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The Philippine
Star, Sunday, March 12, 1995 |
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BREAKTHOUGH
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Breakthrough in lychee
fruiting
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Do you have lychee trees that are ten years or more
and just standing there for several years without
producing a single fruit.
A breakthrough had been achieved by noted plant
physiologist-pomologist Bernardo O. Dizon, who
conducted research on how to induce lychees to bear
fruits by multi-root system, cloning, cincturing,
pruning and water stress.
Dizon revealed that old lychee tree and be induced to
flower by cinctured and pruning.
At Dizon's orchard cooperator's experimental and
demonstration farm in Tiaong, Quezon, several 6-yr.
old marcotted lychees were cinctured (making spiral
ring around the lateral branches) and pruning
(cutting of flushes or shoots). They are expected to
bear fruit this April.
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Dizon noted that 2-3 yr. old clone
lychee with double or tipple rootstock bear flowers without
cincturing or pruning.
Another method of inducing lychee to flower is by water
stress, but this technique is expensive during rainy season.
It can be done by covering the whole base of the root system
with plastic to make the soil dry up to wilting point during
the month of October, November and December. |
If after subjecting the 10-yr. old to cincturing and
pruning for 2 successive fruiting season, and still
it does not produce flowers, mostly likely the
lychee tree is male. Even it is marcotted taken from
male non-fruiting bearing tree, it will forever be
male.
Topworking
and cloning is the method used in transforming males
into female fruit bearing trees. The trunk is cut
1-2 ft. above the ground and 4-6 shoots are allowed
to grow in opposite directions.
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The new variety will bear
commercial fruit within two years from topworking and
cloning.
Contrary to common belief that lychee trees can only be
grown only in Florida, Taiwan and Thailand, Dizon found out
that it can be grown anywhere in the Philippines. Dizon
observed that even marcotted lychee tree outgrow rambutan,
lanzones; are drought resistant not easily attacked by pest
and disease.
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