WOW what a GREAT looking tree that is.

My Litchi has to be the most difficult to keep looking good of all the trees I have.

Its just about 5ft tall and does have fruit {{gwi:869700}}

Does your tree EVER flower? That would be the first step required to have fruit.

If it flowers and they drop off, that could be nutrient related OR a fungal situation.

I hope these few fruit make it to maturity, I would like to be able to try them and determine if this tree is worthy of staying or not.

Unreal how great your tree looks!

Tony

That is an excellent looking tree, probably cause you didnt fertilize it. My understanding is the Lychee's get root burn easily with granular fertilizers. I have a couple of trees about half the size of yours and they also should be fruiting, but nothing yet this spring. I believe that the trigger for flowering and fruiting is a specific temperature range in the winter and since we had a warm winter in South Florida I think we'll get nothing this year on our small trees, maybe larger trees will bloom, who knows... Notice that the tree with fruit picture is in zone 9 (colder winter)

The grower that I bought my trees from swears by extensive mulching as the only fertilizer these trees need. I'm talking 5-6 inches from drip line to near trunk area, and replenished at least a couple of times per year.

I have the brewster and mauritius varieties. BTW this web site will provide ALL the info about lychee's that you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

http://www.lycheesonline.com/

newbiegardner,

Are these airlayer or grafted trees? Also, they need chilling in order to trigger flowers. Most varieties need between 100 and 200 hours of standard chilling (32° - 45° F). Air-layered or grafted trees begin to bear fruit in 3 to 5 years.

Fertilizer
Young trees (less than 4 years old) should be fertilized with 0.25 to 0.50 lbs (0.11 to 0.22 kg) of a complete fertilizer every 8 weeks. Fertilizer mixtures containing 6 to 8% nitrogen, 2 to 4% available phosphorus, 6 to 8% potash, and 3 to 4% magnesium are satisfactory. Twenty to 50% of the nitrogen should be in organic form.

I saw a map of Florida that showed a very limited sliver of area along the southwest coast where lychee is supposed to thrive. My friends have had a great-looking lychee for years. They live a mile east of 41 and the darn thing only fruited once with an end count of 40 lychees. We bought a house west of 41, two blocks from the water, and the big lychee tree in our yard is packed with fruit, and I've seen two others in the neighborhood that look the same. From what I can gather, the one factor that everyone has in common is that all the trees have been neglected, which leads me to believe that the lychee is finicky and really only does its stuff within a small geographical range.

That being said, I'm sure there are proper ways to force fruiting but I'm clueless about them! I can only share my expertise from the brown thumb of negligent gardening! :)

You might want to look on the ECHO website. They have good info on lychee and they actually talk about "girdling" the tree (a few branches, I guess?) to induce fruiting. Sounds kind of drastic to me, but if you're really desperate it might be worth a try. I've pasted a link to where it talks about girdling (because it's hard to find), but also look on the site under general tropical fruit plant descriptions for lychee and you'll find a lot more info. Their website has tons of good info on unusual tropical edibles. I was at ECHO on Saturday and got some cool things. They have beautiful plants, good prices, and proceeds go to a really good cause.

Here is a link that might be useful: lychee girdling

Many lychee varieties are notoriously difficult to make flower, Mauritius is an exception. Not fertilizing after mid fall will help, along with only very modest watering (or less) during winter. What varieties are yours?

Gary

Newbie,

Wow!! That is an absolutely beautiful Lychee tree. I can't wait to get mine to look like that. I have two but were only planted 12 and 13 months ago. You are obviously doing something very right, the tree is very healthy. What variety is it? Also the tree requires x amount of chilling hours. Might have affected it if your winter was too mild.According to the article below you have to do this no later than July 15, so you still have a few weeks, if you want to try it. Good luck!

Tony, great looking fruits, you are so lucky!! Enjoy them!

Check out the link from lycheesonline.com Great article on tips on getting lychee trees to bloom/fruit

Here is a link that might be useful: Lycheesonline.com (Tips on Getting Fruit)

My big tree 30ft gave fruit four years ago. Afrer that the leaves turned brown on the outer edges and many fell off. This year the leaves look great and no brown on them. It is starting to add new growth. What could I do to get it to fruit again?

Lychee fruit grown from seed take 10-15 years to give fruit.

Only Lychee trees grown from cuttings, or being graphed will give fruit within 3-5 years.

I am hoping that your nurseries did not grew these trees from seeds....

Glacey, here's a link (below) from lycheesonline.com that has tips on how to get Lychee trees to fruit. I've followed this advice for the last 4 years since I've had the tree and its produced 3 years in a row for me (the only time it didn't fruit was the very first year I planted it) which is exactly what I didn't want... since it was too young/small to fruit. Unfortunately, you've passed the July time frame it suggest when best to prune it...but I would not give up...it still might fruit for you. Good Luck!!

http://lycheesonline.com/HowToGetTreeToFruit.cfm

As this post is EXTREMELY old, I'm sure you've already either figured out how to get fruit from your lychee, or else chopped it down in a fit of rage because it never fruited...

But for people with the same problem who are coming to look for the answer in the comments, it looks like your tree is out in the open (which is a bad thing). If it flowers and then the fruit never sets, it's likely because it is too windy for the tree. Lychees are notorious for fruit not setting unless you block almost ALL wind from it. If you look at pictures of lychee farms during fruiting season, every tree is covered in giant tents. You may have to put a similar tent over your tree when the flowers start to come out as well if you want the tree to produce fruit.

Wow, this thread is 11 years ago! My tree is doing very well and fruits every year now, BUT the squirrels and birds eat 90% of it :o(

This was taken in winter when it was blooming...

My tree is about 4 years old. I kept it really small. Fruited last year but our guest took almost all of them home :( It flowered last year and the year before, profusely, but we got strong wind from the hurricane/storm so the post above explained why we got exactly one fruit last year. Also, this year our mango trees are growing bigger so the lychee get more protection from the wind and sun, and better micro-climate. In last years, they needed frequent watering and fertilizing but this year I noticed a marked difference; less water and no fertilizing. I have sweetheart variety and Mauritius but only sweetheart flowers. Mauritius is only 2 years old.

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