My lychee trees latest update

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

These are some pictures of my Lychee Brewster today. I would say more than 75% of fruit dropped because of the

webworm attack. Without the spraying of BT, I think the blooms wouldn't even survive and form fruit. I'm just glad that

some fruit have remained. Maybe I'll have some fruit this season. I'm thankful for my hubby who did all the spraying for weeks. The seeds of Brewster are big, but this variety

seems to produce more fruit than the other varieties I have.

I don't think it's a variety problem as Puglvr's Mauritius is

giving her lots of fruit.

Front of Brewster:

Back of Brewster:

Close up of the Brewster fruit (The fruit are not quite plumb up yet ... maybe in a couple of weeks which is the right harvest time for this variety).

Mauritius:

As for my Mauritius ... this year is the first of the past several that it has attempted to fruit. Most of its blooms dropped off ... again due to web worm attack. The Oak tree which is host to web worm is just on the background. There's scanty fruit left on the top most branches and the tree is about 14 ft tall. My husband asked me how I was going to get to the fruit, I told him he was going to get them ... lol.

Sweetheart:

Sweetheart has only produced a dozen fruit this year, a little more than last year's few. That was an improvement :)

The tree is now between 14-16 ft tall. The fruit is larger than Brewster's. I tried a couple and they were very juicy, sweet and good tasting. The seeds are also small unlike Brewster's large seeds.

I have planted a couple more Brewster as I've heard because of its prolific fruit production, it's the most commercially grown variety. I guess I want to be sure I have some fruit to eat each season ... , but then I may decide to grow another Sweetheart as I really do like the taste a lot better now. I know ... growing lychees is like chasing some dreams or fantasies ... and so is growing most fruit trees ... I guess the challenge makes the fruit tastes sweeter .. lol.

Please do share your experience with your lychee tree growing as well and how you've dealt with their problems. Thanks, Puglvr for your help with my lychee growing. Since last year, I have followed the pruning and feeding cycle. I'll try to prune and feed them on schedule from
now on and see what happens next year and the year after.

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Comments (6)

puglvr1
8 years ago
Hi Banana!! Was out of town for a few days and just saw this...LOVE the pictures and the update!! Looks like you're going to enjoy some lychees this year, congrats!! I picked alll my mauritius before I left so I wouldn't come home to "an empty tree" ,lol...I froze them before I left and will be eating some today...Enjoy!! Great pictures!!
bananafan2
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Thanks Puglvr. I hope you enjoyed your out of town trip. The last time my Brewster had fruit, it was in 2013. I actually kept the fruit for close to 3 weeks in the fridge and they were still ok. But, I'm sure the frozen ones are good too whichever way you prefer to eat them. It's wise of you to get them before the critters beat you to them .. lol.

Today, I tasted some fruit from my potted Mauritius. I can't tell the difference between Mauritius and the Brewster fruit. They're not too sweet and has a tangy taste to them. Both of them have large seeds. I haven't really tasted anything from Hak Ip yet as it has dropped all of its blooms these past years. The Sweetheart fruit is the sweetest and most succulent of all and it has chicken tongue seeds. I'm thinking seriously of getting another one to grow. I have an Emperor in the pot, but it's still very small and somewhat slow growing. I don't know much about it.

