It's been a while since I've logged on as adirondackgardener. Anyway, I'm now adirondackgardener twice removed since I moved again. Never did get the composting venture off the ground (or on the ground, really) since I moved away from my source of mountains of cardboard. Now I'm using a lot of the cardboard I do get under mulch for starting beds in the new market garden and in the winter, I incorporate large pieces into compost piles, folding it into the yards of horse manure I have trucked in. I'm not worrying about shredding it since speed isn't the driving factor now. I'm back to making worm castings in 55 gallon plastic drums cut in half in the basement. Those are primarily filled with the pre-composted cardboard and horse manure. Still would be nice to have a simple, inexpensive tool to do small amounts of shredding.

I'm no expert, but I'd wait. I read somewhere that you should try to get fall-planted plants into the ground before all the leaves were off the trees, and here, we're close to that. You're 1 zone colder than me, so you must be even colder. If you had no choice, I'd say you could take a chance, but if you can wait, I think I would. I'm sorry about your mother.

LOL, well I am glad to know I am not alone guys. I like the cloths line idea... I'm thinking mine might also make a good place to put items that I am spray painting. If I don't dismantle this thing right away I will take Bill's advice and at least give it a hard prune to see if it has a change of heart. Brad's "too big to ship" prices are really not bad. Especially compared to Exotic Plumeria. I do want to check them out. We are having a large festival here this weekend called the Green Thumb Festival. Lots of different growers selling anything/everything you can imagine. Maybe I will find something here.

Hey tagtail, I've checked out a lot of the nurseries down here in SoCal and asked them for opinions on growing lychees but none of them had any good specific information. Many of the nurseries still carry only Brewster and Mauritius and when I asked them why they didn't carry more varieties, they said its because the other varieties don't grow and fruit down here. I'm very surprised that so many of the nurseries are so misinformed. If you give your tree the proper growing conditions, it should do really well here in SoCal. Some varieties do need more/less chill hours to fruit well but varieties like Brewster, Mauritius, Hak Ip and Sweetheart just to name a few should fruit pretty profusely here. Much of the information out on the internet is also not very specific to each specific Lychee cultivar and the information out there seems to be very dated. The information regarding gradually increasing watering of lychees during fruiting was obtained from the "CRFG Lychee Fruit Facts" section on irrigation which says that "Too much water during early fruit-set can cause fruit drop". This information is questionable but I bring it up in case there is merit. Hmhausman has good evidence to the contrary but we have to take into account all the information that we have available when comparing growing condition. Hmhausman's conditions are different than ours because his plants have access to the water table where they have a good steady supply of water for growth and fruit developement. Here in SoCal, at least where I am, my tree's have no access to the water table and depend mainly on irrigation for the majority of their water needs. Because we have to irrigate, it is much more difficult for us to know exactly how much water to give it especially during fruit developement. Because we are in a drought and I like to conserve water, I try to give my plants the minimum amount of water for them to perform at their maximum level so the theory of gradually increasing water during fruit developement fits perfectly into my model. With your tree being about 10 years old, I would definitely expect you to harvest much more than 200 fruits for the last several years but of course this will also depend on how large your tree is. Is your tree in full sun? I think giving your tree some organic mulch or any well composted plant material and innoculating it with mycohrizzal fungi and worms will increase your yields in the long run but if you did it today, you won't see immediate results, it can take a year or two for the mycorhizal fungi to really get established. Giving your tree some Kelp/fish emulsion after flowering has fully commenced will keep your tree and the beneficial organisms in your soil very happy. You have to be very careful though because if you give it any nitrogen before flowering is expected, it may promote vegetative growth and inhibit flowering. For the rest of the year, small applications of organic P-K fertilizers may help with fruit developement and flowering for next year. If you have very small blooms, you may want to try drought stressing yor lychee 1-2 months before your lychees are expected to flower.