For the past few years I have been growing a few lychee trees on my property in South Florida. See a picture of one of my lychee trees below.
Young Lychee Tree
As you can see by the picture above, my current lychee tree is very small. It is only about 4 feet tall, but very lush. I purchased this plant from the Pine Island Nursery in Homestead, FL. They have a great assortment of Lychee trees, mango plants, jackfruit trees, dragon fruit trees, jaboticaba plants, etc. They have a great selection of fruit trees except for citrus. Citrus trees in Florida have numerous problems including citrus greening disease, citrus canker and med fly problems (Mediterranean fruit fly). It is best to stay away from growing the citrus trees in South Florida. It is too heartbreaking to watch your citrus trees go to waste and dye when they get a disease like citrus greening.
Lychee trees are best purchased from growers that use air layering. I again recommend the Pine Island nursery for this. I do not recommend lycheesonline.com. I have found their plants substandard and over priced.
Here is an interesting video on air layering if you would like to try it out yourself.
Lychee trees typically flower in the spring. They create beautiful golden flowers. Here is a picture of one of my lychee trees flowering earlier this year.
Lychee Tree Flowering
As you can see from that picture, the flowers look gorgeous. The bees that show up during the flowering of my lychee trees are also fun to watch. Hundreds of them come out of seemingly nowhere.
The young lychee fruit grow fast and are fun to watch on a daily basis. Here is a picture of one of my pieces of lychee fruit.
Fruit drop is a major issue with young lychee trees. I lost all of my fruit this year and only had one piece set. The trees are very susceptible to winds, especially when they are setting fruit. If possible put up blocking around the plant. Springs in South Florida are very windy and are a cause of a lot of fruit drop.
In June when the lychees are ready in South Florida. Make sure you have watered your plant copiously throughout the time of the fruit set until harvesting. The more water the better. This will make your fruit more juicy. The more juicy the lychee fruit the better!
Good luck in growing your lychee plants if you want to give it a try.
2 comments
#1RajeevDecember 17, 2010, 3:37 am
Hi,
I have planted air layered grafted plants six years ago. They have grown quite tall and bushy(about 10 feet tall). Many times a year they give new growth with pink leaves which become green as they mature.
Can you guess when these will start flowering? I have planted mango grafts at the same year, which flower regularly.
I am near Pune -India. Temperature in winter can be 11deg C and 38 deg C in summer.
Rajeev
#2rajivJanuary 25, 2012, 8:28 am
i am growing some litchis in lavasa. results are quite encouraging,tho’ fruiting took over 11 yrs.just send me your email id i’ll send some pics.the trees are totally ‘organic’ without a drop of pesticide.
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