia.

LL, that is a GREAT SET-UP!! Looks like the trees are really enjoying it too!

You guys are too funny with your wife comments. For me, just the opposite. My husband thinks I'm the one with the tropical tree obsession , especially when we have freeze warnings and I have to drag out the Solar blankets, extension cords, Christmas lights, rope,etc. Of course, he wouldn't mind it so much except he always gets dragged into it, whether he likes it or not,lol...And that's not even mentioning what my neighbors thinks. I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world...except maybe change him to like growing trees as much as me. Then we can both be nuts together!

I see you are using metal halide lights. I will be getting a florescent grow light to use for my Meyer Lemon and Lychee. There are two different bulbs for complete spectrum. I mainly want to use the grow light for vegetable seeds.The strong sun in the north window is making the Lychee and Lemon grow now. A guy down my block raises tropicals at his house. Do any of your Tropicals give a nice fragrance. Having potted figs by my front door I noticed a nice fig aroma.
Tropicals take the blues away from 5 months fruit tree and garden dormancy.

Grover- happy to hear the lychee is doing well, though its a seedling so will unlikely amount to anything. You should def pick a mauritius lychee plant from jenes tropicals. when the citrus are in bloom, they are incredibly fragrant (kind of like gardenia smell). when the mango was in bloom, it gave off an unpleasant rotting odor. the lychees are pretty odorless though the fresh fruit are incredibly fragrant. cant wait to take you to try some at the end of may. am counting down the days.

Wow, thats dedication! Man, all your plants seem to be thriving. I bet you can't wait until winter is over and you can move them all outdoors. Keep us updated!

Simon- unfortunately, winter has barely began.

May seems early for fruit. I guess you want to get the first Lychees of the season right? I'll go in to Chinatown for a rare treat. Keep me updated when the shipment arrives. I been thinking maybe my Kiwi will fruit next summer. The vine has become a monster, it reaches out and grabs anything.

"I guess you want to get the first Lychees of the season right?"

yes, but more to the point, the first variety of lychee to ripen, mauritius, is also the best variety. its a very short season- about 3 weeks- usually, the last week in may to mid june. then the brewsters come in for another couple of weeks. during mauritius season, i eat about 7-10 lbs of lychees a day. no exageration.

"i eat about 7-10 lbs of lychees a day. no exageration."

I estimate that to be like a supermarket grocery bag full?
I vaguely recall a story of caravans to supply Chinese royalty with Lychees. But are they better than a peach?

yes about a shopping bag full. you know that peach i was raving about, m lychees are in my opinion about 25 times better.

That is a very cool setup. Wonder where is Northtreeman and his lychee trees. Sometime i think we are just so crazy with tropical fruit trees. I would try to pollinate the dragon fruit at 4 am in the morning with my flashlight...lol. Yes, I dragged my husband with me so he can hold the light. One time i even told him to go out there to pollinate it for me since I went on a business trip...lol. Just so crazy...heheheh

The set-up is really cool and it seems you take much care of it...afterall these things are done for eating good fruits..i really liked your set up..very much even i will try this..

Lycheelova,
I have been looking for your 800w mh and I can't find it. Is it comparable too the halides or is it better. I am just wondering because I have supplemental lighting on my christmas list this year and i would like your light. I found the other light on ebay. Do you know the company that manufactures your light? Right now I am just using flourescent shop lights. My mango flowers are falling off now but I have 3 small fruits. My keylime is all budded up but most of the buds are dropping. I think my keylime needs more humidity.
Andrew