Litchi Cultivation Guide

LITCHI CULTIVATION

From Seed To Fruit Complete Crop information

Litchi

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About Litchi Litchi is tropical plant that belongs to the soapberry family. It originates from China. There are three subspecies of Litchi, but only one is commercially important (cultivated as a source of food). Cultivation of lychee started 2.000 years ago. Lychee was favourite type of fruit of many Chinese emperors. Litchi grows on well-drained, slightly acidic soil. It can be found in tropical and subtropical areas around the world today. Litchi requires cold weather during the winter for the successful development of flower buds and warm, moist weather with high temperatures during the summer for the production of fruit. People cultivate Litchi as a source of food and in ornamental purposes. Litchi was first described and introduced to the West in 1656 by Michael Boym, a Polish Jesuit missionary, who was at the time part of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth. In the 1st century, fresh lychees were in such demand at the Chinese Imperial Court that a special courier service with fast horses would bring the fresh fruit from Guangdon. It produces individual male and female flowers, meaning it’s a monoecious plant, gathered in long terminal clusters composed of up to 3,000 flowers. Litchi looks like a bumpy strawberry with roundish, sharp protuberances.

Botanically speaking, lychee is drupe. The fruit grows arranged in dense clusters of 3 to 50; it ripens 100 to 120 days after pollination.

Litchi have significant amount of water content and fiber, which has a soothing effect on the stomach. The fibre regulates the bowel movement by ensuring its smooth passage through the digestive tract. It also adds bulk to the stool and increases your digestive health. Litchi is also known as "Chinese strawberry" because it originates from China and looks like strawberry. This fruit is symbol of love and romance in China

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Litchi

Farming requires the dedication of many of our natural resources, including land, water, and climate. So let’s talk about these important points.

Farmers need natural resources , such as land, air, nutrients, water and sunlight for heathy crop.

Every crop is highly dependent on the climate. Climate aects all components of crop production. The second key component is soil. It i s a key e l e m e nt of agriculture.

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Without it we wouldn´t be able to grow plants, which are used as food for both humans and animals. Like climate or soil Water is also very important for both livestock and for plants. It forms a large part of all plant tissues as well as being an essential component of all animal body cells. In crop agriculture, water is an important climatic factor. It affects or determines plant growth . And the last process is harvesting. It is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. For maximum vase life of cut flowers, harvest flowers daily at their proper stage of development. Harvesting too early or too late significantly reduces the vase life of the flowers. With these sources farmers can easily grow a healthy crop.

Litchi Farming Litchi is very delicious fruit and is very much liked by the consumer during summers.

It is generally consumed as a fresh fruit. Litchi fruits has no competition from other fruits as it comes in the market in May-June and faces no marketing problem.

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Litchi

Litchi performs well under humid conditions in subtropical climate. The fruit size and other fruit development characters are greatly aected by the humidity in the atmosphere.

Litchi prefers valley like situations but can be grown on higher altitude with suďŹƒcient moisture condition. Litchi is prone to severe frost damage. Severe frost in winter and harsh summers are limiting factors for the success in litchi cultivation.

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Climate & Soil Requirement for Litchi Cultivation Litchi is very fastidious to its soil requirements. It thrives well on deep well drained loamy soils, with high organic matter content and free from any hard pan. Since Mycorrhiza develop on the roots very fast in little acidic soil reaction, hence, litchi plants grow fast in acidic soils. It can be grown on variety of soil. Deep, fertile, well drained, medium texture soil is suitable for litchi cultivation.

pH of soil should be 7.5 to 8 . L i t c h i c ro p c a n n o t tolerate high pH and saline soils. The roots can tolerate submerged conditions for a number of days.

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Litchi

Land preparation & Sowing Requirement for Litchi Cultivation Mix farm yard manure 25kg well with the top soil and ďŹ ll the pits 5cm above soil level. Apply irrigation to settle down the soil in pit. At the time of planting lift some soil from the centre of the pit with the help of a planting board and place the earth ball in the hole.

