Article from The
Master Gardening Bench, Manatee County Master Gardener Newsletter
by John Dawson
Loving Lychee
Laichi, leechi, litchi; however you want to
pronounce it, if you try one fresh, you will beg for another. The
lychee (Litchi chinensis)
is a pretty subtropical fruit tree for the
home garden which produces abundant beautiful and tasty pink-red fruit.
The lychee or “Lee Chee” (Chinese for “Gift for a
joyful life”) has been continuously cultivated and enjoyed by
Asians as far back as 2000 BC.
The fresh fruit has an inedible
pink-red, roughly-textured rind, while inside is a single seed covered
with a sweet delicate flavored translucent white pulp. The delicate
flavor is lost in canning, drying (a.k.a - lychee nuts) and freezing,
so the fruit is usually enjoyed eaten fresh (a good reason to have your
own tree). Lychee is high in vitamin C, potassium and several other
essential minerals. The fruit will not ripen off the tree, so it must
be picked ripe, when the pulp is at its optimum sweetness (trial and
error tasting). Lychee is considered highly perishable. Left for more
than a couple of days, the peel becomes brown and dry and the delicate
flavor is lost. This perishability makes it difficult to find
fresh lychee in markets.
Florida has been the leading
commercial grower of lychee in the U.S. since 1940, with about 80% of
the crop shipped out-of-state. The majority of lychee found in the U.S.
is imported from Asia. The two main commercial varieties of lychee
trees grown in Florida are the Mauritius and the Brewster. Other
varieties of lychee include the Haak Yip, No Mai Tze, Shan Chi, Sweet
Cliff, Sweet Heart and Emperor.
Lychee trees grow in recurring
flushes of growth followed by periods of dormancy. Depending on the air
temperature and availability of soil nutrients, the dormancy phase of
the growth/dormancy cycle can be manipulated for an almost continuous
growth phase (speeding fruit development). The new growth on a lychee
tree consists of very delicate leaves which emerge as a wine red flush,
becoming darker green as the growth hardens off. These delicate leaves
are susceptible to wind damage (>15mph) and insect pests (moths,
scale, mealy bugs, lychee webworm, citrus root weevil and just
recently, the Sri Lankan weevil). There are no pesticides available for
homeowners to combat weevils. Holding an inverted umbrella under the
tree limbs and shaking the branches vigorously will cause the weevils
to fall in the umbrella where they can be collected and disposed of in
a bucket of soapy water. Mature trees can sustain most insect attacks.
Lychee
trees grow best when protected from prevailing easterly winds and when
heavily mulched (preferably with compost to within six inches of the
trunk) and provided with sufficient fertilizer. Lychee trees in the
home landscape should be planted 25 to 30 feet or more away from
structures and other trees. Trees planted too close to other trees or
structures may not grow normally or produce much fruit due to shading.
Lychee trees grow best in full sun and well-drained soils.
Propagation
from air layering works best and grafting is possible; however,
hybridized lychee trees usually do not come true to form when planted
from seed (may take twenty years to bear fruit). Use the seed to
develop root stock for grafting if you have the urge to plant seed.
Formative
pruning during the first two years is desirable to encourage lateral
branching and growth. After several years of production it is desirable
to cut back the tops of the trees to less than 12 feet. Selectively
removing a few upper limbs back to their origin (crotches) each year
will help prevent the loss of the lower tree canopy due to shading by
the upper canopy. Maintaining a smaller tree makes it easier to harvest
fruit, spraying the tree, and reduce possible storm damage. Pruning
should be carried out immediately after harvest to allow regrowth and
maturating of new shoots and leaves before the onset of winter
temperatures. Severe pruning does not injure lychee trees, but may
reduce fruit production for one to several seasons.
For more detailed information on growing lychee trees, please refer to
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg051.
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Lychee Page
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