Lychee fruit facts

Lychee fruits are very sweet owing to the many flavors they come with and this gives them an edge over other types of fruits. Many people just get to see them in the market places with no knowledge of how they grow but this article will take care of that by looking at the main development stages of lychee fruits and how long they take to mature as well as ripen. Like any other type of fruit, it starts at the flowering stage which begins in the early months of winter and continue to blossom. Appearing in clusters of 12 to 30 inches, they contain both male and female terminals but the male ones emerge and open before the females. The next stage is the formation of the fruit itself and this is mainly from the female flower after it is pollinated. This results to the swelling of the ovary which then transforms to a real lychee fruit.

After that comes, the green stage which entails the dropping of some small fruits from the tree owing to the strong wind and other natural factors. Then there is the red stage where the fruit develops coloration and it depends on the variety to determine when this starts. For instance, the commercial Mauritius are the first varieties to start ripening followed by Brewster. If you pick a lychee fruit when not fully ripe it may have a strange taste but this is the right time for those growing these fruits for commercial purposes to pick. Finally, there is the ripe stage when the fruits begin to swell with juice and lots of sugar. Signs that a lychee fruit is ripe and ready to be picked is flattening of the bumps on the fruit’s peels and the appearance of the dark red color. Furthermore, this is the stage where the actual size of a mature fruit is determined.