wow. that's early. when was its last flush?

whats the weather been like for you? my lychees have been dormant for the past 2-3 months and we've had some cooler a couple weeks ago but it's gotten near record highs for the last 2 weeks

I live in Miami, FL. It is still growing new growth flush while it is blooming. It does need a dormant period of no water, but half of my lychee tree died when I didn't water it for a month. The department of agricultural here is wrong about not watering the lychee during winter. My lychee trees started dying when I didn't water it for a month. Imagine going 3 months without watering.

Last year almost all of my lychee tree bloomed while new growth flush was growing during early spring. As soon as the new growth matured and harden, it began to bloom. If it didn't bloom by April, then it was too late.

It is just too hot here not to water the lychee trees.

No one really knows how to get the lychee to bloom. People here are waiting for February to water, but the season might be over.

I learn from past weather patterns. A really long cold winter here causes the tree to bloom late. I very hot winter causes the tree to bloom early. My mango tree bloomed before the lychee.

i just checked my lychees in Houston, and they are all flushing (from 3 gallon to 15 gallon containers).

it's too early for me to tell for sure, but they look like vegetative growth, which is probably what i want (since the plants were purchased earlier this year and need to get more established).

we've definitely had a couple weeks of cooler weather (nighttime lows in 40-50F; was in the garage with lows in the 30's ) in Nov/Dec, but past 2 weeks have been near record high's (70F's).

I'm not sure if i should count this as the last growth of 2016 or the first growth of 2017. I had been planning on up-potting to 25 gallon containers with 5-1-1 mix in early spring, but i'm starting to wonder if i should do it after this growth.

my prior lychee (that i killed overfertalizing), would usually have it's final growth in Nov and be dormant until blooming in late Jan, early Feb.

How big of a tree trunk are you expecting to grow in a pot? It won't produce many fruits if the trunk is small.

The nursery where I bought my tree from was growing it in a 25 gallon pot and it only had about 30 fruits. I bought the 3 gallon pot for $30.

The 25 gallons pot was $200. That is just too much money for 3 pounds worth of fruits.

I grew my trees in the ground. I want a bunch of fruits.

the sweetheart was purchased as a 7 gallon tree in the spring and has grown nicely, it's trunk is maybe 2-3cm now. i found a 7 gallon maritius this fall with a nice spreading canopy and trunk about 3cm - it was a lucky find.

i knew i was moving this past summer and didn't plant them. this coming year i could plant them in the ground but was planning on keeping them in containers because the winters here sometimes will frost, and i'd like the trees to be larger.

I might air layer my sweetheart lychee soon. I am testing my air layering skill on the longan tree first.

When the tree gets big, air layer a few branches to have a back up tree in case it dies during a very cold winter.

did your trees do ok through the cold weather? I had a lot of damage, esp to the tree that was pushing growth

It did fine here in Miami. At night it was 52 degrees, but it was 64 degrees during the day. It only lasted a day. It is starting to get hot again. This was the type of weather that I was waiting for to get the rest of my lychee to bloom, but it is kind of short.

hi sarah, sorry to hear your lychees also had cold damage. were they in the greenhouse during the freeze? did you do anything to protect them?

I only had chrimstas lights (miniature, bulbs not LED) on the night it went to the 20's. the next night i covered them but looks like it was too late.

my mauritius lychee was pushing growth the past 2 weeks and has taken heavy damage. half of the tree had leaves were curled up and i removed them last night. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that the other half of the tree won't be shedding the rest of its leaves.

my sweetheart (15 gallon) was just starting to flush when the cold hit, and might be in slightly better shape. a couple of the branches still look healthy, and one looks like it is pushing growth. the new growth on other branches froze. I've only had to remove 1 or 2 branches on the sweetheart.

I noticed on the mauritus that the midrib would turn red first, then the red color would spread to the vein (proximal to distal veins). then the leaves would develop small red/rust colored spots before finally curling up and drying out.

some of the branches with red midribs would snap off easily on the maritius, but so far the sweetheart is only showing the red midribs, but the branches don't snap off at the node.

My potted Sweetheart also started to bloom in December. Now, two of my potted Brewsters are also blooming. I was wondering myself why would a lychee start blooming in December ... lol.

I give them water whenever their soil feels dry and I also water at least a couple of times for those in the ground. So far, those big lychee guys in the ground aren't showing any bloom spikes yet ... maybe it's too early for them. I don't know why the potted ones are so eager to bloom, but no complaints. Just hope they'll develop into some fruit.

I was messed up with my password that landed me with 2 or 3 accounts now. FYI, my postings have all along been under the name, "Bananafan." My computer just signs me in with whichever password it remembers. I like their help, but sometimes not in a fashion I always like. Anyway, just glad I could be signed in :)

Welcome back Bananafan. I don't expect too much bloom this year for the lychee.

If you loose all the leaves on the lychee tree, then your fruit season is over. The new growth leaves cannot harden fast enough in the spring for it to bloom. The tree blooms without any mature leaves, the fruit will abort and fall off the tree before it matures.

I am waiting on my sugar apple trees to grow back it's leaves and bloom. I grew 6 trees four years ago and just had 1 fruit two years ago. This year will be the first year I hand pollinate the sugar apple trees.

Thanks, Tony, for the welcome back. Yes, I haven't been posting for a while as there hasn't been much of anything going on, except for a few trees fruiting. I've enjoyed a couple of my banana harvest. The lemon is all now ready to be picked. My Thai Jujube is generous with its fruit this year. It's the second year of its harvest and the fruit is really nice. It tastes like a cross between apple and Asian pear, both of which are impossible to grow here. So, I'm really glad to be able to grow a fruit that has both of their taste.

I hope you'll get more of your sugar apple fruit this year.