when going though a drought as we are right now it is neccessary to water the tree, I have lost as much as you have at the pea size in the past in dry weather. hope this helps

how r your lychees doing this year, ronald?

I've never experienced or heard of this problem. I am also unfamiliar with your growing conditions. However, my first thought is that it is an irrigation issue that would be causing the fruit to drop. Fruit draws trmendous moisture from the tree and so with limited water available the tree has to choose between reproductive function....making seed and living which requires well hydrated leaves for food production. In China where lychee is native, it is my understanding that the varieties that we grow here in the States are found very often along river banks where the roots have a constant source of moisture. While I have never been to China to verify this, I can see the same concept as working in my yard as my water table is about 4' under the ground and the roots of my lychees have that continous source of moisture. My trees have no typical burnt brown leaf tips that you see in many potted and in the ground lychee plantings. The trees....once they get their roots into the water table, grow vigorously and without problem.

I am sure that there could be other issues......nutrition/mineral difficiency, fungal problems, I suppose even some sort of insect or weevel, etc......but I'd start off with water and then go from there. How far above your water table is the tree growing? Do you irrigate?

Harry

Thanks, everyone!

The lychee tree is deeply watered with a little high Phosphate/Potassium water soluble
fertilizer from GrowMore once a week right now. The tree was also regualrly watered
after its flowering last year. Thus I am experimenting the Phosphate/Potassium
fertilizer this year. In Southern California, we get little rain after March.
So I regularly water all my fruit trees (most of them are between 2 and 5 years old).

Depending on your soil make up....watering once a week, even deeply, may not be enough.

lycheeluva,nafter what seemed like the beginning of a disasturous season in January it now seems like it maybe one of my best yet.
In Januarry there was very little flowering, and this keeping in mind that all our flowering is normally done by late january at the latest.
However this year everything has been turned upside down, as most flowering started in February and even now some flowers are yet to open. So this sould be a really late crop as we are concerned here in central Jamaica.
Normally we would have fruit from early May to mid June at the latest so we will see when the season actually starts for me this year.
Will take some pictures later today and post.
Ronald

here are some pictures from earlier today

Beautiful! Thanks.....looks like you are at least a full month ahead of my lychees.

Harry

Hey tagtail, sounds like you have a nice mature tree. From what I've read online, it sounds like you are supposed to gradually increase the amount of water you give your tree. I've read that too much as well as too little water can cause fruit drop.

Have you innoculated your soil with beneficial mycorrhizal fungi and worms? These beneficial organisms are supposed to help the tree absorb more nutrients from the soil and also extend the reaches of your lychee trees natural root system.

Beautiful tree! I am sooooo jealous.

On Simon's comments about too much water possibly causing fruit drop. I have had standing water for a week or more with lychee trees full of fruit and never had a fruit drop. I have had whole trees up and die from a root fungal issue, I assume due to the flood.....but even then the fruit never fell from the tree. They just dried up and died, just like the leaves.

Harry

Thanks, Simon and Harry.

There are some researches in Asian on the issue of lychee fruit pre-mature drop. There is no conclusive answer for it from the academic people. Thus I want to know how we backyard growers tackle this problem. What I really want to know is what you do to your lychee tree a few months before and after its small lychees are formed.

I went to several Chinese nurseries in Southern California. They always say that lychee trees don't produce well in southern California compared to those in southern China since lychee trees need a humid condition to produce well. I also saw several lychee trees in my local area and they produce no better than my tree.

Every year I apply some chicken manure to the tree after all the lychees are harvested (around beginning of August). I didn't do anything extra to introduce more beneficial mycorrhizal fungi and worms. The soil in my backyard is not sandy and it drains relatively slow. In general, the soil a few inches down is not dry if I deeply water the tree once a week. When the weather gets hot, I usually water the tree twice a week.

No help from me on this question....I do nothing before or after the fruiting begins.

Harry

Hey tagtail, I've checked out a lot of the nurseries down here in SoCal and asked them for opinions on growing lychees but none of them had any good specific information. Many of the nurseries still carry only Brewster and Mauritius and when I asked them why they didn't carry more varieties, they said its because the other varieties don't grow and fruit down here.

I'm very surprised that so many of the nurseries are so misinformed. If you give your tree the proper growing conditions, it should do really well here in SoCal. Some varieties do need more/less chill hours to fruit well but varieties like Brewster, Mauritius, Hak Ip and Sweetheart just to name a few should fruit pretty profusely here.

