Yield Performance of Six Lychee Cultivars Grown at Two Locations in Puerto Rico

Abstract

<jats:p>The globalization of the economy, increased ethnic diversity, and a greater demand for healthy and more diverse food production has increased the demand for tropical fruits. There is a lack of formal experimentation to determine yield performance and fruit quality traits of lychee (<jats:italic>Litchi chinensis</jats:italic>) cultivars. Six lychee cultivars (Bosworth-3, Brewster, Groff, Mauritius, Kaimana, Salathiel) grown on Mollisol and Inceptisol soils were evaluated for 8 years at the Adjuntas Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR-Adjuntas) and La Balear farm, Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, respectively. At UPR-Adjuntas and La Balear, cultivar Groff had a significantly higher production (257,296 fruit/ha) of total fruit than other cultivars, whereas Salathiel had the lowest. However, total fruit production of ‘Groff’ was not significantly different from ‘Kaimana’ and ‘Bosworth-3’at La Balear. At UPR-Adjuntas, cultivars Groff and Bosworth-3 had significantly higher number of marketable fruit than the rest of the cultivars averaging 171,760 fruit/ha. At La Balear, ‘Kaimana’ had a higher number of marketable fruit, but it was not significantly different from ‘Groff’, ‘Bosworth-3’, and ‘Mauritius’, averaging 291,360 fruit/ha. At both sites, individual fruit weight of marketable fruit was higher in ‘Kaimana’ than the rest of the cultivars. However, at La Balear, there were no significant differences between ‘Kaimana’ and ‘Mauritius’. At both locations, cultivars exhibited erratic production patterns, which were characterized by lower production during 1 or 2 successive years following heavy cropping. At current farm gate prices and fruit yield reported in this study, cultivars Groff, Bosworth-3, and Kaimana can generate a good income for growers, and allow them to diversify crops as part of their farm operations.</jats:p>

Growth and Nutrient Concentration of Lychee Grown on an Acid Ultisol

“…'Brewster' is a vigorous midseason commercial cultivar in Florida; 'Bosworth-3' is an Australian selection that bears fruit regularly; 'Kaimana' is a seedling selection of the Chinese cultivar Hak Ip. In contrast to others (e.g., 'Salathiel'), these cultivars exhibited vigorous growth when grown in heavy soils typical of some mountain regions of Puerto Rico and having a slightly acidic pH of %5.6 (Goenaga et al 2016). Cultivar rootstock seedlings were $2.5 months old and had an average (over cultivar rootstock seedlings) height, stem diameter, and leaf number of 13.1 cm, 2.8 mm, and 16.8 leaves, respectively, when the experiment started.…”

“…China is the leading producer of lychee worldwide but the local demand is so strong that the country imports fresh fruit during the off-season (Huang et al 2005); other countries such as India, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, and countries in Central America and Africa also produce this fruit commercially for domestic and export markets (Altendorf 2018). The edible portion of the lychee fruit is a fleshy, translucent white sarcotesta, which contains 17% to 20% total soluble solids surrounding a single ovoid to oblong glossy dark-brown seed (Goenaga et al 2016;Subhadrabandhu and Stern 2005). Depending on production technology and environment, yield can range between 1542 and 9072 kg•ha À1 (Huang et al 2005).…”

“…Depending on production technology and environment, yield can range between 1542 and 9072 kg•ha À1 (Huang et al 2005). Goenaga et al (2016) evaluated six lychee cultivars at two locations in Puerto Rico during 8 years of production. Highest average yield (6567 kg•ha À1 ) was obtained by cultivar Kaimana.…”

El cultivo de carambolo (<i>Averrhoa carambola</i> L.) y su comportamiento en el piedemonte del Meta (Colombia). Una revisión

“…Perez et al (2005) reportan para México frutos con pesos entre 125 y 147 g; y longitud entre 11 y 12 cm, el valor de diametro transversal es similar, y los SST estan enre los 8,5 y 9,6. Valores similares a los de Perez et al (2005) son reportados por Goenaga (2007) para Puerto Rico en relacion a las variables de algura, diametro y SST. Tabla 3.…”

Long-term Productivity of Three Rambutan Cultivars Grown in an Ultisol Soil in Puerto Rico

“…Erratic fruit production or ''offyears'' are typical in many tropical fruit crops (Goenaga and Jenkins, 2012;Goenaga et al, 2016). Wheelwright (1986) reported a wide yearto-year variability for fruit production among populations of 22 species in the laurel (Lauraceae) family.…”