For quite understandable reasons, there has been a misconception that exotic fruits cannot be grown at home. Practice shows that this is not so difficult if you follow certain rules. Lychee is one of those plants that you can cultivate yourself, enjoying its fruits and excellent appearance. It’s worth understanding a little about the peculiarities of growing this foreign guest.
What is known about lychee
Names for this one interesting plant quite a bit of. Lychee is also called Chinese plum or Chinese cherry. In nature, lychee can reach 30 meters in height. Naturally, growing at home does not allow the plant to develop to such a size: in most cases its height is a maximum of 2.5 m. But usually lychee does not grow to such a size on a windowsill. Therefore, it will not require much space if the owners want to grow the tree themselves.
Lychees bear small fruits, the diameter of which rarely exceeds 4 cm. The shape of lychee berries is oval, while they themselves are covered with a tuberous peel. In many ways, the taste of such fruits is similar to that characteristic of grapes. Actually, this fact is also reflected in the alternative name of this plant. There are many interesting beliefs and myths associated with lychee. Therefore, all lovers of Chinese culture have now become interested in plants. But how exactly to grow it at home? Now we need to figure this out.
Growing
There are quite a few aspects that must be observed when growing such a tree. You will have to pay serious attention to the air temperature in the room, the quality of watering, and the composition of the soil in which the plant is planted. But it’s worth starting with planting, which is not as complicated as many other plants. IN general view You can imagine growing Chinese grapes as follows.
- Planting homemade lychee
As is understandable, correct planting largely determines how well lychee will develop in the future. You should start by purchasing the fruit itself. Regular fruits that can be purchased in the store will do. The fruit is cleaned, the seed is removed from it, and then washed well. Without waiting for the seed to dry, place it in a container with soil. It is better to use several seeds at once to increase the likelihood of good seedlings appearing.
The first shoots appear approximately 15 days after the lychee is planted in the ground. Every day before shoots appear, the soil needs to be watered. In addition, it is necessary to maintain a suitable temperature. It is about +35°C. Accordingly, you will have to keep containers with seeds under the sun. To speed up the appearance of sprouts, the container is also covered with cellophane or polyethylene.
So that when planting, lychee does not deliver big problems, immediately after the sprouts appear, you need to carefully maintain the temperature at a maximum of +25 ° C. In suitable conditions, the sprouts will gain strength very quickly. Usually they soon reach a height of 20 cm. After this aboveground part Lychee stops growing. But it is constantly evolving root system. To ensure that the roots do not encounter resistance as they develop, the tree should be transplanted into a large pot from the previous small container.
- Proper care for lychees
When the tree gains strength, it is necessary to provide it the right conditions for further development. There are several points here that require special attention. Firstly, you need to provide suitable lighting for lychees. It should be taken into account that such exotic fruit loves light. Perfect option– keep it constantly on the window if daylight hours last at least 12 hours. In winter, as is clear, this is impossible. To winter time The lychee also received sufficient lighting; it must be provided with additional lighting.
Following important condition good development tree is associated with its watering. Here you need to act very carefully, since both drought and too much watering are dangerous for lychee. Be guided by in this case can be determined by the condition of the soil in the pot where the plant is grown. As soon as it becomes a little dry, you immediately need to provide moisture. It is also desirable that the air in the room be humid. If air humidity is low, the plant must be periodically treated with water from a sprinkler or spray bottle. The water used for watering or spraying the fruit must be well settled. Fluid that is too cold or too hot will not work. Its temperature should be at room temperature so that the plant does not suffer damage. Otherwise, the root system may stop growing after some time.
And finally, room temperature plays a fundamental role for lychee. Even in winter, it should not fall below +20 °C. Lychee refers to heat-loving varieties. You can accelerate the growth of Chinese grapes if you make the most of daylight hours in spring and summer. It is necessary to constantly keep lychees on the window if a particular side of the house is constantly under the sun. In this case, the tree will receive sufficient lighting and will be able to develop faster.
