THE LYCHEE IN FLORIDA 9 


THE MARKET FOR FRESH LYCHEES 
Up to and including 1947 Chinese-American merchants in 
our cities took most of the American fresh fruit production 
of Lychees. Americans are just as fond of the fruit as are 
the Chinese and are eager customers. 
In 1949 the fresh fruit sold wholesale as high as $1.25 
per pound in small cartons, F.0.B. production points. The 
excellence of the fruit and consequent great and increasing 
demand for it, the limited areas in the world as well as local 
in which the Lychee will fruit, plus the necessarily slow meth- 
oe of propagating the trees should continue to keep the prices 
igh. 
The fresh ripe. Lychees hold on the tree for ten days to 
two weeks. Heretofore they had to be marketed within a 
few days after picking (unless kept under refrigeration) to 
retain the bright red color. Even under refrigeration it 
would retain the bright color only about three weeks. Plio- 
film has added to the time Lychees can be kept fresh while 
retaining the red color under refrigeration, thus extending 
the marketing season of the fresh fruit. If properly man- 
aged, the demand for the fresh fruit at profitable prices, will 
for many years be greater than can be supplied. 
AVAILABLE LYCHEE LAND 
The Ridge district of Florida is a strip of fairly high roll- 
ing land running north and south through Central Florida. It 
is in the heart of the citrus belt. The section from about Haines 
City to Lake Placid is considered to be excellent for commer- 
cial Lychee planting. It is the home of a number of fruiting 
Lychee trees that have gone through the occasional freezes 
with little or no harm, even though they have had no special 
eare. It is the home of two of the finest Lychee trees in 
Florida. Each has a spread of more than forty feet and each 
usually produces up to three hundred pounds or more of fresh 
Lychees of superior quality. One of these trees, less than 25 
years old, and still growing rapidly has produced 400 pounds. 
That section is fairly free from heavy freezes and yet has 
sufficient cold weather to provide a dormant period for the 
Lychee. Most of it has sufficient depth of soil to afford secure 
root growth. There are also good Lychee locations in Pin- 
ellas, Hillsboro, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Col- 
lier counties on the west coast and from Titusville to Home- 
stead on the east coast. The northern limits of the Lychee 
in Florida have not been definitely established. This will 
have to be determined by experience. At present it is con- 
sidered to be about a line through Leesburg and Sanford. 
Much of the land on the lower east coast is apparently 
not as well adapted to the purpose as the ridge and west 
