Nice work, John. Your tree had 18 more fruits than mine did. Emperor's flavor is decidedly more delicate than some of the other cultivars. That's how I descibe it anyway. To other lychee officianados, the flavor might be considered washed out. The good things about Emperor are the size and the lateness of the season. So, pardon the lack of strong lychee flavor and enjoy the fact that you are picking and eating lychees after all the others are gone.

Harry

Congrats John!! Nice growing. My poor lychee(Sweet cliff) tree went from 7ft to 1ft from the freeze. Killed my sweetheart to the ground, I was so upset after having it for 2 1/2 years.

That sucks Pug. Your trees were so nice. I think you should try planting 3 types in one hole and buying a little portable greenhouse for the winters. It is working pretty well for me. I am about to order a 10' x 20' one for this winter.

Harry, is there any left down there? The guy from the farmers market said he would be able to get me one more box this weekend. Hopefully is not really old stuff.

wow those are some beauties, definitely the largest I've seen. I've been eating irradiated lychees, not bad but I wish they were fresh from the tree. Along with the irradiated longan and mangosteen, I think my teeth starting to glow.

congrats,
-Ethan

ouch Pug!

jsvand5-

What kind of greenhouse did use this past winter? What are you looking at buying?

Thx

Good going, those things are huge! I wanted to try the Emperor lychee so bad this year I ordered some online but the order somehow got screwed up, twice so I won't be able to try it until next year. You are lucky to be harvesting fruit. My Sweetheart dropped all of its fruit already :(

The link shows what I think I am going to get. I already have a 10 x 10 one that I am going to put around my in ground lychees. I think between the 10 x 20 one and the 10 x 10 one I should be set for quite a while. Last season I stuffed almost everything into the 10 x 10 one and it was just way too cramped.

Here is a link that might be useful: Greenhouse

Wow, Emperor lychee really look delicous. I'm kind of bummed to hear that they are not that great tasting. I have been thinking about getting a lychee tree and this was on my short list due to the tree size and its large fruit.

I read somewhere that Emperor is a "mountain" type that prefers dryer soil and conditions versus a "water" type such as Brewster that prefer a humid enviroment. Living in South Florida next to the Everglades I'm better getting something that prefers lots of humidity anyway so if the taste is not great its off my short list...

Which selections are water lychee types versus mountain lychee? Is there really a difference?

if you are going to only get one tree get Brewster because it is the best known producer here after mauritius.

If I were only getting one tree I would go with Hak ip. Out of all of my trees at least it puts out the best balance of male and female flowers and the fruit is pretty large as well. I am sure any of them would do well for you though. The only one I would not get for a solitary tree is a sweetheart. It's been 2 years in a row now that I did not get any male flowers opening on mine before all of the females were already shriveled up. I know Harry said he sweetheart tree has not been very productive either.

@jsvand5,

Nice pictures of your lychee harvest. I only got one that's right (1) lychee from my Sweet Heart lychee this year even though the tree had zero winter damage. One of the founding members of the Tampa RFCI told me that Sweet Heart is a shy bearer in Florida, he is right.

I had a Hak Ip tree and just last month exchanged it for a Emperor tree at the same nursery that I bought it from. The Hak Ip tree is a very shy bearer much more so then the Sweet Heart type. Mauritius is the most productive and it does not have an alternate bearing habit, but my tree has not produced fruit yet.

I looked at the Greenhouse link you posted and it looks great. The price is right, unfortunately it is out of stock currently.

@pug ouch! You have to protect those lychee trees just like the mango.

Enduser, I know! I really messed up. I trusted Freezepruf!
I won't make that mistake again...should I decide to replace it.

Thanks for the sympathies!

I don't know about the hak ip being a worse producer than the sweetheart. I have seen the opposite from quite a few different people.

John:

Sorry....lychees are done here for the year. I have about 6 small under-developed Bosworth 3 that are still on the tree, but that is it.

