Hi all,

I never have any trouble getting Lychee stones to germinate. They grow well to about 6-7" tall, get a bunch of leaves, seem to be growing fine. They all then start to get the tips of the leaves brown, the ones I had last year eventually had all the leaves turn brown and then the plants died.

Does anyone know what this is and, more importantly, how to avoid it. I have one or two that appear OK and strong but the others are starting the brown leaf thing again as Autumn comes on.

Thanks,

Richard

Young lychee leaves, especially on young seedlings, are amazingly susceptible to wind injury. Just a good breeze is all it takes. Growers often surround newly set trees with some sort of low fence or wall, temporarily, to get them through this phase.

The other possibility is too much salt content in the soil. Do you know about your water quality? How much fertilizer are you using?

I suspect it's wind, though.

The Lychees have lived in the house all summer so maybe it's not wind. I have not used any fertiliser as I read that they don't like too high mineral content, they are planted in "normal" general purpose compost, they seem to like that well enough when young..

One time I did soak the pots through with lots of clean water a couple of times to hopefully rinse out any nasties they didn't like. I have no idea about water quality.. it comes out of the tap.. maybe I should collect rainwater for them?

Thanks,

Richard

Well I don't know. I'd be surprised if your tap water were very salty, if you're inland. If you're near the sea, maybe. I'd think your municipal water authority could tell you about the salts content, as well as the pH of the water.

I suspect it's salt buildup. I'm growing or was about 150-200 seedlings in little cups in my backyard. At one point I started getting the brown leave issue. Some seedlings were killed. Some were more suseptible.

Changeing the soil or moving the seedling seemed to stop it. As well as running water through that was half DI and have hose water.

I really suspect it was salt build up as my water is really hard.

Most of my seedling came from Lychees supposedly from Mexico. A few from a different vairety supposedly from Taiwan if the store signs were correct.

Interestingly enough the 4 Rambutan I have growing indoors got the same problem at one point.

Thanks for that, I have flushed them through with plenty of clean water again tonight, I did this once before, that may be what's got them this far, last year they had all died by this time. The stronger ones are still putting out new leaves though so i am still hopeful they will last through the winter.

Richard

Just curious, but are the roots at the bottom of whatever container you are useing?

Just checked them all... one or two of the smaller pots (4" diameter) have a few roots visible through the drain holes but not loads. The worst of the brown leaved ones are in the smaller pots though, the ones in the larger pots seem to be suffering a bit less but there is no relationship between amount of growth and pots, some of the larger plants have grown up in the smaller pots, so I have resisted potting them on again and again.

I can post some images if that would help.

Thanks,

Richard

I was just curious because I don't get the browning of leaves until the roots are pretty much pot bound in both Lychee and the 4 Rambutans I have.

I have posted some images

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eightdaystomidnight/

You can see the brown on the leaves, it starts at the tips then works its way along the edges, gradually filling into the leaf centre.

I will have a look at repotting the worst one in the morning (it's late here now) and see if it's getting potbound a little.

I have just repotted the two worst ones, one had some roots at the bottom, not what I would consider potbound at all, and the other had just the one rootlet visible. Have put them into larger pots, will see if they recover any.

Richard

Update,

I have brought them all inside now. They are on a broad south facing windowsill and I keep a water spray thing beside them. They get misted 3 or 4 times a day whenever I pass them on the stairs. The brown is not growing and one or two plants are surviving without any brown at all. I'm well pleased so far. Hopefully I can get them through the winter.

Richard

Mine are all still outside here. Hopefully your new growth will be normal.

Two of them have died over the winter and all of them have brown leaves.. some more than others.

I have kept on absolutely drowning them once every two weeks or so to try and drain out any nasty salts in the compost and it seems to be working.

I have some with new leaves sprouting so am hopefull for the summer that they will still be alive.

Richard