My Sweetheart doesn't have any fruit this year :(

My Sweetheart had blooms but a growth flush seems to have crowded them out and they're gone. Oh well, there's always next year

Cmichael,

Sorry to hear that your Sweetheart isn't fruiting for you this year. How old is your lychee and is it in the pot or in the ground? Do you have other lychees besides Sweetheart?

I've tried growing a few kinds of lychees and see which one will fruit more readily. I went to a plant sale and one of the vendors said some plants are air layered and some are grown from seedlings. The air layered ones will bear fruit quicker. I've never thought much about it until she told me. I've always assumed that the fruit trees are always air layered ...
Anyway, that makes me think to make sure that I should only bring home the air layered ones. Back to growing a few varieties of different lychees--it will help me to not to count on only one variety. This year, both my Sweethearts, a Mauritius and a Hak Ip all did not fruit for me despite all did bloom with the exception of the Mauritius. The only one that is bearing fruit now is Brewster which is a 7 year-old plant I think. It's been in the ground for 5 years or so.

That said, I know of others who have younger plants in the pot bearing fruit for them. Hopefully your Sweetheart this year will grow a lot of new leaves for and be ready to fruit for you next year.

Gnappi,

Thanks for sharing a picture of your Sweetheart. Sorry to hear you've lost all of the blooms due to the new flushes. The plant looks very healthy with nice green bushy crown though. You also have a perfect planting zone for growing lychees :) And you can look forward to it growing a lot bigger through the years without any fear of froze too. Here, growing lychees is like playing with Russian roulette. One year of hard freeze and the entire plant can be demolished and all the hard work gone too.

The only lychee that is growing fruit now is my 7-year old Brewster. It's been planted for 5 years now. I've got to cover it all these years, but as it grows bigger, I told her I won't be doing it any more for her. She has to rough it out herself as it's gotten to be too much work to climb the ladder and doing all the tenting stuff. One Winter, I even had to cover my 12-14 ft tall Mauritius with a pop up tent. Still, it was badly damaged by the freeze and it was knocked down to 3 ft tall. Now it's grown back up to where it was before, but did not fruit. I've learned how to laugh instead of cry dealing with these plants.

That said, I still think yours will eventually turn out A-OK for you once it's established in the ground. Hopefully you can taste off the fruit from your Sweetheart next year.

Banana, my Maurituius has a few fruits...but like you I'm wondering how many will actually still be there in late May or June? I have a couple that is starting to color up though they are not very large fruits...keeping fingers crossed I get to taste some!! Good luck with yours as well!

Sorry to hear about your Sweetheart lychee tree cmichael...I know how you feel when our trees don't fruit! Maybe next year will much better...

Gnappi, what a beautifully shape and healthy Sweetheart lychee tree!! Just gorgeous...I've read that Sweetheart doesn't start to produce well till its a little older/mature? Hopefully, next year is your year!

This one might be ready in a week or so?