- Fertilizing Lychee
Now it’s worth talking a little about how to fertilize this fruit. Sometimes gardeners and gardeners think that lychees can grow more actively if they fertilize as often as possible. In fact, this fruit also needs to be fertilized correctly and in small quantities. It is especially important to be careful when fertilizing the plant in the first year of lychee development. You can use fertilizing for the first time approximately 3 months from the moment the tree sprouts. Not used a large number of feeding, rich primarily in minerals. After this, you need to leave the fruit without fertilizing until it is at least a year old. And from the second year of life, lychees are fertilized once every 2 months. In this case, the likelihood that the plant will develop actively will be as high as possible. It remains to be reminded that excessive fertilization is also dangerous for this tree, so you should not use too much fertilizer.
Lychee care
It would be helpful to talk in more detail about how to provide lychee Better conditions for growth. The fundamental point in this case concerns hydration. The natural habitat of this plant involves the presence of humid air throughout the year. And in the case of homemade lychee, this is not so difficult. The ideal option is to use a humidifier constantly. In this case, the lychee will be able to grow normally, receiving sufficient moisture.
Fluctuations in air temperature are possible, but they should still be characteristic of a specific time of year. In summer, lychees are used to the fact that the temperature is consistently around 25-30°C. In winter it may be less, but not significantly. If the owners themselves become hot from constant attempts to heat the air in the room, it is better to use local heating using an infrared lamp. There is no need to point this type of lamp directly at the plants, but it is quite possible to place it next to the fruit. If you take these rules into account, you will be able to provide your “pet” with suitable conditions.
This plant does not make any incredible requirements for cultivation. Therefore, you can safely grow it at home or in an apartment. Then lychee will delight delicious fruits, although not immediately. All you have to do is be patient and wait for the fruit to appear. And then you will be able to enjoy the taste of Chinese grapes, not bought in a store, but grown independently almost on the windowsill.
Exotic fruits have long been common on store shelves, and they surprise no one. These include lychee - an oblong fruit almost flat shape with pimples on the peel. It is useless to ask most sellers about what it is and what it is eaten with. Unfortunately, they can sell anything on the market without even knowing what a particular product is. Let's talk about what kind of lychee this is, how it grows at home, how others eat it Interesting Facts We'll tell you about it.
This is a lychee (photo):
Lychee fruit at home
Yes, and if you really want to, such exotic plants can be grown on your windowsill, then transplanted to garden plot. This fruit is also called Chinese cherry or Chinese grape. All this is because the birthplace of lychee is precisely the southern regions of China, and today it grows in Korea, India, Siam, the American continent and even Europe.
The fruits appear on an evergreen tree, which can grow up to 30 meters high in natural conditions, and up to three meters in domestic conditions. This is a tree with a luxurious spreading lush crown, on which umbrella inflorescences first appear. Almost a dozen fruits appear from each inflorescence. The berries themselves are small in size - up to 4 centimeters in diameter, the red peel is rough. Inside contains creamy or white, similar to jelly. The taste of these fruits is somewhat reminiscent of the familiar grapes. But the difference is the large dark-colored bone inside, which is called the “dragon’s eye” because of its shape.
Lychee - how to eat it?
Lychee is characterized by a very pronounced aroma and subtle piquant taste. Before use, remove the seed from the fruit. For consumption, you need to choose ripe, ripe fruits with a bright, deep red skin. To determine whether the fruit is ripe in your hands, press on the peel: it will bend and then straighten, but will not crack. How to peel lychee fruit? If you want to cut it, use very sharp knife with a thin blade, otherwise all the juice from the fruit will simply flow out. Make a small cut in the skin; in ripe fruits, it is easily removed, and translucent, very aromatic pulp appears.
To remove the seed, the pulp can be carefully cut into two halves or carefully squeezed out - it all depends on whether you need the fruit for beautiful serving table or just eat.
