- Salomie Rheeder & I J Froneman
- Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops, Private Bag X11208, Nelspruit 1200
- 2000
The South African Litchi Industry is mainly based on two cultivars, namely HLH Mauritius and McLean’s Red. Due to the short harvesting season of the two cultivars and the undesirable time of ripening, as well as increasing competition from Madagascar, there is an urgent need for improved cultivars. The importation and evaluation of cultivars is therefore a high priority. A project was initiated in five different climatic areas representative of the major litchi production areas in South Africa. Locally available cultivars, recently imported cultivars and promising selections from the breeding programme are being evaluated in this trial.
Most of the cultivars and HLH Mauritius selections have produced their first or second harvest at the different localities. Cultivars that are promising at this stage are Fay Zee Siu, an early maturing, large fruited cultivar with a high percentage of aborted seed and Wai Chee, a late maturing cultivar. Kaimana produced the first fruit which was of excellent internal quality and with a high percentage of aborted seed. HLH Mauritius and the HLH Mauritius selections had similar internal fruit quality, but HLH Mauritius was out yielded by a few selections.
Summary:
- The South African litchi industry is primarily based on two cultivars, HLH Mauritius and McLean’s Red, both of which have limitations such as a short harvesting season and narrow maturity window, alongside rising competition from Madagascar, creating the need for improved cultivars.
- To address this, a comprehensive breeding and evaluation program was started in 1992 by ARC-ITSC, involving 29 cultivars and 10 HLH Mauritius selections planted across five key climatic production areas in South Africa.
- The program evaluates yield, fruit size, fruit flesh ratio, total soluble solids/acid ratio, maturity date, taste, and external/internal fruit color to identify suitable early, mid, and late-season cultivars.
- Some promising cultivars include Fay Zee Siu (early maturing, large fruit, high aborted seed percentage), Wai Chee (late maturing), and Kaimana (excellent internal fruit quality and high aborted seed percentage).
- HLH Mauritius and its selections showed similar internal fruit quality, but a few selections outyielded HLH Mauritius, with varying harvest dates and fruit sizes.
- Evaluation results revealed significant variation among selections in production, fruit size, fruit flesh percentage, and aborted seed percentage, with some selections showing better performance than the current commercial cultivars.
- The evaluation was conducted on plots in Mpumalanga and the Northern Province, with environmental factors like storms affecting some yields.
- The future strategy includes continuing to import promising cultivars and produce hybrids from the local breeding program to provide the industry with a broader range of better-adapted litchi cultivars.