How to Grow Lychee from Seed? Detailed Planting Methods and Steps

When it comes to lychee, perhaps everyone will think of the ancient story of Yang Guifei wanting to eat lychee. Back then, in order to win a smile from her and let Yang Guifei taste fresh lychee, several horses were ridden to death, which shows how rare it was to eat fresh lychee in ancient times, but now it is much easier to eat fresh lychee.

What Is Lychee  

Lychee is a subtropical evergreen fruit tree of the Sapindaceae family. Its scientific name is Litchi chinensis Sonn., and it is also known by names such as dali, danli and lizhi. The tree can reach 8-20 m tall. The stem is much branched and gray; the branchlets are cylindrical, the leaves are alternate and compound, 10-25 cm long including the petiole; the leaflets are slender, green and glossy on the upper surface, with a protruding pointed tip. In spring it bears small greenish-white or pale yellow flowers in panicles. The fruit is heart-shaped or round, and the rind has many scale-like protrusions and is bright red, purplish red, greenish green or greenish white; the seed is oblong, brown to blackish red, and glossy. The flesh, when fresh, is semi-transparent and creamy, tender and juicy, sweet with a delicate fragrance and aroma. Lychee is a precious fruit unique to China. The two characters "lychee" come from the Western Han dynasty, while its cultivation began in the Qin and Han dynasties and flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, giving it a history of two to three thousand years so far. Lychee is relatively difficult to keep fresh; untreated lychee has the characteristic that "on the first day the color changes, on the second day the fragrance changes, on the third day the taste changes, and on the fourth day the color, fragrance and taste are all gone." Fresh lychee begins to appear on the market every year in May, with June and July as the peak season. The main type is black leaf lychee, and other varieties include nuomici lychee and Yuhebao.  

Points to Note When Growing Lychee  

1. During the peak season in June and July, buy fresh lychee from the market, share it with your family, keep the leftover lychee seeds and collect enough seeds. Choose the "black leaf" lychee variety, and do not buy the expensive "Yuhebao" lychee, because the seeds of Yuhebao are underdeveloped.  

2. Remove the flesh and white soft tissue (at the bud point) from the top end of the lychee seed, and wash it clean.  

3. Soak the lychee seeds in water, just enough to cover the seeds, and change the water every day. After soaking for 3-6 days, the shell will crack slightly and the bud point (the white part after cracking) can be seen, and then it can be planted. After the shell cracks, soak for another 2-3 days to speed up the emergence of new sprouts.  

4. A suitable pot without drainage holes  

Put in sterile potting soil to about nine-tenths full, and spray some water until the soil on the surface feels moist  

Use a pencil or ballpoint pen to poke holes, and bury the seeds with the cracked bud point facing up into the holes, one after another, without spacing, slowly arranging them neatly in concentric circles from the outside inward.  

Choose seeds with a similar degree of cracking and plant them in the same pot, so that germination will be more consistent. Then fill the surface gaps with Maifan stone or other small gravel, spray water back and forth three times with a sprayer, and remember to spray water once every day.  

5. Next, wait for germination. After one week, all the new sprouts can emerge, tender red with a touch of pale green, small plant after small plant, very cute.  

6. After the 10th day, new leaves grow, and the leaf color is light brown.  

7. After the 13th day, the leaves are dense, and the leaf color slowly turns pink, light coffee and light yellow.  

8. After the 15th day, the leaves are even denser, and the leaf colors include light coffee, light yellow and light green. You can see leaves of different colors in the same pot at the same time, very beautiful.  

9. After the 19th day, the leaf color will change from light green to dark green. Enjoying the process of the leaves changing is a very interesting thing.

Building a Lychee Plantation  

1. Choose a good site. For high-yield lychee cultivation, it is ideal to choose open terrain with a slope below 30 degrees, loose and fertile soil, and a water source on hilly or sloping land as the development plantation.  

2. Do good planning. For the selected site, carefully do the work of variety selection and the planning of divisions, roads, drainage and irrigation systems, fertilizer bases, shelterbelts and auxiliary buildings, so as to facilitate standardized management of the orchard.  

3. Reasonably determine planting density. Generally, for hilly land, a row spacing and plant spacing of 3.5×3.5 m or 3.5×4 m, with 50-60 plants per mu, is a more reasonable density.  

4. Dig large holes and apply enough base fertilizer. For reclaiming hilly land to build an orchard, open contour terrace strips or contour trenches according to the planting row spacing specifications. Then dig planting holes at the selected plant spacing points; the hole specifications are 1 m each in length, width and depth, and put 40 kg of thoroughly decomposed organic fertilizer such as garbage compost, green manure, barnyard manure and pig and cattle manure into each hole as base fertilizer.  

5. Plant carefully. When planting, hold the seedling with one hand and gently backfill fine soil with the other, backfilling to about 2 cm above the roots, water thoroughly to settle the roots, then continue backfilling, and when the backfilled soil is about 10 cm above the ground, form a tree basin, then cover with thatch or stem grass to retain moisture, and set up a support beside the seedling to prevent the wind from shaking the seedling loose and causing death. After planting, water once every 3 days on sunny days, pay attention to drainage to prevent waterlogging on rainy days, and check survival after 30 days and replant in time.

Benefits and Effects of Lychee  

1. Supplement energy, benefit intelligence and nourish the brain. Lychee flesh contains rich glucose and sucrose, with a total sugar content above 70%, ranking first among many fruits, and has the effect of supplementing energy and increasing nutrition. Research has shown that lychee has a nourishing effect on brain tissue and can noticeably improve insomnia, forgetfulness, mental fatigue and other conditions.  

2. Enhance immune function. Lychee flesh is rich in vitamin C and protein, which helps enhance the body's immune function and improve disease resistance. Since ancient times, it has been regarded as a precious tonic.  

3. Lower blood sugar. Lychee contains an amino acid that has a blood sugar-lowering effect and is very suitable for people with diabetes.  

4. Reduce swelling and detoxify, stop bleeding and relieve pain. In addition to its widely known nourishing effect, lychee can also be used for surgical diseases such as tumors, scrofula, malignant boils and swelling, and traumatic bleeding.  

5. Stop hiccups and stop diarrhea. Lychee is sweet and warm, strengthens the spleen, and can also descend rebellious qi, making it a good dietary remedy for people with stubborn hiccups and fifth-watch diarrhea.

With the continuous development of our country's planting industry, it is now relatively easy to eat fresh lychee, but the market demand for lychee increases every year, and the market price of lychee is never too low each year, so its development prospects are still very good.