If you don’t want to bother peeling the fruits, you can find ready-made peeled fruits in syrup in supermarkets. This delicious drinks, reminiscent of compote, which can be simply drunk, used for baking or for making other desserts and ice cream. Lychee is an excellent option for preparing light fruit salads. It goes well with pineapple, kiwi, mango, and figs. You can top the fruit with ice cream, yogurt, sugar syrup or honey - it all depends on your taste preferences.
If it is an exotic fruit, it is not at all necessary to prepare anything fancy from it. You can simply eat to your heart's content and reap great health benefits.
Growing at home
Having tried this miracle fruit, many will want to grow it in their own garden. This is what we do with most fruits that we like. For planting you will need the main element - a seed. You can plant in a container with a diameter of more than 8 centimeters. There must be in the day drainage holes for good water flow when watering.
First, drainage must be placed in the pot, and then soil is poured. You can place up to 5 seeds in one container at once. Rest assured, sprouts will definitely appear from all of them. Sprinkle the seeds with soil, the layer of which should not exceed 1.5 centimeters.
Carefully water the soil so as not to wash out the seeds. Cover the pot with film (you can use food film). Place the pot in a place in the apartment where it is very warm, for example, near a radiator. Direct sun rays there should not be, otherwise the soil will dry out quickly.
The first sprouted green leaves can be seen after 15-17 days. At this point, the film needs to be removed and the pot moved to the windowsill, closer to the light, but still not under the scorching sun. As soon as at least 4-5 leaves appear on each sprout, you can start planting each one in a separate pot. A plant can be considered an adult when the root system has grown and can be seen through the holes in the bottom.
Since the lychee fruit is still a representative of an exotic flora, it needs a lot of light and conditions close to tropical ones. Therefore, it is better to give it a place on the southern windowsill, slightly shaded from the sun. In the period from mid-autumn to the first days of spring, additional lighting will be required, which can be organized using lamps daylight.
The plant should not be allowed to stay at temperatures below 18 degrees in winter, and above 33 degrees in summer. It is precisely because of non-compliance with this temperature regime plants often die, so it is better to grow it in greenhouses than in the open sun. Lychee needs regular spraying, and watering should be done as the soil dries out. The plant loves mineral supplements, and pruning is carried out as necessary.
The article will tell you in detail about how to grow at home exotic plant- lychee, as well as how to care for it.
The fruit called “lychee” is very unusual and is considered exotic. Some call it a fruit, others say that lychee is a berry. Be that as it may, lychee not only has a pleasant and rich taste, but also great benefits. The benefit of the fruit is that it has a unique biochemical composition - a lot of vitamins and microelements.
It is immediately worth noting that lychee is not a large fruit, its diameter is approximately 3-4 cm. The weight of one berry does not exceed 15-20 grams. The peculiarity of the exotic fruit is its dense and slightly prickly peel, which covers the juicy and jelly-like pulp.
The color of the pulp is milky. Hidden inside the pulp is a large dark seed. Brown. The taste of lychee is very pleasant. The ripe fruit has a sweet tint with a slight sourness. If you try to find a comparison with other fruits, the taste of the pulp is somewhat reminiscent of cherries and pineapples. The aroma of the pulp is very fresh and sweet.
Lychee is a fruit common in Asia: China, Japan, India, Thailand. In these countries, lychee is often called the “eye of the dragon” for its visual similarity to an eye: a white apple and a black apple. For its beneficial and nutritional qualities, lychee has gained popularity in folk medicine. Many even consider it an aphrodisiac due to its rich zinc content, and therefore lychee is a mandatory treat on the tables of newlyweds.
Frequent consumption of lychee can have a beneficial effect on all body systems, increasing body tone, improving vascular function, “killing” cholesterol and lowering sugar. The great merit of lychee is its ability to regulate the water-salt balance in the body, relieve swelling and promote weight loss.
Lychee: whole fruit, pulp and seedIMPORTANT: Not only the pulp of the fruit is eaten. Healing decoctions are prepared from lychee peel. The seed, for example, in Vietnam and China is fried with spices in oil; raw lychee seed is considered poisonous.
