How to Grow and Care for Lychee Trees

Lychee is a tropical broadleaf evergreen tree native to China, where it grows in a warm, humid climate. Although grown commercially for its fruit (not its flowers), it is often used as a shade or specimen fruit tree in landscapes. The inside flesh of lychee fruit is clear to white with a light, sweet, perfumed flavor, tasting like a watermelon crossed with a pear.

The tree requires a subtropical climate and successfully grows in warm states like Hawaii, Florida, and southern Texas, as well as sheltered locations in California. However, it still needs at least 100 chill hours to produce flowers that bear fruit. It can take three to five years before this slow-growing tree bears fruit, and 10 years or more if grown from seed. It can take as much as 30 years to reach its mature height of 30 feet.

What Is a Lychee Fruit?

Lychees are tasty fruits that look like large strawberries (the same color and size), although they have dimpled, rough, inedible skin and a smooth, brown, inedible seed. These fleshy drupes grow in clusters of three to 50 tiny fruits. The fruit is peeled and usually eaten fresh or frozen, or can be made into sauces, jam, puree, or preserves.

How to Plant Lychee Trees

When to Plant

Spring planting outdoors, after any frosts have passed, is best. Like many other tropical fruits, lychee trees are not likely to bear fruit or grow to maturity in containers in indoor gardens. It's more of a novelty plant and will unlikely bear (unless you have a greenhouse).

Selecting a Planting Site

Also, ensure it's in a full-sun location protected from wind, as this tree can be susceptible to wind damage. It requires a subtropical outdoor planting site that does not experience freezing temperatures.

If the area is prone to flooding, plant the tree on a mound of soil. This can help ensure water runoff, and lychees dislike wet feet.

Spacing, Depth, and Support

Lychee trees are best planted at least 30 feet away from your home, other significant structures, or other trees in your home landscape. Planting them too close can impact their growth and fruit harvest, especially if shaded.

You can optionally use wooden stakes or supports to help this tree remain straight, but it's not necessary. However, never tie wires or rope around the trunk since it can harm it.

Lychee Tree Care

Here are the main care requirements for growing a lychee tree:

• Plant the tree in full sun, but first acclimate it.
• Place the tree in well-draining soil that is on the acidic side.
• Keep the tree on a watering schedule; it will only tolerate some drought.
• Treat the tree to highly humid conditions when possible.
• Protect the tree from moderate windy conditions that damage new, delicate growth.

Light

Lychee thrives in full sun, but the plants must be acclimated. Young plants not used to full sun will suffer from sudden exposure to bright light, but once acclimated, they will perform better.

Soil

Lychee does not like alkaline soils, so amending garden soil with pine bark or pine needles may be necessary. If you are trying to grow it as a potted plant, use slightlyacidic, well-draining potting soil.

Water

These plants prefer ample and regular water throughout the year. Some research has shown that mild drought stress in the fall and early winter can enhance flowering. Water young trees frequently as soon as the soil feels dry. More established trees can be watered once a week.

Layer with a 2- to 6-inch layer of bark or wood chip mulch to help retain moisture in the soil, keep roots at a consistent temperature, and keep away weeds.

Temperature and Humidity

Lychee is surprisingly tolerant of cold and can cope with short blasts of almost freezing weather, but it prefers warmer temperatures. Lychee trees need cold temperatures (32°F to 45°F) for at least 100 hours to bloom. These trees love high humidity but will fail in windy conditions due to damaged new growth.

Fertilizer

Feed once or twice during the growing season (spring and summer) with a weak liquid fertilizer, or use well-rotted compost around the tree's drip line to within 6 inches of the trunk.

Pollination

Lychee trees are self-pollinating, meaning you only need one tree. Pollen from one flower can fertilize another flower on the same tree. In an orchard, pollination is done by insects, but for indoor trees, you must hand-pollinate.

Types of Lychee

For centuries, lychees have been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat many ailments. Scientists have determined that fruits contain antioxidant properties against cancer, arterial disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, and brain and immune system disorders.

Lychees are members of the soapberry family, which includes rambutan, longan, and maple trees. Many different cultivars of lychee are used in other areas of the world. These are the most popular cultivars in the United States:

• Litchi chinensis 'Mauritius' has excellent fleshy fruit with just one large seed. It is a good choice if fruit production is your main goal.
• L. chinensis 'Brewster' is a vigorous tree with a spreading upright habit. It is well suited for areas that get a lot of moisture and is also a good cultivar for fruit production.
• L. chinensis 'Emperor' is considered one of the best container varieties. It is a slow-growing tree with a compact growth habit.

Harvesting Lychee Fruit

Lychee trees usually mature for at least five years before bearing fruit, though in rare instances, they may start producing fruit within three years. Before a lychee tree can bloom and bear fruit, it needs cool temperatures (32°F to 45°F) for at least 100 hours in the winter. They will then bloom early in the spring and bear fruit in the early summer.

The lychee fruits grow in clusters of three to 50 fruits, usually ripening in June to July and sometimes into September. Allow them to ripen on the tree to a pink-red color. Do not harvest when the fruit is green, as it will not ripen further once harvested. You can test one fruit in a bunch to see if it is sweet enough. Cut the entire bunch of fruit close to the branch to harvest.

You can maximize the chances of flowers and future fruit by pruning off new growth immediately after the harvest, stimulating new natural growth.

