tips for growing litchee ???

[VINS]

hy everybody

a few month ago i success in germinating some litchee seeds. at the begining the plantlet had a real vigor and made a few leaves.(i have the impression that this vigor was from the seed reserve of energy)

now the plantlet is living just because of it's roots and no more because of the energy in the seed. and as result, the growing stoped or is very slow .

do you know how i must take care of them to force them growing again ?

[VINS]

ok, i have just found a really interested link about thisplant, the culture, the fertilizer and thedifference between cultivars..

unfortunatly it is too rich and cryptic for me

is there a friendly member with time to spare who would agree to resume this for me ? please

i am planning to grow this plant in a sandy soil near the sea, this is maybe of importance regarding the number of strain variation .

thanks a lot

[VINS]

here is the link

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/....html#Varieties

[VINS]

please, could you help me with this translation ?

[planthelper]

sorry vincent it's to long for me!

and i, answered often to you before about litchi.

aren't ther translator programms?

[smogs]

here is googles attempt to translate it... i cant read write or speak any french so i dont know how good a job it is

hope it helps!

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hort.purdue.edu%2Fnewcrop%2Fmorton%2Flychee.html%23Varieties&langpair=en%7Cfr&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s://http://translate.google.com/transla...language_tool s

[VINS]

planthelper, yeah, you often helped me with lichee in the past but are you trying to find an excuse to your lazyness :D (no matter anyway)

smog, the google tool was my first idea but like you could see on the link you post, it only translate the begining of the text and stop where it become interesting for me....(he translate the common description but not the description of the different cultivar, soil etc )

anyway i understand that my question was not well understood. i don't want a english to french translation. i just asked you all to read this text and to give me in simple english the main instruction for successing in my lychee experiment. as exemple i see that they described all the difference between cultivars and i wonder which to choose for a location under sea condition (sandy soil, -4°c in the winter, salts wind, etc )

so thank again for your imput....and future imput

[ 05. April 2004, 08:13: Message edited by: VIN'S ]

[minotaur]

In the article you linked to it says

Lychees do not reproduce faithfully from seed, and the choicest have abortive, not viable, seed. Furthermore, lychee seeds remain viable only 4 to 5 days, and seedling trees will not bear until they are 5 to 12, or even 25, years old. For these reasons, seeds are planted mostly for selection and breeding purposes or for rootstock.

So growing a Lychee plant from seed is difficult at best, and if they don't reproduce faithfully from seed the offspring will not necessarily have the characteristics of the parent plant.

Apparently, from the article, most Lychees are propogated by layering - producing cloned copies of the parent plant.

Some more cultivation info from the article that you would find relevant.

The Chinese claim that the lychee is highly variable under different cultural and soil conditions.....There is much variation in form (round, egg-shaped or heart-shaped), skin color and texture, the fragrance and flavor and even the color, of the flesh; and the amount of "rag" in the seed cavity; and, of prime importance, the size and form of the seed.

The more hardy mountainous types of the lychee are very sour and those grown near salt water are said to be likewise. The lychee thrives best on the lower plains where the summer months are hot and wet and the winter months are dry and cool.

Heavy frosts will kill young trees but mature trees can withstand light frosts. Cold tolerance of the lychee is intermediate between that of the sweet orange on one hand and mango and avocado on the other. Location, land slope, and proximity to bodies of water can make a great difference in degree of damage by freezing weather

Heavy rain or fog during the flowering period is detrimental, as are hot, dry, strong winds which cause shedding of flowers, also splitting of the fruit skin. Splitting occurs, too, during spells of alternating rain and hot, dry periods

The lychee grows well on a wide range of soils. In China it is cultivated in sandy or clayey loam, "river mud", moist sandy clay, and even heavy clay. The pH should be between 6 and 7. If the soil is deficient in lime, this must be added. However, in an early experiment in a greenhouse in Washington, D.C., seedlings planted in acid soil showed superior growth and the roots had many nodules filled with mycorrhizal fungi. This caused some to speculate that inoculation might be desirable. Later, in Florida, profuse nodulation was observed on roots of lychee seedlings that had not been inoculated but merely grown in pots of sphagnum moss and given a well-balanced nutrient solution

The Chinese often plant the lychee on the banks of ponds and streams. In low, wet land, they dig ditches 10 to 15 ft (3-4.5 m) wide and 30 to 40 ft (9-12 m) apart, using the excavated soil to form raised beds on which they plant lychee trees, so that they have perfect drainage but the soil is always moist. Though the lychee has a high water requirement, it cannot stand water-logging. The water table should be at least 4 to 6 ft (1.2-1.8 m) below the surface and the underground water should be moving inasmuch as stagnant water induces root rot. The lychee can stand occasionally brief flooding better than citrus. It will not thrive under saline conditions.

From the article it looks like growing a Lychee plant near the sea is not a good idea - salt water & strong winds. Good growing conditions seem to be important for producing good quality fruit. Most of the varieties mentioned in the article are commonly grown in tropical & sub-tropical regions, so it is hard to say which would be the best for you to grow. The variety 'No Mai' is described as being better adapted to cooler areas.

