I am not familiar with this type of tropical fruit but the wife just had to have it.

I brought it home very healthy, far as i can tell. Then we had prolonged periods of rain and standing water, followed by prolonged drought.

Leaves turned brown during the raining events, and then almost completely fell off during the drought.

Now it seems like the tree is happy again based on all the new growth the tree is putting out.

My concern is a lot of the new growth has pointy tips that dont seem normal. Some of the new growth on top looks just like the parent leaf, and then most of the other growth looks different.

Would appreciate any advice from someone experienced with Lychees.

Thank you.

I wouldn't worry too much about the leaves themselves.

What I would worry about is the soil: the leaves fell because lychee trees cannot stand waterlogged soil. It's paramount that you improve soil drainage around it if you want it to live.
Lychees also cannot be merely left to their own devices: they need regular watering outside the rainy season and fertilizer. A lot of it: commercially grown trees are "fed" two or three times a year depending on what cultural tecniques are used.

The upside is in the US they are usually pest- and disease-free trees, so that's one less thing to worry about.

ElPolloDiablo said:I wouldn't worry too much about the leaves themselves.

What I would worry about is the soil: the leaves fell because lychee trees cannot stand waterlogged soil. It's paramount that you improve soil drainage around it if you want it to live.
Lychees also cannot be merely left to their own devices: they need regular watering outside the rainy season and fertilizer. A lot of it: commercially grown trees are "fed" two or three times a year depending on what cultural tecniques are used.

The upside is in the US they are usually pest- and disease-free trees, so that's one less thing to worry about.

Thank you for your advise.

I have very compacted clay here. I pulled the tree out of the ground and heavily amended a large area and planted the tree several inches above grade this time. I did all this several weeks ago in hopes of improving the soil drainage. And i was so sensitive to over watering that i stopped watering all together and i think i got the reverse effect and have been overly stressing the tree.

I thought being a tropical tree, it wouldnt mind wet soil but the clay doesnt let anything drain, it just fills the tree hole up and sits in there like a clay bowl.

Luckily its not an avocado, it would already be dead.

Growing those trees in clay ground can be done, but it's hard and requires a lot of work, amending the ground yearly by burying the old organic mulch in, adding horse manure and perhaps do some backbreaking drainage work.

You have my sympathy because the soil here is basically clay mixed with a lot of rocks: the only advantage is that being on a hillside I have some drainage but I have lost count how many plants I've lost or had to pull because they were becoming awful despite all the extra care.