Much of the information out on the internet is also not very specific to each specific Lychee cultivar and the information out there seems to be very dated. The information regarding gradually increasing watering of lychees during fruiting was obtained from the "CRFG Lychee Fruit Facts" section on irrigation which says that "Too much water during early fruit-set can cause fruit drop". This information is questionable but I bring it up in case there is merit. Hmhausman has good evidence to the contrary but we have to take into account all the information that we have available when comparing growing condition. Hmhausman's conditions are different than ours because his plants have access to the water table where they have a good steady supply of water for growth and fruit developement. Here in SoCal, at least where I am, my tree's have no access to the water table and depend mainly on irrigation for the majority of their water needs.

Because we have to irrigate, it is much more difficult for us to know exactly how much water to give it especially during fruit developement. Because we are in a drought and I like to conserve water, I try to give my plants the minimum amount of water for them to perform at their maximum level so the theory of gradually increasing water during fruit developement fits perfectly into my model.

With your tree being about 10 years old, I would definitely expect you to harvest much more than 200 fruits for the last several years but of course this will also depend on how large your tree is. Is your tree in full sun?

I think giving your tree some organic mulch or any well composted plant material and innoculating it with mycohrizzal fungi and worms will increase your yields in the long run but if you did it today, you won't see immediate results, it can take a year or two for the mycorhizal fungi to really get established.

Giving your tree some Kelp/fish emulsion after flowering has fully commenced will keep your tree and the beneficial organisms in your soil very happy. You have to be very careful though because if you give it any nitrogen before flowering is expected, it may promote vegetative growth and inhibit flowering. For the rest of the year, small applications of organic P-K fertilizers may help with fruit developement and flowering for next year.

If you have very small blooms, you may want to try drought stressing yor lychee 1-2 months before your lychees are expected to flower.

Ronald, those are some fantastic lychee trees and fruits you have. Wow!!

Simon, yes you are right. Nurseries I visited just carry one of Brewster, Mauritius and Hak ip.

I spent a lot of time studying the info on many sites such as www.crfg.org and www.lycheeonline.com. I usually go to crfg orange county chapter's scion wood exchange to get some cuttings for grafting (no more space in the yard).

My lychee tree is in full sun and is about 12(w)x15(h) feet. For the last three years, it had very large blooms and had thousands small fruits formed. But most of them dropped when they were pea size. This year it is having a very large bloom also.

Thanks, Harry. I understand that many trees behave differently in different regions. Common practices in one region may not be good at a different region. By the way, your trees are beautiful.

Thanks Yaslan, its left to be seen how much hold to maturity (as per topic) as the drought we are having has left the land scape dry , parched and brown. The fire department continues to earn their keep with the proliferation of bush fires all over the island.

So I continue to water sparingly hoping for rain ( I hear thunder as I type) knowing that soon I will have to increase the amount substantially.

I remember one year the rains came after a prolonged dry spell and most people lost most of their crop due to fruit splitting, so its not just getting them to hold that can be the problem.
Ronald

I wish you much luck with your lychees and other tropical fruits. It's been raining like 'cats & dogs' here! We sure could use some of your sunshine and you our endless amounts of liquids from the sky...

Bo

Lychees love water to be sure. The main problem with over watering during fruiting is fruit split, but I'm not really convinced it'll cause them to drop in the early stages. I suppose it could definitely depend on cultivar too. Brewsters are "water" lychees and can stand submerged in it for a couple weeks without ill effects, but some of the "mountain" varieties (emperor, No Mai Tzse) wouldn't do as well.
I'm not sure there is a solution to this...maybe Ronald and Harry can give us a female flower count on selected panicles on their trees to see how much it affects them. I was under the impression that an 80-95% drop rate was natural.
Interestingly (annoyingly) my sweetheart flowered profusely in January, and after pollinating all the females I could find...they all dropped without growing more than 6-7mm...very frustrating!

NTM, totally not expecting all fruits dropped on your sweetheart. I thought you had some success last year?

@Phase- Yep, 100% drop. I was quite surprised with that, but I chalk it up to the tree still being young, and in a pot. I did get 5 last year though.

When is a lychee considered mature and reliably fruit bearing? Years, or size? I am in central west Florida and have tremendous flowering, pollination, and fruit drop. Help.