It bloomed in 2009, but I never got the fruit from it ....

Another picture of it in November 2009 (just before the freeze of 2010)

After the 2010 freeze: I tried protecting it with a tent and light bulbs, but it still sustained a lot of damage. I had to cut it down from its original height of 8-10 to 2-3 ft to where the undamaged bottom branches were. Still I was happy it survived.

This picture was taken today ... with some blooms on the top branches--not a very good picture as it's hard to get a good view of it since it has grown so tall. It must have been about 15 ft or so now. I have trimmed it back a lot, but all these years it just wanted to grow more branches and become very bushy. I have been feeding it every month with fish emulsion after trimming in on July 15 as suggested by Puglvr. I think the trimming and feeding might have made the difference for the bloom this year, so thanks Puglvr for the tips. I've also done the same thing to all my Hak Ip which is about 8 ft tall and Sweetheart which is about 15 ft tall. Both of them aren't in bloom yet. We'll see how things go, but as far as my Brewster and Mauritius, I'm happy to see them blooming now.

I do look forward to hearing from some of you lychee growers to see how your lychees are doing.

VERY NICE banana!! Congrats! Your tree looks truly happy and healthy...my Mauritius is blooming too...hope its a great year for both of us!!

Your tree has endured a lot, very similar to what happened to my Mangoes in 2010...Brutal winter!! Here's to NO freeze this year :o)

Thanks for the pictures!

Puglvr,

Would love to see pictures of your Mauritius blooms if you have some to post. I've always enjoyed looking at how healthy your plants are.

By the way my Sweetheart is also sending out some blooms. I don't see a lot of them yet, hopefully more will show up soon.

Love the pictures! Your Mauritius is stunning!

Thanks, Emmy. I hope its fruit will go well this year ... keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks Banana, here's a couple of pictures of my Mauritius...now to keep the worst of winter weather at bay so we can enjoy some this year (and then we worry about the critters too,lol...)

Cogshall Mango blooming on the left...

Close up of some of the blooms.

Puglvr,

Beautiful pictures of both your mango and Lychee Mauritius blooming. I'm glad your little Hak Ip is also blooming. How old is it now?

By the way, do you treat your mangoes the same way like your lychees (the pruning and feeding)? I try to feed one of my mangoes monthly with a light dose of fish emulsion and it seems to be blooming a lot more than the others. Also, do you stop feeding them once they start blooming?

Look forward to more pictures as your blooms develop. I'll try to post mine when there's more growth on them. Yes, we all need to watch out for different things ... In my case, the web worms and of course those yard "robbers" as well .... lol

Hi banana, I purchased my potted Hak ip on March 13, 2013...its almost 2 years old. It didn't bloom last year so I'm really hoping to taste at least one this year :o)

I did fertilize my mango trees with a small amount of 0-0-50 something I've read online and was recommended by some on another fruit forum. something that has no nitrogen...I just sprinkled it lightly around the drip line...I did not do it to the Lychee trees though, just the mangos.

I also water my Lychee trees a lot more than my mango trees...lychees seems to love water and I don't want the blooms to dry up so when we do not get rain...I try to water the Mauritius every 7-10 days and my potted one gets watered every other day or so...my established/matured mangoes does not get any supplemental water whatever rain and sprinkler it gets is all the water it receives...

I'm noticing some powdery mildew on some of my Mango blooms :o(...we've had rain and very humid weather off and on and I know this is not good for the blooms...I just hope I get some mangos this year...

As far as Fish emulsion...I love that fertilizer!! I'm sure it is just fine for your trees.

This post was edited by puglvr1 on Thu, Feb 5, 15 at 8:04

Puglvr,

Sorry your mango has some powdery mild dew. Is there anything you can do to clean it off the plant? As for my mangoes, they seem to have contracted anthracnose. I try spraying them with Neem oil. It looks like it wants to spread from one plant to another.

As for fertilizers, yes I do like the fish emulsion and I'm also using the compost plus and Mineral treatment. Lately, I've also used epsom salt as some of the leaves of my fruit trees look kind of yellowish green. So, hopefully it will be ok for them.

I'm kind of lost here now in this forum. Everything's so strangely set up. I like the old Gardenweb better. I'm not a computer savvy person here find it hard to navigate around all these new technological changes. Hopefully everything will settle down soon.

