Harry

mauritius-
ripen from may 20th to june 15th
skin is about 2/3 red and 1/3 red
fruit is larger than brewster
fruit has great acid-sugar mix
has a decent number of small stones
fruit are heart shaped and larger than brewster

brewster
ripens from june 15 to july 5th
skin is completely red and a little smaller than mauritius
flesh is completely sweet- no acid. juicier than mauritius
fruit is more oval shaped and smaller than mauritius. stones are large.

incredible tree you have there- r u in florida? if yes, where about. how long have u had it. what an incredible fruit set you have

re mauritius taste- I too have tasted many lychee varities and I think mauritius is far and away the best. So if yours is a mauritius, and based on the fact that its already starting to pink up, it may well be, i think u will be absolutely thrilled with it. Mango kush may have eaten a bad one or a mis identified one or maybe he just didnt like it, but mauritius is the most planted lychee variety for a very good reason.

one thing that makes me wonder though if yours really is mauritius is that it didnt fruit last year. mauritius is a pretty reliable cropper and its quite unusual for it to miss a season, as long as it gets enough chilling hours, which miami got last year. harry, your thoughts?

oh well, we will be able to tell for sure in a couple of weeks.

here is a picture of some mature mauritius fruit.

the two bunches on the right r mauritius-
the bunch on the left is hak ip i think, though i am not certain. although at first glance the two varities look kinda similar, if you look closely, u can see that the mauritius have a smooth skin whereas the "hak ip" have a spiny skin. also the hak ip has a more pointed bottom, and they are a little larger. also the hak ip has a higher percentage of aborted seeds than mauritius. also notice that mauritius has plenty of green to it, even though they r fully ripe. the brewster would be solid red.

obviously taste is subjective, but I think you will be hard pressed to find someone who prefers mauritius over many of the newer introduced cultivars

I've heard people complain of mauritius not being as weet as brewster but ive never heard of people complaining that mauritius has an after taste. that is a complaint I usually hear about hak ip, which as shown above, looks pretty similar to mauritius, and also ripens at the same time as mauritius. i dont want to question your lychee expertise because I have no idea how knowledgable you are about lychees, but im wondering if what youve always identified as mauritius is in fact hak ip.

even many florida growers are cluesless about which variety is which.

Jeff

Jeff

Congrats on your bounty :)

Jeff

Of course the best way is to taste for yourself so for those of you who are (or are going to be) in the South Florida area, consider yourself invited to the following event:

Open house at the USDA - Chapman Field, where you can taste all the lychees that they are growing on the station. How much will that cost you? Nothing, its FREE!!

WHEN: Saturday, June 4, 10 am to 3 pm
WHERE: USDA-ARS, 13601 Old Cutler Rd, Miami, Florida Located between Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay.

As far as an aftertaste, this is the first I am hearing of it, but by the same token, I do believe it, much the same as some people detect an aftertaste with that horridly nasty fruit, Surinam-cherry, and others do not. (Guess which category I fall into?) lol

Jeff

Tom

As for other fruits, I've a few things planted out. My home was owned for 25 years by a charter member of the broward rare fruit and veggie council. Hurricanes and the canker program took out a good portion of what was originally planted, but there are still a few very nice, 20+ year old specimens. When I bought the property in 2005 I went berzerk replanting everything that was lost .. and then some :-). In ground I have 9 cultivars of mango, 4 cultivars of avocado, guava, green sapote, carambola, mammea americana (thanks to sheehan :-), 3 cultivars of jackfruit, barbados cherry, 2 cultivars of atemoya, lychee, 2 cultivars of pomegranate, indian jujube, 2 cultivars of sapodilla, ambarella, hogs plum, vexator, 2 cultivars of persimmon, sugar apple, banana, cherry rio grande, grumichama, cherry mangosteen, passion fruit, papaya, white sapote, olosapo, and ... there's probably something I'm forgetting. In pot, I have everything under the sun :-).

Jeff

Too bad we are not in Thailand. I just read about how you can now get home delivery of lychees direct from the farmer with your copy of the Thailand Post. You can sign up at the post office. There is one caveat - you can only get what is described as the "best" variety there - 'Khom'. No mention of international delivery. :-(

Thanks :)

And the tree before I give it a nice "hair cut" by the way, how much can I cut without affecting fruit production?


That's another angle, looks even bigger!

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Lycheeluva, the Hal ip we get here have smooth skin and medium small seeds with almost no chicken tongue seeds. They look a lot like the Mauritius you posted.

Does anyone know what varieties of lychees they have at the USDA in Florida?

Information from presentations by Univ. Florida professors at the local fruit club indicate that you can (should?) cut the branches back 18 inches or so. This is supposed to promote more regular flowering.

Simon, have you heard from Phase lately? I've missed seeing him on the forums lately. Sure would love an update picture of his Lychee tree. If you talk to him...tell him we want some new pictures :o)

Hey puglvr1, Phase is on vacation in China, probably gorging himself on No Mai Tsze ( I forget when Lychee season is in China). I'll ask him for an updated pic when he gets back.