Pg. 58 Tree Manipulation and Pruning of Young and Bearing Litchi Trees in High-Density Orchards

The litchi has a worldwide reputation of being a poor yielding crop and its yield may be worsened by alternate bearing. Litchi producers in South Africa are also experiencing low annual yields that are partly due to the wide tree spacings of 10 x 10 m. With annual yields ranging between 4 and 8 ton/ha and some productive growers getting more that 10 ton/ha, the situation still looks bad compared with countries like Israel where the production reaches 15 ton/ha. The ideal solution to the low yield problem would probably be to increase planting density.