To everyone else:

My experience continues to be limited with Sweetheart. My trees are still some of the smallest in my yard so the jury is still out. However, since both of my Sweethearts bloomed the past two years, I am concerned about the lack of fruiting. If they fail to provide fruits next year I may have to take drastic action....stay tuned. In my yard, Hak Ip has obviously out produced Sweetheart. But Hak Ip has not exactly set the world on fire as far as fruit production either. This year was a bumper crop on Mauritius, Farwell Ranch, Early Large Red and Bengal. Medium fruit production on Garnet and Peerless with a lighter crop on Hak Ip and virtually no crop (a few fruits) on Sweetheart. So, if I was going to recommend a single lychee for growing I would recommend buying more than one lychee tree. It's too much of a "putting all your eggs in one basket" situation to just plant one. There will be down years for all cultivars and/or the quality/ taste of the fruit from one tree will have its drawbacks. So, unless you just love a particualr cultivar (without mentioning any names...Gerry), plant a couple of trees and keep them small.

Harry

You're right, more plants is always the best way to go Harry. I am putting that Kaimana in the ground this weekend. It is going to turn my two in a hole lychee tree to a 3 in a hole. I may add the hak ip as well. I just don't think I will ever get enough fruit to make it worth while with them potted. I was able to airlayer a couple sweetheart branches instead of just wasting them for the pruning.

So Harry, do you think the Brewster that I am supposed to pick up tomorrow are probably going to be old fruit? I hate the lychees when they get old and start getting that off flavor.

John:

Well, not able to say for sure......if they have been under refrigeration they could still be good regardless of whether they were just picked or not. I have had lychees stay in good shape (if refrigerated immediately) for up to 3 weeks with some years's crops. Can't you taste them first?

Harry

He ended up not getting them this weekend. He said they raised the price by $2.00 a pound and they would have cost him 4.50 a pound which would have cost me around $6-$7. That's a bit more than I am willing to pay. The only bad thing is I pretty much have to buy them If I ask him to get them for me. He only gets them for me so I would feel bad asking him to buy them and then backing out on him.

my sweetheart fruits all dropped this year and I found out about it after a 1-week long vacation. The fruits were longer than the diameter of a quarter (not larger than a quarter). very disappointing. I had 50+ last year.

It's not caused by water, as the soil is neither too try or too wet.

It had a nice growth flush though (better than what it normally had at this time of the year), which leading me to think that it may have too much Nitrogen this year. I did not fertilize it with anything, and the only thing I did is sometimes put some green leaves as mulch. The other thing is that this year I did not apply Phyto-Fos, which I did frequently last year. Any idea on what might caused the drop?

Great pictures! I tasted an Emperor lychee this year and absolutely loved it. So much so it convinced me I need a lychee tree=) I have very little lychee experience, so I can't say how it compares to other types. I like the dwarf size of the Emperor tree though. Can any of the other varieties be planted in ground and pruned to stay small (say 10' or less)?

Sun Worshiper:

You wrote, "Can any of the other varieties be planted in ground and pruned to stay small (say 10' or less)?"

The answer is, yes.....any and all of them.

Harry

Thanks Harry! Excellent information - that means I can pick from any of the varieties=) When is the best time to plant one, fall or spring? Or does it matter?

Spring is much better, unless the winter is unusually warm and then it doesn't matter. Two rules for planting lychees in ground. 1. No fertilizer, 2. Keep very moist....even allow a hose to trickle or drip irrigate continuously during the first 30 days after planting. Heavy mulching (keeping the mulch from touching the trunk) is also very beneficial. Best of luck.

Harry

Thanks for the advice Harry! When you say no fertilizer - do you mean ever? Or just when the tree is new?

Just until the tree gets established. Fertilizer burn is the number one killer of young lychee trees.

Harry,

While searching for the Farwell Ranch lychee on goog I found a link to an earlier post by you where you describe that one of your lychee trees "had a big problem with chlorosis and some beetles eating the leaves".

What is the cause of the chlorosis, and what beetles are giving you problems in your area?

The lychee trees that I bought from PI and lara farms were/are healthy. The ones I bought from the tree house nursery all have problems with chlorosis and leaves that were shewed up by some unknown pest.

Where I live the only pest that is a ferocious leaf eater is the leaf weevil. Other then squashing those hard to find beetles when I find them, I have not found a pesticide that seems to control them. I also have problems controlling the chlorosis issue on the lychee tree that has it. I tried 20-20-20 with minors both on the soil and spraying the leaves directly every two weeks, chelated iron, ironite, and additional minor elements sprays but nothing seems to make the new growth or older leaves turn green. I'm puzzled by this. Have you had any success with controlling chlorosis?

we get the Asian grey weevil here too, they are pests of mango and lychee and really love citrus.

we have a lack of iron in our soil (Fe). this often causes chlorosis in lychee trees.