Harvesting Tip

Besides the color, you'll know a lychee fruit is ripe if it is firm but springy to the touch. It should also be fragrant. Lychee fruit that does not have a fragrance will not have much flavor.

Potting and Repotting Lychee

Lychee often grows to 35 or 40 feet when planted in the landscape, but it can be maintained as small patio trees in warmer climates. The plants should be repotted in pots every spring until they reach your ideal growing size.

To help keep the plant smaller, aggressively prune the main growing trunks annually to encourage a smaller, bushier plant.

Pruning

Pruning right after harvesting the fruit encourages regrowth. It allows new shoots and leaves to develop before the weather cools down—if the tree doesn’t fruit, pruning can also promote fruiting the following year.

Propagating Lychee

Lychee is typically propagated commercially by air-layering. This is a sophisticated technique where growers cut into a thin branch and then surround it with a packet of moist moss or soil. Roots will form in the cut area, allowing the grower to cut off the whole branch and plant it as a small tree. The best time to air-layer a lychee tree is in spring, but it can also be done in the fall.

For a home grower, here's how to propagate lychee by air-layering:

You will need a sharp knife, rooting hormone (optional), a growing medium like sphagnum moss, plastic wrap, zip ties (electrical tape or string), a pot, and slightly acidic, well-draining soil.

1. Choose a healthy, straight branch that's one to two years old.
2. Pick a point 12 to 18 inches from the tip of the branch, and clear a 1-foot section of any leaves.
3. Using a sharp knife, create a wound in the cleared area. Cut a ring around the branch and another ring 1 inch below it; connect the two rings with a vertical cut. Remove the bark and the soft tissue of the cambium layer, leaving the woody center.
4. Apply rooting hormone, if using, to the wound.
5. Apply moist sphagnum moss around the wound; ensure it's squeezed of excess water.
6. Wrap the sphagnum moss with plastic wrap so it's completely sealed tightly; the packed moss should be 3 to 4 inches thick around the wound.
7. Secure the plastic-wrapped wound with zip ties (or electrical tape or string).
8. Check for moisture and roots; if the moss is dry, spray with water to moisten it. Roots should appear in eight to 12 weeks if air-layered in the spring.
9. Once roots appear, cut the stem just below the rooted area.
10. Remove the plastic wrap—but leave the moss so the roots are not disturbed—and plant the branch in a pot filled with slightly acidic, well-draining potting soil. Place the pot in a spot with bright, indirect light and moisten the soil until the roots are well established.

How to Grow Lychee From Seed

A home grower is more likely to start lychee from seed. Take these steps:

1. To sprout seeds, first, soak them for three days in water.
2. Plant soaked seeds in a 12-inch-tall pot filled with well-draining potting soil.
3. Cover them 1 inch deep withpotting soil.
4. Keep them warm and moist.
5. Wait for sprouts to emerge (can take one to two weeks).
6. Once they've sprouted, move to a sunnier spot after a few weeks.

Common Pests & Plant Diseases

Keep a lookout formealybugs,aphids, and mites. Signs of infestation include tiny webs on plants, clumps of white "powdery" residue, or visible insects on the plant. They are also prone to moths, scale insects, root weevils, and nematodes.

A product like pyrethrum, a pesticide synthesized from chrysanthemum flowers, controls aphids and pests that flock to fruit trees. Spray it on the lychee per the product directions, and it should kill the pests when in contact. Treat infestations as soon as possible to prevent them from spreading to the rest of your collection.

Anthracnose is the main fungal disease that attacks this tree. Brown or black lesions may appear on leaves or fruit. The fruit can become entirely rotted. Remove infected areas of the plant and lightly spray the tree with a copper-based fungicide.

How to Get Lychee Trees to Bloom

Lychee trees can be inconsistent in flowering and bearing fruit each year, depending on the variety, tree care, and weather conditions.

Bloom Months

Lychee trees typically bloom between February and April.

What Do Lychee Flowers Look and Smell Like?

About 3,000 mini, light greenish-yellow flowers with white stamens sprout on panicles that are 1½ to 2½ feet long, but only a small number of flowers get pollinated, which leads to fruit. Lychee flowers do not have petals or fragrances. Fruit emerges from pollinated flowers in June and July.

How to Encourage More Blooms

Lychee trees need pruning after the growth season in late summer and a dormant period in the winter to bloom and bear fruit. Pruning encourages new growth of buds before the tree goes into a dormant period in winter, where temperatures must stay below 68 degrees Fahrenheit but above freezing for three to five months. Blooms should follow in the spring; if they do, the tree should start to fruit in early summer.

Even in the best conditions, when growing requirements are met, tree flowering and fruiting can vary from year to year.

Common Problems With Lychee

A lychee tree is relatively easy to grow, given the right conditions. However, there are a few signs of problems to keep in mind:

Fruit Split

The tree is experiencing too much water, either from heavy rainfall after a dry period or too much manual watering.

Tree Not Fruiting

The tree is likely too young to fruit. Grafted trees take around five years to begin fruiting, and trees grown from seed can take over 15 years to fruit. If it is an older tree, it could be that the plant did not get enough chilling hours during its dormancy to fruit well.

Leaf Drop

The tree could have been exposed to too much cold or freezing temperatures and has cold damage. Depending on its age, it can become damaged if temperatures drop between 24°F and 32°F.

From: thespruce