Lychee: cross-section of the fruit 
Lychee pulp without peel. It is best to peel lychees with a sharp and thin knife. 
Lychee fruits on a tree, branches 
Tree with ripe lychee fruits Is it possible to grow lychee from a seed on a windowsill, like a house flower?
Lychee is exotic, but very beautiful plant, which has not only bright red fruits, but also graceful glossy leaves: elongated, pointed, long. The plant is more accustomed to growing in warm Asian countries, but if all conditions are met, it is also possible to grow a small lychee on your windowsill.
It is important to know that you can grow lychees only from the seed that was in the fresh berry (dried and canned fruits will not work). Of course, homemade lychee will not often delight you with abundant fruits, but, nevertheless, under close attention and your attentive care, you can find a beautiful plant.
Lychee plant with fruit at home How to choose a pot and soil for planting lychee?
After you eat the lychee pulp itself, try to remove the pit as carefully as possible so as not to spoil or damage it. In order to grow something you will need a small pot, no more than 8-9 cm in diameter.
Before planting, be sure to make a sufficient number of holes in the bottom of the pot so that the water does not stagnate in it and does not allow the plant to rot and drain completely. You can put a drainage layer on the bottom of the pot (special pebbles that retain moisture but allow water to pass through). Before planting, prepare the “correct” soil for lychee - a mixture of soil and peat.
IMPORTANT: It is best to choose a pot for lychee that is made from natural material, for example, from clay or ceramics. IN plastic pot the plant may “suffocate.”
Lychee: a domestic “adult” plant Lychee seed: how to germinate and plant?
It is important to know that when planting, you need to put not one, but approximately 4-5 lychee seeds in the ground. This is done quite simply: a bone is inserted vertically into the soft soil with a finger, no more than 2-3 centimeters deep. There should be no more than 1-1.5 cm of soil on top. The probability that the sprout will sprout is high.
After this, moisten the soil and cover the pot with polyethylene (cling film fits better Total). This will allow the sprout to remain in constant moisture and it will not dry out. For the first time, the pot should be placed in a warm, but not very warm place. sunny place(next to the battery, for example).
The time it takes for the sprout to sprout is 1.5-2 weeks. During this time, it is important to check the pot, adding moisture if required. The soil should not be dry for a day. Cover the pot with cling film each time. After a sprout appears on the surface, the film can be removed and the plant placed on the eastern windowsill (there should be little sun).
Lychee fruit - how a plant grows in a pot at home: photo
Once the sprout sprouts, you should carefully care for your lychee. First of all, temperature is important. To a young plant a temperature range of 23 to 25 degrees is required. The first few weeks after the sprouts appear on the surface, lychee grows quite quickly and actively, their height can reach 20 centimeters.
However, after vigorous growth in the “first months of life,” the plant “stops” and stops growing in size. The reason for this is the strengthening of the root system. The roots are so strong that if you have previously grown the plant in a plastic cup, you may notice it burst.
Lychee needs light approximately 12-15 hours a day, but it does not like direct sunlight. During the cool season, provide lychees with additional lighting. Make sure that lychee does not dry out, as the plant does not tolerate dry soil at all. Lychees should be watered as the top layer of soil dries out.
There is no need to water lychees cold water, settled and room temperature. Increase the humidity in the room as often as possible and spray the plant with a spray bottle. Feed organic fertilizers should only mature plant, not “younger” than 3-4 months.
Video: “Lychee - growing at home”
Lychee fruits are a rare guest on our table, because lychee trees prefer warmer climates. Grow lychees on summer cottage it won’t work, but create all the conditions to grow ornamental plant in a pot - worth a try.
Lychee fruits are tasty and aromatic, the leaves of this tree are green, and the crown is round and beautiful. Every summer resident would like to grow this tree on his plot, but due to the harsh climate, lychee will not bear fruit. It is quite possible to admire the beauty of this tree if you try to grow it from an ordinary seed.