[VINS]

really thank you for this selection of info !

could you give me the name of the moutain cultivar since it seems the best to grow under poor condition ?

could you also help me to see clear on that :

they talk about "lime" and if i translate that i find "green citrus" or "chaux" as result.

for me citrus mean acidic but chaux mean the opposite. so which ph are they talking about ?

i am also wondering where to find the good cultivar ? after a long search, i only found 2 french nursery who are selling lychee and it is always the mauritius variation.

i guess that the better solution would be to find a healthy tree growing under sea condition and to ask the owner for cutting/air-layering. does someone know who i can ask for that ?

thank for your help everybody........essential as always

[planthelper]

vin's, it will be very tricky for you, to grow this tree in france, because its even hard to grow this one, in the semi tropics at time's, especially in pots. some cultivars are very hard to obtain. i like that idea with the mountain cultivar. airlayering them is easy.

good luck, would be sooo cool, to haverst your own homegrown litchee's in france.

btw, vin's i think we both know, what makes us lazy :D .

[ 05. April 2004, 10:50: Message edited by: planthelper ]

[Owtovit]

Hi VIN'S

I think the lime in the article means garden lime or calcium carbonate.

It's used to increase pH and add calcium to the soil.

Good luck with the lychees

[planthelper]

that litchi chinensis seedlings go dormant, is well documented... and happend to me allways...

but i managed to grow a seedling of euphoria longan, from the same family!!

china man say's, logans are nicer and can take more frost!! :cool:

garcinia mangostana, is a plant that, grows true to type, meaning a 99% copy of the fruit you have eaten!!

mangostan trees grow well in hothouses and set fruit after 15 years. most attemps to clone this plant have failed worlwide, we call it,

the queen of fruits.

[Rev]

The no viable seed thing refers to the lychee cultivars that produce fruits with a shrivelled unviable seed in a amjority of their fruits. The term is dragons eyes and they are highly regarded as you get more flesh for your weight.

-4 does seem quite cold. -1 to -2 might make it depends on whether you can keep frost off and if the days are warm. I think you have set a very hard task but not impossible. i lived in SW Australia and grew lychees from seed, and kept them alive easily for several years. If i knew more they would still be there. And its warmer in perth but theres a nuclear physicist there who grows mangoes and lychees in his yard and has tested many varieties in the meditteranean cliamate.

maybe you will still have better luck with the longan. If you dont get that there you will have to get seed from one of us in season. Cultivars are expensive and you can graft on later. I would practice with seedlings before investing in grafted trees.

either way you will probably need to keep it in a pot for at least 2 years till its big enough and then construct a special cloche to protect it. It will always need protection from the environment and disease as it is on the outmost margins of tolerance. Think about planting or building structures no that trap and radiate the heat from the south, shield from wind and raise humidity. The soil should be rich and moist but well draining

Lychee and longan seed comes up easily if you pay it no attention. Like any fruit seed just put them in a pot and forget about them for a month or two and heaps come up.

Problems is that they may tke 15 to 20 years to set seed. I stress MAY, prob wont take tht long

[mescalito]

Originally posted by reville:

"theres a nuclear physicist there who grows mangoes and lychees in his yard and has tested many varieties in the meditteranean cliamate."

....umm hello??!!

[VINS]

Reville, thanks for the infos (could you details what you mean by "heat trap being worst than a homemade structure" ?)

i also will try longon seedling with the hope to graft a lychee on it after.

that's strange, here lychee are available everywhere during all the year (mauritius and indian)but i never find longan. so i would be pleased to receved some from one of you, the only problem is shipping (they dry quickly after comsumption of the fruit and the fruits himself doesn't resist to the mail system and fungus destruct the seeds (i already test it with one of you guys )

Mescalito : do you mean you are this man ? what could you advice me about them and your experiments under mediterranneen climate ?

[ 08. April 2004, 04:27: Message edited by: VIN'S ]

[mescalito]

Hehe!

Mate if I was a Nuclear Physicist,I wouldn't be growing them in a pot :D

[VINS]

[Rev]

:D

ok i dug up the article (from days i used to keep a scrapbook of all such things - that was before i had women in my life )

approximate date published was January 1997

in the West australian, Perth

Ok Dr Seujit dey is his name and he has grown lychees and mangos in perth for (now) 18 years

He feels they grow well enough to warrant commercial growing (he he no fruitbats :D )

he says the main thing is choosing varieties (mangoes) flower too early. he recomneds october/november (sthn hemisphere) flowering varieties.

For mangoes he recommends Kensington pride, Irwin and R2E2

He states that teh 3 1/2 month cold spell cause dormancy in the plant and alows it to accumulate sugars that result in larger and better tasting fruit than in warmer climes

on lychees

also problems with early flowering varieties

best varieties are Kwai may Pink, No mai chee, Fay Zee siu (rare) and Haak yip

re suntraps

i noticed my typo error

I mean you should shiled them from cold winds in winter and place them so they have a south facing wall behind to trap daytime heat which is released at night and increases local temperature by just a few degrees.

Lychees dont mind cool conditions, they need it to set fruit, but i think you are borderline cold

have you got any plans for mangoes? Any one of us could easily send you a bowen seed which grows true with up to 8 seedlings from one seed

:D hahah maybe you can resell for $$$ in france to the special nurseries :D

[Rev]

A little on Tropical fruits in Perth

http://aoi.com.au/acotanc/Papers/Passmore-...thor-n-Text.htm

Now... if you can find somene growing mangoes and lychees in Adelaide then you are definietly on the right track.

[VINS]

it's short on lychee, and he said it is the most difficult fruit tree to grow !

(but i din't said my last word... )

what means "bowen seed" ? and yes, i would be pleased to receved a seed of the appropriate strain of mango to try growing it. (exept if it is the same than what i could find in the fruit at the supermarket)

and Reville, if one of us is able to find something in adelaide, it is surely you :D i have great eyes but ..... :D :D

[ 11. April 2004, 00:56: Message edited by: VIN'S ]