California grown Lychee Fruit

[cagary]

Had a bumper crop of lychee this summer. I usually only get a handful of fruit. I planted three Brewster trees quite close together around 20 years ago. They have long since grown into what looks like one tree. They were planted in a 24 inch raised bed filled with sandy loam. I only fertilize with cottonseed meal (low salt). The trees stopped growing any higher than 15 feet years ago.

Our post winter warm up is so slow here that our Lychee trees start producing long after Hawaii, Florida, Taiwan, etc. have finished their season.

I think September Lychee crops are unheard of in the usual growing areas. If someone could get them producing regularly here in California at this time, they might make some money.

[cagary]

Better photo?

[QUINNPALMS]

Awesome,! My tree has been so slow , in the ground for 5 years , and it's not much bigger than when i started...

[rprimbs]

Wow! I'll bet your trees like the heat that we're getting this year. I should stop wasting my time trying to grow rambutans and pulasans and head over to Ong's and get a lychee!

Do you know if Brewster is the best type for Southern California? I might want to try Emperor if it would do well too.

[redant]

Yum, I love lychees, my tree fail to peoduce this past spring, seems to do fruit every other year.

[cagary]

Wow! I'll bet your trees like the heat that we're getting this year. I should stop wasting my time trying to grow rambutans and pulasans and head over to Ong's and get a lychee!

Do you know if Brewster is the best type for Southern California? I might want to try Emperor if it would do well too.

Rambutans and Pulasans are going to be a tough grow in Southern California. Lychees and Longans are much less cold sensitive, but I would still grow them in a shade cloth cage for wind and sun protection when they are young. I'd also throw some frost cloth over them in the winter on cold nights. A raised bed would have warmer soil. They are slow growers so you might want to buy big.

Brewster Lychees and Kohala Longans are what I always heard are best for Southern California.

[fastfeat]

Very nice. Well-grown!

[Matt in SD]

I'm jealous. That looks like a good crop.

We have a lychee at our old house (a rental now) that has been in the ground 8-9 years now and I'm pretty certain it was going to fruit this year. It's about 15 feet tall and wide, trunk is 5-6" diameter (from a average sized 5g air layer). A drunk drive drove off the road in early spring and when through some bananas, a fence, and then completely flattened the lychee to the ground. Luckily it had rained a lot just before this so I was able to jack the tree back upright (literally had to use a car jack, it was soooo heavy) and it seems OK, but dropped all the fruit that was starting to form.

I remember thinking that tree didn't noticeably grow each year, and then all of a sudden I realized it was actually a tree. They are slow but steady growers.

Matt

[MattyB]

Our Brewster Lychee produced for the first time this year after being in the ground 4 years from a whimpy 2 gallon pot, weak air layered plant. It's multiple trunked because I never prune it and it stands about 5 feet tall now and about 5 feet wide. It handles full sun (9 miles inland) just fine and has no problem with very high winds. Greg Hamman in El Cajon says he gets more Lychees than he knows what to do with every other year, so maybe being in East County gives them the heat that they want.

Here's our fruit from this week. I was surprised to find that the seed inside was very small, almost runt like, which made for a lot of fruit. Much more fruit than a longan. They were very tastey!

[lmurph]

Wow that is a lot of lychee for CA. I have some friends who have tried to get some going over there and all of them have been unsuccessful. Maybe I can send them your way cagary. lol.