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While it used to be thought that the lychee needed an acid soil,
experience has shown that this is not the case. It has grown well
on volcanic sandy loams with a pH value of about 6.5 in Central America.
and it tolerates the calcareous soils of southern Florida and Cuba. On
stiff, impermeable sandy clays in Honduras it has not done well, but
neither have most other fruit trees. Nangos are an exception, avocados
are not. On the whole, it seems safe to say that the lychee grows
well in many tropical and subtropical climates, so long as it is not
pushed too far up against the frost line; that it is not exacting as
regards soils, if they are well drained; but that it is highly temper-
amental, if one can use such a term in horticulture - and that much
attention will have to be given to the search for the best varieties
best adapted to any given region, assisting the tree in
having the proper dormancy to let it build up reserves for fruit pro-
duction, where this is not provided by an adequate amount of cold
weather, which means that we must count on a period of dry weather,
and proper control of nutrition. It seems something like the case of
the mango: in this regard: Too much nitrogen in the soil
at the wrong time, too high a nitrogen intake (in some instances to
be controlled through the fertilizer program) and most probably, a
few other factors not yet fully understood.

Propagation

When a fruit tree of great commercial importance has been propa-
gated for some two thousand years, in a country of highly skillful
horticulturists, by a simple and inexpensive vegetative means, it
often takes some time to develop improved techniques. This seems to
be the case with the lychee. When a fruit has been developed through
selection of superior seedlings or valuable mutations, Vegetative
propagation is of course essential. The Chinese have used the method