I'll post more pictures when the lychees have grown. Meanwhile, I just harvested a bunch of bananas from my Raja Puri. I'm surprised how it can take the cold nights here.

Anybody knows how I can get rid of the icon box with the message "Please confirm your email. Check your inbox for our message. Can't find it?
click here." I've done it several times and the message still displays across my computer screen. I'd appreciate your help--thanks.

Hi Banana, like you I'm not sure I like this new format...I'm sure like anything new it does take getting use to. I too like the "old" GW better because I know what I'm doing,lol...

BTW, there's a freeze warning for us on Friday morning!! Calling for upper 20's...I'm sure most of my blooms will be damaged/killed. I just hope the trees survive!! All of them except 2 are too large to protect/cover, so they will be on their own this year. The blooms on my Mauritius has already been nipped by frost from a few days ago **sigh** so looks like no lychees from that tree...I will bring my potted one inside maybe I'll get a couple of fruits from that?

I did spray the mango trees that had powdery mildew but it might be too little too late...but with the freeze coming it won't matter anyways :o(

Good luck to us both...

Puglvr,

Thanks for your heads up on the weather report. Oh no .... I don't want
our plants to die .... There was this article that says that

"Tampa Bay area in its fifth winter without a freeze" on this link

http://tbo.com/list/weather-news/tampa-bay-area-in-its-fifth-winter-without-a-freeze-20150208/?page=1

But, of course, that was on Feb 8. So, where was your latest report found in? I checked Yahoo weather, so far and haven't found anything there that indicated a freeze. yet If the freeze going to come, I'll do whatever
I can to save those fruiting lychees. I don't know if it will work ... it's not easy.
Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the freeze will change its mind to not come this way.

Are you going to offer your plants some protections? Will putting up some tents with light bulbs up help?

Hi banana, I went to weatherunderground and typed in my zipcode ( I live in Highlands County) and this is what I copied and paste...it is NOT tonight but tomorrow night. I can only cover/protect 2 small mango trees, sthe rest of the mango and my Mauritius lychee are all too large to cover. I'm bringing my small orchid collection and sensitive tropical plants in the garage...I've already started so I won't have soo much to do tomorrow,lol...

Check out my lows for tomorrow night into Fri. morning...UGH!!!!

Thursday

02/1952 | 28 °F

Thursday 0% Precip. / 0 inSunny skies. High 52F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph.

Thursday Night 0% Precip. / 0 inClear skies. Near record low temperatures. Low 28F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Puglvr,

I've been relying too much on yahoo weather because my active e-mail is there. I went on to check on msn weather and it says a freeze watch. I'm numbed already ... I think you're accepting it better than I do. I think I'm too attached to my lychees .... :( , but I'll try to stay calm and do whatever there is to help them. It's a good idea to work on moving them in ahead of time. Otherwise, it would be such a rush and a chore to beat the timing. This is what I'll have to do as well.

For my bigger lychees, I'll try to place light bulbs around the base and hope that the lower trunk can be saved and they'll not have to die to the root.
It looks like the freeze watch is for 1am-9am and that means 9 hours. I don't know at what length of freeze time will a plant be killed?

Still I'm placing hope again hope that the freeze will somehow be blown away from us :) Hope you'll get your major move done soon. I'm moving my smaller plants into my garage too.

Hi banana, yesterday morning got down to 29.6 F the lowest reading I had but luckily that temperature only lasted a half hour...but I had freezing temps for 6 hours... hovered between 32° to 30° for about 6 hours...I won't know the extent of damage for several days....but it looks like the blooms are frost bitten :o( the 2 mango trees I covered has little damage but the rest of the trees unprotected seems okay for the "most" part other than the blooms are probably gone and some new growths leaf damage and small twigs as well...

The good news is Lychee trees (once established) are more cold tolerant than Mango trees...I think your older lychee trees will be fine and my Mauritius inground ( though the blooms might be goners like my blooms) :o(

I hope everything fared well for you! Fingers crossed we're done this winter!!

Nancy

Puglvr,

I'm sorry to hear that your Lychee blooms are gone ... It must be a very painful thing to go through. But, if your Lychee is still sending off new flushes, there's every possibility for these flushes to send out spikes of blooms. It's a great news to hear that your mango trees have survived and I'm glad the protection works for them.

