Today, with an unusually rich variety of food, seedless litchi has bright colors, crystal crispness, sweetness and less residue, but it is extremely difficult to grow and has a small output. It also "enjoys" the same rare status as the ancient common litchi: there are only 24 pairs and 48 Seedless Litchi in a box, but the market price is as high as 550 yuan, which is in short supply every year.
Recently, the litchi longan research team of the environmental planting Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences successfully solved this planting problem of high-grade fruits, such as difficult flowering and serious pre harvest fruit cracking and falling. The developed Seedless Litchi flower acceleration and pre harvest crack and fall prevention technology has been applied and demonstrated in the field. The fruit cracking rate is less than 3.9%, the fruit falling rate is only 4.6%, and the commercial fruit rate is as high as 86.1%.
This makes Seedless Litchi expected to enter the fruit dish of ordinary people. So, how did scientists solve the problem?
According to the person in charge of litchi longan research team of Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, seedless litchi has been successfully bred in 1997 and has been planted for more than 20 years, with a seedless rate of more than 95%. Due to its attractive quality and high price, it developed rapidly around 2000. However, during the production process, it was found that there were major problems in seedless litchi cultivation. First, the flowers were unstable, and it was very difficult to bloom in warm winter years. Second, it was easy to have serious fruit cracking and falling before the fruit matured, with a loss of more than 40% per year and 90% in some years. As a result, the whole orchard had no fruit sales, which seriously affected the economic benefits of planting.
Because seedless litchi is difficult to blossom, cracked and dropped, and it is very difficult to plant, enterprises and ordinary fruit farmers are afraid to plant it. In the past decade, the planting area of this variety has shrunk rapidly, and many seedless litchi orchards have abandoned the wasteland or changed to other varieties. At present, Hainan has formed a seedless litchi planting area with Chengmai County as the core area, covering an area of only more than 7000 mu.
In response to this problem, the litchi longan research team of the Academy of Thermal Sciences, after years of scientific and technological research, has carried out a large number of studies on the development dynamics, nutrient accumulation and hormone metabolism of Seedless Litchi shoots according to the growth habits of seedless litchi trees, and successfully developed the Seedless Litchi flower induction technology by controlling the shoots early to promote the nutrient accumulation and maturation of the shoots, timely promoting the germination of litchi flower buds, and drug flower induction, The problem that seedless litchi is difficult to flower and unstable to flower is solved; According to the law of fruit and pericarp development, the mechanism of Seedless Litchi Fruit cracking and falling was clarified. By means of pericarp growth control technology and preventing the formation of fruit pedicle abscission, the seedless litchi fruit cracking and falling prevention technology was developed, which successfully solved the serious problem of Seedless Litchi Fruit cracking and falling before harvest, and a 200 mu seedless litchi fruit cracking and falling prevention demonstration base was established in the old town of Chengmai County.
Demonstration of Seedless Litchi anti cracking and anti falling technology. A: The fruits in the demonstration area are plump, bright colored and rarely cracked; B: Serious fruit cracking in the control area; C: The demonstration area rarely dropped fruit; D: The control area suffered serious fruit drop. Source: Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences
2022 is a small year for seedless litchi to blossom. Under the circumstances that the surrounding Seedless Litchi bases are not ideal for flowering, the demonstration park has achieved an average yield of 1139.6kg per mu, 96.1% of the fruits have no cracking, the fruit drop rate is only 4.6%, the commercial fruit rate is as high as 86.1%, and the output value per mu is 40000-80000 yuan, greatly improving the economic benefits of Seedless Litchi.