Level the soil around the plant. It is preferable to use soil from a litchi orchard for leveling of the hole of newly-planted plant. This will help in the fast growth of newly-planted plants due to the presence of mycorrhizal fungi. Apply irrigation soon after planting.

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The planting of litchi should be preferred during September-October. However, in the lower hills where rains continue up to August end planting can be advanced to end July. Two years old plants in the nursery should be preferred over one year old. The mild temperature with humidity during October and November help in the establishment of litchi plants better than those planted in July-August.

Plants should not be planted too deep in the pits. Deep planted plants do not perform well.

Litchi is generally planted at 8 to 9 metres apart in a square system. Thus 144-121 plants can be accommodated in one hectare. For planting on hexagonal system litchi should be planted at 10m x 10m, which require 105 plants per hectare. The pits should be prepared two months prior to planting. One metre deep and one metre diameter pits should be dug. Keep top half of soil on one side and lower half on the other

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Litchi

Irrigation Requirement for Litchi Cultivation

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Sufficient soil moisture is a prerequisite for profuse growth and good fruiting in litichi.

During rains no irrigation may be given.

Shortage of moisture in soil adversely affect the growth of trees. Young as well as bearing trees need frequent irrigations. The plants should be irrigated after 4-5 days during hot months and interval may be increased to 7-10 days as the temperature falls.

The basin should be gradually increased as the plants spread. Mature bearing trees should be irrigated through flooding of small segments. Each segment may including 4-6 trees. In such a way sufficient water will be made available to the trees. Much of the water will be saved which otherwise would be needed for flooding of an acre, hectare or more as one segment. Growing of ‘moth’, cowpeas as cover crop in basins shall help in the fast growth of litchi plants.

No irrigation should be given in October and November. From December to February irrigation may be given at an internal of 20-30 days depending upon the winter rains. No irrigation is given at full bloom stage which normally comes in mid March to mid April depending upon the cultivar under Punjab conditions. During the fruit development period, i.e., May and June irrigation may be given at an interval of 4-5 days. Sufficient moisture in soil reduce the cracking of fruit.

Young trees should be irrigated through modified basin system of irrigation.

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Litchi

Fruit Borer

Pest & Diseases Of Litchi

It feeds on pulp and thus damage fruits and make unfit for human consumption. Small pin head hole can be seen on fruits.

Mite

Snails

Grey Weevil

Serious pest of Litchi. Nymph and adults suck sap from the under surface of leaf, shoot etc. Due to mite infection, leaves turn yellow to greyish yellow. Affected leaves get curl, twisted and later get defoliate.

Snails do not belong to class insecta but has become major pest of litchi orchards. It attacks the trunks and scaffolds and suck the cell sap. It is very active during rainy season.

A small grey weevil feeds on the leaf edges giving ‘U’ shaped cuts. The weevil remains active throughout the flushing period. The larvae feed on roots which could be checked by deep hoeing before panicle emergence.

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Downy Mildew

Anthracnose

Lichens

It is also known as brown blight. Brown lesion along with white powdery growth observed on leaves, flower and immature fruits. It attacks also on ripen fruits.

Deep chocolate color irregular spots are observed on leaves, branches, flower and fruits.

Due to closer plantation than the recommended planting distance, the lichens invade the shaded foliage. This affects the photosynthetic activity of the trees.

The new flushes are attacked by many pest and diseases pest through out the litchi growing area. Litchi is susceptible to a wide range of insect & diseases. Among the most destructive pest are the Grey Weevil, Bark Eating-Caterpillar , Leaf Roller, Citrus Mealy Bug. And the diseases are Fruit Rot, Downy Mildew, Shoot Drying and Lichens.

Red Rust Small dark algae are observed on patches on lower side of leaves. Spread quickly and later on develops velvet reddish brown to orange colour growth. Affected leaves show curling of leaves.