As for me here, I was frantically trying all ways to get them protected. Even though the three of my lychee trees have reached a height of 12ft or more ... Anyway, I tried out two methods. For my Brewster which is in heavy bloom, I decided to cover it. My poor husband took all the work of building up poles so he could put a huge plant blanket over it. We had to use a few of those very huge one to finally cover all of it and placed light bulbs in the cover with Christmas lights and all. With the Mauritius and Sweetheart, they're even bigger to manage so we decided to use water spraying which is what other colder planting zone people are doing. Then I placed a kid's swimming pool filled with water close to the base of the trunk and also a light bulb to keep it warm.

When I went out to look yesterday, the fruit on my Brewster dropped off a lot. I think the process of covering it have actually knocked off more of them than the cold itself. I was surprised to find literally no damage to both the Mauritius and Sweetheart. So ... you're right in saying that the larger trees might be ok with some light froze. It was painful to see how many fruitlets have been knocked off from my Brewster ..., but I'm learning here. And it's good that Brewster was in heavy blooms, so that means there are still
quite a few left behind. Hopefully, they'll turn out ok in the end.

My bananas didn't do so well with some leaf burns, but over all very thankful that the freeze was a light one and yes I'm hoping that we all can move forward now without the fear of another impending freeze!!! lol

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. Meanwhile, I've been giving them all watering with epsom salt ... hope that it will help the fruit stay healthy and cause more flushes to send out more blooms. I've noticed that my Brewster and Mauritius are still sending out new flushes with blooms and I think yours would do the same thing for you :)

Here are some pictures of my Brewster lychee before and after the freeze.
The picture here shows the bloom spikes top of the crown. There were plenty of them, but the covering and all that actually knocked down quite a few and the cold also contributed to the damage. Now the top is very sparse with fruitlets, but the middle and bottom part still have some.

This is the middle part of the crown. It's showing some new growth. At first I thought the leaves were just new growth, but they actually do come with a bloom spike. So the blooms come on old leaf branches and new leaf branches (which is something new for me that I'm learning). So, Puglvr, if your lychee is still sending out new flushes now, there might be a good chance for you to have new blooms. I think it's still not too late ... at least I'm hoping the same for my Lychee Mauritius which is way slower in pushing out new growth, but when it does, the bloom spikes appear along.

I know this picture of Brewster looked comical on hindsight. It's way "over dressed" for winter ... lol. I was freaking out that it was dying .... and I was going to save the trunk at least. The structure behind I had intended it for a potting shed, but it turned out to have offered a little protection from the wind for it.

Last minute scrambling for a cover huge enough for the tree. Got a few pieces of them to cover it. They call them plankets and are breathable. After covering it, I went inside the tent and I could feel the warm inside. The covering was tricky. The wind came and knocked it off and we had to do the covering all over again and that was tough on the bloom spikes. It was sad to see a whole bunch of them dropped off to the ground....

To those who aren't into this, they may be thinking that is pure lunacy ... lol. I don't blame them.

I'll post more picture updates later. For now, I can kick back for a while and go catch up with other things I've left behind to do.

Yesterday I went to take a look at the blooms. They aren't doing so well not as I have thought before. Many of them seem to be wilting I also saw a lot of webs ... and that means web worms are attacking the blooms. At this moment, I'm just going to stay amused at how many obstacles these lychee trees have to overcome before their fruit will finally show up. At this moment, I'm not keeping my hopes too high and would be satisfied enough if my lychee trees will give me each just a few fruit at harvest time ... lol

Hi Banana, we sure DO so much for our trees don't we? Its all sooo much work...all the worry and the hard work to keep the alive and hopefully fruiting...Lol...its all part of the process I guess. I'm sorry to hear that you've lost some of your fruitlets and some of the blooms are wilting...I'm quite sure ALL my Maurituis blooms are "fried"...they look brownish...the tree itself looks great so I'll happy the tree will survive. at least this year as long as we don't have a late freeze in March!!

Most of the larger mango blooms are "fried" as well so mangoes from them...I'm hoping to get a couple from the 2 I protected and one that hasn't bloomed yet (I'm still hoping that one will bloom soon?)

