Lychee
Litchi chinensis
No cool spell, no flowers — the winter rest at 10-15°C decides whether there is a crop at all.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 32 ft 10 in
- In-row spacing
- 32 ft 10 in
- Between rows
- 42 ft 8 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Bright light — the brightest position under glass.
- Watering
- Rainwater, freely in summer and sparingly in winter.
- Feeding
- A feed for acid-loving plants every two weeks, spring through autumn.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- February
- Pruning
- Prune lightly after harvest, for shape and to keep the size down.
- Overwintering
- A cool winter spell at 10-15°C is what sets the flowers.
Through the year
- Feb–Mar Flowering
- Mar–Jun Fruit Set
- Jun–Dec Harvest
- Jan–Feb Harvest
Pests & problems
- Mealybugs Mealybug in white cottony masses
- Scale insects Scale insects, brown bumps that leave sticky honeydew behind
- Spider mites Red spider mite, showing as fine webbing under the leaves
- Anthracnose Anthracnose, dark brown spotting on both leaves and fruit
- Root & crown rot Root rot brought on by overwatering
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly Syrphidae
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Spider mites
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Spider mites
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Predatory mites Phytoseiulus & AmblyseiusHunts Spider mites
Fast orange mites that hunt spider mites egg-by-egg, and cousins that clear thrips and fungus-gnat larvae. Sold as a biological control for greenhouses; outdoors they follow humidity — mist and mulch, don’t dust with sulfur.
- Rove beetle StaphylinidaeHunts Spider mites
Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com