How to choose a lychee seed for planting
Lychees are usually propagated by cuttings, this is the only way to get good harvest. But since the climate in our area is not suitable for mass cultivation of cuttings, you can plant and grow a small tree from seeds or seeds. To grow lychee, you will need to take a ripe fruit and remove the seed from it.
The fruits are easy to choose: they have hard red skin and a pronounced aroma. The pulp is sweet and translucent. Each fruit has one seed from which lychees can be grown. After removing the seed from the fruit, it is advisable to plant it in a pot immediately, because the viability of the seed is short, only 3-5 days. But it is undesirable to keep the seed for so long, since it is not known whether it will be possible to grow lychee from such a seed.
How to grow lychees from seeds
To grow this crop, the following conditions must be met:
- The room should be warm and humid, like in the tropics.
- After removing the seed, do not store it in the open air for a long time.
- If you are planning to plant lychees today, then it is advisable to open the fruit immediately before planting.
Growing rules:
- prepare a small container (for example, a pot for growing seedlings) with holes for drainage;
- pour a layer of fine expanded clay, then fresh soil for growing flowers;
- Moisten the soil thoroughly so that excess water flows out through the drainage holes;
- There is no need to wash the seed before planting; bury it only 3 cm into the ground;
- maintain the room temperature at least 25 degrees, and the maximum permissible level is 34-35 degrees;
- the humidity of the top layer is constant, but within normal limits. Frequent and abundant watering is unacceptable;
- live seeds should germinate quickly, within 1-4 weeks. Some may take a little longer. As practice has shown, out of 3 lychee seeds planted, 2 seeds sprouted in the 5th week after planting, and the last one sprouted 4 months later!
- when the first leaves appear, the pot should be placed so that the plant does not receive direct sunlight;
- seedlings quickly stretch upward, in 2-3 weeks they grow up to 20 cm, but then growth slows down and the adult home tree does not grow more than 30 cm in the first 2 years;
- During the first two years, a powerful root system develops, so the tree will need to be replanted several times during this period into a larger container;
- Lychee grown at home does not tolerate drafts and direct sunlight. Does not like the soil to dry out, so you should always maintain moderate humidity;
- does not tolerate lychee and stagnation of liquid, so it is so important to do good drainage so that excess liquid flows into the pan.
Lychee(Litchi chinensis) - liji, laysi, lisi, "Chinese plum", "Chinese grapes", "paradise grapes", "fruit of love", "Chinese cherry" - evergreen tree 10-30 meters high (at home it rarely exceeds two meters) from the Sapindaceae family. The closest relatives of lychees from the Nepheeae subfamily are also widespread: longan ( Euphorif longan), rambutan ( Nephelium lappaceum) and pulasan ( N. mutabile), but about them next time.
- Of the huge bunches of fruits, only a very small part of them ripens - 15-20 pieces.
- In ancient times, lychee was considered a fruit for the nobility, therefore people from low classes could only participate in its collection - eating lychee as food by peasants was punishable by terrible punishments.
- In India, from the moment it came to them, lychee was dubbed the “fruit of pleasure” and was used as a powerful aphrodisiac.
- Every year in the north of Siam (in the province of Chiang Rai) the lychee festival is held - the most unusual holiday in Thailand. The festival coincides with the Thai harvest of the “Chinese plum” (June 14-16). There are processions, competitions, fairs on the streets, and even a Miss Lychee beauty contest.
- Lychee fruits are widely used in folk medicine: treatment of heart disease, acceleration of hematopoiesis, weight loss.
- The main disadvantage of lychee is that the fruits picked from the tree lose their taste and nutritional properties within three days.
Growing lychee from seeds
It is quite possible to grow a lychee tree at home. Seed germination if observed certain conditions almost 100%, however, subsequently for successful development the plant requires compliance with some fairly certain requirements(temperature, light, humidity), as well as individual selection and combination of these parameters for each specific case.
