It’s that sticky time of the year. Lychee fruit are arriving in stores. Aficionados tear of the top with their teeth, suck out the sweet white flesh then spit out the black stone that lies in the centre. The pile of these latter mounts, as does the sticky juice dribbling over chin and fingers.
Sick and tired of germinating avocado pits with the potential to grow into 18-metre trees? Now is your chance for something different and that can be kept within bounds. But you have to be quick: Lychees must be sown within 24 hours of being ejected from their fleshy surrounds.
Native to low elevations of the provinces of Kwangtung and Fujian in southern China, Litchi chinensis may also be known as litchi, leechee, lichee, or lichi. The leaves, fruits and seeds are used in Chinese traditional medicine.
Its cultivation spread throughout southeastern Asia and the nearby archipelagos, reaching Hawaii in 1873 and Florida a decade later. Surprisingly it was not found in California until 1897, the arriving from Florida rather than across the Pacific. There are now trees over a century old there still producing the delectable fruit.
However, unless the anticipated global warming extends frost-free climates further north, southern California is about as far north as L. chinensis will tolerate. Most varieties need between 100 and 200 hours of standard chilling (0-5Cº) to bloom and produce fruit, suggests California Rare Fruit Growers, although mature trees will survive a few degrees of frost.
The newly emerged saplings are slow to grow, however, while their attractive orange to red new foliage makes then attractive indoor plants in less salubrious climates. They may reach a foot or so in height after two or more years restricted to a 15-centimetre (6-inch) clay pot on a cool windowsill. Soil should be slightly acidic, similar to that for tomatoes, with a pH of 5.5 or slightly more. Add extra peat moss to a rich organic soil such as that formulated for African violets.
While lychee trees may reach 12-metres at maturity, commercially grown they are much smaller. Pruning can keep them in bounds as a large indoor or conservatory plant although under such conditions they are unlikely to fruit. This is perhaps the only disappointment: a lychee tree in full bloom is a spectacular sight, with tiny yellowish blooms that lack petals produced in profusion.
The one mistake indoor gardeners can make is excessive fertilization to the young plants. Mature trees, though, are voracious and require adequate feeding during spring and summer. Again, those formulated for liquid feeding of tomatoes is ideal.
Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.