Fingers crossed and hope you get some fruits...

Puglvr,

Sorry to hear that your mango blooms were "fried" .... I do hope though that your other 2 mangoes will send out more new bloom spikes for you and I think they will as the weather warms up which I'm hoping they will soon for you.

I know what you mean about the lychee trees ...., but yes we'll all have to look at the brighter side of our gardening experience. It's a good point you raised that the tree is still alive. In fact lychee trees are really very beautiful trees. Some of their young leaves are pink and if trees can talk, those shades of pink is like saying they're happy to be alive. My bunny has pink lips and now I'm comparing my lychee trees to my pet bunny ... lol. Ok I'll snap out of my sillyness here.

The fact that lychee trees are almost disease free (other than pests like web worms that are now attacking the fruit on my tree) makes them the most beautiful trees and easy to get along trees in my yard. I do have some longans in the pot and so far I haven't ventured into planting them in the ground. They're prone to white flies attack. I always find them covered with cottony white specks on their leaves. I don't know if they're more prone to attacks when they're young ... something I need more research on.

By the way, I do hope your little Hak Ip there is doing ok and will give you some fruit to taste this year. My more than 6 years old Hak Ip was planted in the ground in 2009 when it was about 4-5 ft. Its exact age now could be close to 10 years since it would take some time to reach 4-5 ft when I got it. So far, it hasn't produced any fruit for me to taste. It bloomed on and off, but some how the blooms either dropped off or were attacked by the web worms. It's really strange and this year it's only flowering on a few spikes. The same thing happens with my more than 10 years old Sweet heart--only a few bloom spikes (despite the fact that I feed them with the same thing all this while). My lychee Mauritius which never fruited is doing something new ... giving more new blooms which so far look more promising than the Brewster's (that is if the web worms don't get them as well :(. I'll post more pictures as time goes along.

Here's something extra--my pet bunny with pink lips as compared to the pink leaves on the lychee ... for a laugh therapy :)

This picture was before the Brewster blooms started to get damaged ...

Awwww...your bunny is super Cute!! Love the cute pink little lips,lol...

To be honest, I'm not getting my hopes up on my small potted Hak ip fruiting either...hopeful but not going to be surprised if I don't get any...the tree is small and pretty young. Though it would be nice to taste just a couple :o)

I hope one day soon you will get to taste some Hap ips from your tree...gosh knows your tree is old/mature enough...just being stubborn I guess!

These late freezes play havoc on Mango and Lychee blooms...but nothing we can do about it,lol...I'm just glad the trees will survive though they have some cold damage it will bounce back by summer. If its alive I'm happy...

We'll update this thread from time to time to see any progress :o)

Thanks for laugh therapy :o), I enjoyed it!

Thanks Puglvr. Yes I can't wait for Spring or rather Summer to come soon. I don't think we have Spring here .. lol

Bananafan2, do you have any lychee seeds you can send me?

thanks and God Bless

Hi David, lychee season is around end of May through early July ( in Florida) depending on variety. That will be the best time to get seeds...check back next summer when the Lychee season is here again :o)

if I plant in pot inside house, would it be ok?

Lychee is an outdoor plant, needs a lot of direct sun. You "might" be able to keep it as a small house plant if you find a sunny spot near a window in your house. It still won't do as well if it were placed outside. You can leave it outside till the first sign of frost then bring it inside so it doesn't die...

if you have can you send me some seeds? thanks and God Bless

Hi banana, what area are u on when your lychee tree have frozen years ago? Thanks

Puglvr sorry to bother you and on a slightly unrelated note, I found one of your posts where you share a really lovely picture of a light colored coarse silica sand- if by chance you use it or remember where you got it from could you please share? Im trying to source something similar for a project and have had no luck, thanks !!

Hi Minty, I purchased mine near my area (appx.) 1.5 hours away...it was a warehouse. I've attached a link below...there is a Contact # you can call...maybe they will be able to tell you if there is a place near you? The place is called " Standard Sand and Silica Company" Good Luck!!

http://www.standardsand.com/contact-us/

Is this what you are referring to? The size I purchased was 6/14

Be careful when you're mixing it...make sure you use a mask to protect yourself :o)