To begin with, we purchase the fruits of the “Chinese plum” in the nearest supermarket (in the case of lychee, even “store-bought” fruits give good results at home growing). Next, we clean the fruit: carefully cut the pink crust along the equator with small scissors or a scalpel and release the “glassy” pulp, which, by the way, is very edible. The taste, to put it mildly, is not for everyone. Personally, the fruit did not evoke any olfactory or gustatory delight in me. Moreover, there remains a persistent aesthetic non-perception of the peeled fruit due to visual and tactile associations with the organ of vision... It immediately became clear popular name fruit - “dragon eye”. Other representatives of the Sapindovs (longan with rambutan) left the same feeling. But, fortunately, this has nothing to do with appearance these fragile indoor and greenhouse inhabitants.
After cleaning, the seeds are removed from the pulp and washed in warm, settled water. It should be remembered that lychee seeds quickly lose their germination capacity: the best results are shown by freshly extracted seeds, while after two days the germination rate drops to 10-20%. Seeds are planted in individual containers (you can also use standard plastic cups); plants do not tolerate joint planting of two or more seeds. Lychees grow well in organically rich, breathable soils with a pH of 5.5 - 7.5. After planting, a mini-greenhouse is organized over the glass (covered with cling film or covered with a bag - as it suits you) and kept until germination at a temperature of 30-35° C. Every day the greenhouse is opened to allow the planting to “breathe.” Naturally, the soil should not dry out throughout the entire period. In my case, a grow box was used for germination, and only daily inspection of the planting was required. After emergence of seedlings, the temperature is reduced to 25°
C. Typically, seedlings appear after 14-20 days (depending on temperature conditions). In my case, young “larvae” appeared on days 7-9. When germination of seeds outside the soil (fabric, cotton wool, sphagnum moss) shoots appear first, and roots develop after 5-6 days.
Lychee seedlings actively grow until they reach 15-20 cm in height. Then active growth stops for a year or two - the root system is actively developing. Because of this “stagnation”, sometimes seedlings are fertilized too intensively, which is unacceptable - you just need to take into account the physiological characteristics of the plant organism. Young lychee leaves appear whitish or red-pink in color, then become rich green color. From personal experience: although lychees have a fibrous superficial root system, already at the age of 20 days my seedlings “broke through” the bottom of plastic cups (200 ml) with their roots. A very difficult transfer followed (difficult due to the release of the roots from the plastic bottom of the cups) into a large container. After which the growth stopped (15 and 20 cm), but the condition of the plants remains excellent. This fact should be taken into account and initially take care of a slightly larger pot for planting.
A lychee tree needs 13-15 hours of daylight. Therefore, winter and autumn are a period of additional illumination. Optimal temperature in summer - 22-34 ° C, in winter - 18-25 ° C. Watering is one of the main limiting factors. Lychee does not tolerate flooding or drought. The superficial root system and, at the same time, strong “deep” roots require careful hydraulic regime. Naturally, watering is done with settled water at room temperature. It is best to combine “top” and “bottom” watering of the tree, however, coordinating the intervals with the temperature and humidity conditions of the room in which the tree is located. Water only after the top layer of soil has dried. Lychee does not tolerate stagnant water. High humidity air (fine spraying several times a day) is necessary for the full development of the plant.
In the first year, fertilizing is applied no earlier than three months after germination. On the second and further - once every one to three months. Plus, foliar feeding should be used.
And again, a little personal experience. Lychees, planted in a standard universal substrate mixed with vermiculite 2:1, germinated and initially grew more actively than seedlings in the soil of which 1/6 of the soil from under the “dacha” perennial pine was added. However, the latter are more promising (in terms of quantity and quality of leaves), although they are inferior to the former in growth and size of the latter.
Pruning is usually used only in the first two years of development to give the tree an aesthetic appearance. Hard pruning provokes the growth of vegetative shoots to the detriment of the formation of flower panicles. The plant requires cross pollination. At home, flowering and fruiting can be expected for at least 7-10 years. For the establishment and development of flower buds, seasonal temperature fluctuations are required (humid, warm summers and a monthly decrease in temperature in winter).