As for now, I'm just happy that this year we all got to eat our lychees and for the other lychee growers out there, would love to hear your experience as well.
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Yep, Made it last saturday. Harry definitely has tons of stuff. I got loads of lychees. His big mauritius broke in half during a storm the day before I got there . It was loaded with ripe lychees so I got plenty while I was down. I also saw Harry's massive Jackfruit trees. The blooms definitely don't smell great. I didn't have any luck finding any good mangoes while I was down. I think if I would have waited a few weeks I would have had more luck. I picked up a few Mangosteen from the fortune cookie. I think they may have been a bit past their prime but I have tried them a few times now, and I am thinking mangosteen may not be as good as I had hoped. I probably wouldn't have spent hundreds of dollars on mangosteen trees if I had tasted them first. Harry, what was the name of the guy that you mentioned shipped mangoes? I might like to order a few when they are ready. I grafted a few jackfruit and wax jambus while I was down, and Harry grafted a mango for me since any mango graft done by me is doomed to failure. So far all of the grafts aside from one jackfruit look perfect. The one Jackfruit looks a little iffy. I think water got trapped under the grafting tape during a rainstorm on that one. I am somewhat confident that the others will make it. For plants I grabbed a Muntingia, an atemoya (some crazy name that I can't remember without going outside to read the label), a kaimana airlayer from Harry, and Maha chinook mango from Harry, and a grafted Malay apple from excalibur that I managed to kill within a week due to being stupid. I may replace that in a few weeks if Pine Islands Malays are grafted. I'll probably break down and get a gefner atemoya as well. I should have just bought both when I was down, but for some stupid reason I thought I would be satisfied with just the one. It was a nice trip and the ride did not seem nearly as bad as I was expecting. Sheehan and Harry were both great. I made it home from Harry's in a little over 4 hours. I may be heading down to Miami to drop off a few snakes next month (my other hobby is breeding ball python morphs) so I might have a chance to pick up some mangoes then.
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puglvr1
8 years ago
Hi banana, I am truly enjoying my lychees...I thawed a small bag and have been enjoying them! Freezing them taste very similar to fresh so I am happy about that!

As for Emperor I heard they are slow growing compared to many of the other varieties. Mauritius and Brewster are very similar in taste. The only negative thing I've heard about Sweethearts is the inconsistency and the low production, but maybe it takes at least 10 years before they truly produce. I've heard of people complaining how little fruits they've had on trees planted 8+ years ago. At least with Mauritius and Brewster they seem to produce more often that not and my Mauritius has produced for me the last 3 years since I planted it 4 years ago...that I'm very happy with :o)...

ON a different note, I will be trimming mine on July 15 as per the recommendation of lychees online...just a friendly reminder :o)

Enjoy
Jason S
8 years ago
They look soo good !!! I love Lychee and have one tree in my yard but not fruiting like yours
puglvr1
8 years ago
Hi Jason...enjoy the fruits you have. I too LOVE lychees...still enjoying the ones I froze :o) I hope next year will give me as many.
bananafan2
Original Author
8 years ago
Jason,

I almost lost all of my crop due to web worm attacks. Yes, lychees are my favorite now--although I started liking bananas a lot (hence my name here) :)

How old is your tree and what variety is it? Do you have any pictures to share? If it's a young tree, usually scanty fruit, but as they grow older, they may grow a little more fruit, so you can look forward to it giving you a lot
more ... do keep us updated of its progress.

But, for my case, I have no impressive results from growing Sweetheart (14 fruit for a 16 ft tree), Mauritius (12 fruit from a 16ft tree) and as for my 10 ft
tall Hak Ip, none for several years in a row. But for my Brewster, I'm getting alternate year's harvest (IF they don't get devoured by web worms that is.. lol)
Though I must say having tasted all of the the fruit now, I personally like Sweetheart the best--a lot more flesh and very succulent (with chicken tongue seeds). I actually have begun sprouting all the seeds I have this year.

Puglvr,

I'm glad you're still enjoying your frozen lychees. I will try to keep them as long as I can in the fridge, then I'll freeze some of the up if they begin to look tired. Thanks for the pruning reminder. I'll be clipping their branches off by mid July. I read somewhere that branches more than 1 inch thick should not be clipped off. Otherwise, it may affect their fruit production. Perhaps I was clipping off thicker branches of my Mauritius and Sweetheart in years past. I did remember clipping huge chunks out of them because my space here is quite tight.

Here are some more pictures of my Brewster's harvest:

#1 - Fruit that remained in the mid section of the tree. The others all
dropped off.

#2 - The fruits that were picked a week before June 19 had softer flesh that

stuck to the seeds. These are about the right texture--spongy and not

clinging to the seeds. The size aren't too big--smaller than the

Sweetheart fruit.

# 3 - My bunny checking out the harvest. He was more interested in munching the leaves ... lol.

#4 - I collected them all in a 16-quart container and counted them. Altogether 350 or so .. a little more than the 100-200 fruit I had in 2013. 2014 had only 1 fruit :( ..., but thankful for this year's crop despite the web worms and for my hubby who sprayed BT regularly on it.

My lychee trees latest update

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My lychee trees latest update

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