Enduser:

I still have the problem, seems to have gotten somewhat better with the heavy mulching of the tree and spraying with Keyplex, a foliar nutritional spray. I still have a severe problem with the weevils munching the leaves. They've virtually eaten half of each and every new leaf. Not sure what to do about it. It can't be good for the tree's productivity...but I guess you could look at it as free pruning.

Harry

Harry, do you happen to know which varieties of lychees you have that are considered "Dry and Clean" type?

Phase, I can't believe even your tree dropped all of its lychees. Your Sweetheart was the only tree I've seen on this forum that produced a good amount of fruit. My tree had approx 190 small lychees on it and they all dropped off.

Hak Ip is one of my favorite water type lychees. I have yet to try Kaimana and Garnet.

kaimana is the best dry and clean type i have tasted from Harrys property or anywhere else for that matter

What exactly does the term "dry and clean type" refer to on a lychee?

This is the leaf weevil that eats the leaves on my green sapote, guava, lychee, mango, peach, persimmon trees.

it means that its flesh doesnt drip juice when the skin is cracked.

in China dry and clean types are higher value and more prestigious then water types.

you can see the difference in flesh, Kaimana is dry and clean, similar to longan in consistency

shan chi, a water type, has a gelatinous dripping flesh

Simon:

I am aware of the Dry & clean vs. water designation, but really haven't paid enough attention to give you an accurate run down. To me, I like both sloppy juicy and not so sloppy juicy. Sorry, I couldn't be more help.

Harry

Harry, I'm just like you, I haven't paid much attention to the Dry and clean type Vs. the water type. Only started paying attention when I do research on Lychees. I would love to get the top cultivar in each category just to say I have it. As long as the lychee tastes good, I'm a happy camper.

@mango_kush thanks for the detailed information. I tried the Sweet Heart, and the Emperor and both are dry and clean per your description.

i actually think i like the juicy ones better, Brewster if i remember was watery.

more important to me is the flavor, or lack of the medicinal aftertaste i sometimes experience with varieties like Mauritus and a lesser extent Hak Ip

I have detected that medicinal or vegetative flavor on lychees also. The Sweetheart, and the Emperor definitely has that off flavor. I tried my first lychee at the real tree house fruit stand but I can't recall what variety it was. I clearly remember that it didn't have that off flavor that turns me off.

Hello, everyone. I've had a sweetheart lychee in a pot for about a year now and am getting ready to put it into the ground, but after reading this thread I am rethinking. Maybe it would be better to do a two or three in a hole thing since the general consensus is that Sweetheart is not productive.
What varieties would be a good fit to plant along with the sweetheart? Ideally one that fruits at a different time and has a different flavor profile.Any thoughts? Thanks

You could always do Brewster. They have a good reputation for being productive. I also like hak ip. They put out a good mix of male and female flowers and the fruit is huge with a small seed.

I live in Sarasota and wonder if anyone can tell me why my Emperor is having leaves look this way? It is starting to have small flower stems and I would like to keep them so that I have fruit this year. I've had the tree 3 years but don't know how old it was when I bought it. It is about 2 to 21/2 feet tall.

Hi grandy3,

You might want to research "anthracnose" and "downy mildew" in lychee trees. You leaves look like it could be either and it would definitely affect the flowers and then the fruit. A product I have had great success with for both these conditions, plus it's organic, is Organocide Plant Doctor. They sell it at Home Depot so it's easy to find. The regular Organocide 3-in-1spray would also help. I spray it on all my citrus trees and it works great. Hope this helps. I have an Emperor as well.

Bloobeari,

I also have several mangoes that anthranose and downy mildew problems. I'd definitely give Organocide Plant Doctor a try as I did not know what exactly I should do with them except spraying with Neem oil which I don't know if it has helped. Thanks posting the name of this product.

Are you all located in Florida? I am in West Palm and and wanting to get some lychee trees going in my yard. Looking for suggestions on varieties and methods.