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Litchi

Fruit Borer

HPM’S CONTRIBUTION 14

HPM is a highly focused research driven agrochemical company. Every day HPM touches thousand of lives. At HPM, we want make agriculture better for farmers and families. we pledge to do so in a transparent and sustainable way. In future we will do more than treat agricultural problems—we will aim to make a remarkable impact on farmer’s lives.

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24 Karat Dose : 1.2-2 ml in ltr of water 24 Karat is unique combination of Sea weed extracts and GA . Gibberellic Acid acts synergistically with plant metabolism and accelerates the growth functions of the plant. Also improves the physiological efficiency of the crop by stimulating the hormonal and enzymatic activities and increases the yield and quantity of the crop produce. 24 Karat mobilizes reserves in seed to germinating point leading to breaking of seed dormancy and faster germination 24 Karat stimulates cell division and elongation that causes internodes to stretch leading to better growth of the plant. Improves taste and quality of fruits , and enhances their marketability specific to crop. Improves photosynthesis and plant metabolism, Improves leaf area and root system. Regulates GA: ABA ratio leading to less flower and fruit drop. It increases stem length in flowers grown for export.

Aasra Dose : 5 ml in 15 ltr of water Aasra solution spreads quickly, and provides enhanced spreading of agrochemicals on the leaf surfaces and leads to better spray coverage, which improves the efficacy of the agrochemical used. It is when added to spray water tank lowers the tension of spray water on leaf surface, which promotes the better spreading and penetration of Agro product. Aasra is compatible with mostagrochemical formulations and can be used on awide variety of crops. It has improved deposition of the agro product which enhances its coverage and retention on foliage. It ensures the solution doesn't wash off even after immediate rain. Aasra is designed in such a way that it ensures proper wetting of leaf surface, which makes the pesticide or agro product uptake and absorption rapidly by the plant. It ensures the proper penetration of the agrochemical product into the plant by reducing the droplet sizes of the spray. It is suggested to uses Aasra with agrochemicals at0.025%-0.1% dose.

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Litchi

Fruit Borer

HPM Gold Dose : 4 kg / acre

HPM GOLD is unique product containing microbes as Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (VAM) and has broad spectrum action in granular form. It contains granular spores and other propagules of VAM Mycorrhizal Fungi in a granular carrier and has broad spectrum fertilizer activity. Due to high solubility in water it is absorbed rapidly through plants and roots, resulting maximum supply of compost and micronutrient to the crop. roots growth with excellent root setting, resulting greenness by vanishing yellowing in crop. It helps in greater utilization of nutrients, and provides plant protection from disease causing organism to the root and also makes insect resistant plant. It is completely safe to use HPM Gold. It also combats with the drought and stress loss by the crop. Its mycelial threads penetrate inward into the root, thereby increasing the surface area for absorption and translocation of essential plant nutrients including Phosphorus, Nitrogen, Sulphur, Calcium, Zinc and copper.

Heera Zinc Plus 250 gm per acre / 250 ltr. of water Zinc is most important nutrient in all the micro nutrient.

It used manly in to improve nutrient growth in Soil.

It improves the health and makes greenery in crops.

It acts as resistant against disease and gives proper growth.

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Harvesting The litchi plants start bearing after fifth year of planting and the yield continue to increase with the increase in tree size up to 20 years of age. Litchi cultivars start ripening of fruit as early as June as in Dehradun and continue up to July as in Calcutta. The fully mature and ripe fruits should be harvested since no improvement in fruit quality take place after the fruit is harvested. The fruit should be harvested w h e n a re p re s e n t a t i v e colour on the epicarp (Skin) characteristic of the cultivar has developed and finely pointed tubercles on the skin have flattened/ smoothened.

While harvesting whole of the cluster along with 15-20cm of leafy branch should be cut with a sharp secateurs. The presence of foliage will help the fruit to escape wilting. Three to four pickings are made per tree to fully harvest the trees since all the clusters do not ripen at one time. The harvested fruit is kept in shade to maintain freshness.

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