Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[phoenixtropicals]

Here is the thread from an email question I was asked.

David:

Hi. I was just perusing your site and saw the photos of the lychees. Did you actually get edible fruit? I've had a plant for 4 or 5 years now and it's growing very slowly and hasn't produced any fruit. It flowered early on, but not for a few years.

Response:

Yes, I have had fruit, about 10 of them or so one year. The next year my plant got hammered by the 2007 hard freeze, but survivied. It seems to have been recovering since then. My lychee has also grown very very slowly. However, I have done two things in the last couple of years that have speeded up its growth, improved its color, etc. One was aerating the soil with some sand as explained in the article. The other was giving it light fertilizations with a 5-1-1, 0-10-10 fish emulsion mix. This year my plant looks like it is really going to fruit nicely. By the way, Longan's seem to be a much easier plant here than lychees, and have similar fruit.