What to Do When Lychee Trees Bloom but Bear No Fruit? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Solutions
Lychee adapts to growing in tropical environments, and with proper timely care it generally grows well. However, under extensive management and neglect, it easily develops the phenomenon of blooming without bearing fruit, and after long-term neglect it becomes merely ornamental. This causes certain losses to the economic benefits of cultivation. So in order to maximize profits, the measures described below are needed!
I. Causes
Continuous rainfall washes away pollen and affects pollination, or days of strong wind scatter the pollen and cause poor fertilization. Hot weather prevents pollen from opening, making fertilization impossible. Compacted soil that cannot breathe, poor and nutrient-deficient soil, and insufficient water all cause poor tree growth with not enough nutrients to support fruit set. Pests and diseases damage the tree, weakening its vigor and causing fruit drop.
II. Adjustment Methods
1. Control water and fertilizer
At every stage of growth and development, fertilizer should be applied in a timely manner according to the overall situation, observing the response of the leaves, fruit and branches to supplement the trace element fertilizers the tree needs. After fruit harvest each year or during spring bud break and shoot flushing, apply 70% of the total annual amount of decomposed fermented farmyard manure as base fertilizer. At the same time, from flower spike emergence until before blooming, spray organic liquid fertilizer on the leaves, such as the plant nutrition regulator Yuhualing No. 2, 2-3 times. But do not apply nitrogen fertilizer before blooming, to avoid excessive vegetative growth.
2. Shorten the flower spikes
When the main flower spike grows to about 10 cm, it needs to be cut back, leaving 4-5 strong side flower spikes to avoid nutrient consumption. Combined with spraying plant nutrition regulators, this improves the leaves' photosynthetic capacity, produces more nutrients to meet the growth and development needs of the tree and fruit, and maintains good tree vigor.
3. Remove buds and thin branches
Once the branches and shoots have grown enough to meet the growth and fruiting needs of the current and following year, promptly thin out crossing branches, overlapping branches, pest- and disease-damaged branches, weak branches and withered branches to avoid nutrient consumption. Remove the vigorous water sprouts at the top to eliminate apical dominance, store nutrients and balance tree vigor; this also allows the tree to get ventilation and light, preventing flower and fruit drop caused by a closed internal canopy environment under low temperatures and rainy weather.
4. Thin flowers and protect fruit
Let about 50%-70% of the first batch of flowers drop, then cultivate the later flowers into female flowers to promote fruit set. If the fruit needs to be ripened early, after the first batch of female flowers has completed pollination and fertilization, do not retain the later flowers.
5. Hand pollination
When the anthers split open, use a wet brush to collect pollen and mix it with sucrose and 0.01% borax to make a pollen solution, then spray it on the open female flowers within half an hour of collection.
Lychee trees that only bloom without bearing fruit have the above causes. I hope that after understanding them, you can address the problem of your own lychee trees not bearing fruit in a targeted way, and take corresponding measures to promote blooming and fruiting and achieve a good yield.