Florida heat cut in the already short and sweet season of this exotic fruit

Lychee has an infamous short season with pinkish red berries with open skinned skinned skinned fruits that are fragrant and sweet and juicy jelly-like meat. Usually only available for a few weeks in the summer, growing people in South Florida are always rushing to exotic treats.

“My phone rings just below Florida, Florida, along with people seeking lychee from Texas to New York,” said Harry Holmbreaker, who has 30 trees on his family farm in Palm Beach Gardens. “We have a market and we hope we can grow more.”

It will become an increasingly difficult challenge for farmers like Holmbreaker, as climate change-driven temperature increases are likely to reduce production and shorten the seasons. Extreme heat can be extremely stressful on already whimsical fruit trees.

Miami-Dade has had a rich season this year, but growers are facing a challenging future in South Florida.

“We’ve seen a lot of fun and fun,” said Jonathan Crane, homestead, a tropical fruit crop expert at the University of Florida. “And that’s what’s worse.”

Walking through hundreds of well-maintained lychee trees at Glove UF Director of Redland, the crane pointed to the 15 footer towering above him.

“If you look at the average yield per tree over time, you only get about 50 pounds per tree,” he said. “The tree needs between 100 and 200 pounds.”

The reason he explained is that lychee trees are supposed to remain dormant, meaning they will not grow during the winter. Instead, South Florida lychee trees run out of energy to grow more leaves throughout the warm autumn and winter seasons, rather than waiting for the flowers to turn into fruit.

If the flowers get too hot, they can lose water and fail to pollinate, he said. Second, increasing the temperature can cause the fruit to ripen, allowing for shorter and predictable growth periods. For several years, there were no fruit at all.

It’s a good year of production, but don’t get used to it

Miami and surrounding cities appear to be setting temperature records year by year, with trend lines rising normally. The summer of 2023 crushed a series of extreme heat records. Last May was Miami’s hottest thing.

However, lychee growers took a break this year. The National Weather Service was warmer and dryer than usual in the winter, but it was also the coolest January in Miami-Dade since 2010. That January cold spell brought wonder to the trees, Crane said. However, the year before the crop was mild.

Calling himself a “farmer bob,” Robert Petrucci runs a U-Pick Fruit tactic in a backyard garden grown in Homestead. He said he “will guide the process” and did not apply fertilizer or pest control to the lychee trees that had been on his fence line since 1998.

“This was the most lychee I’ve seen in a tree in nearly 20 years,” Petrucci said. “This winter was as cool as before.”

Climate change is not just a threat to lychees. Farmers like Petrucci and Holmbrake refer to mites and birds as the most pressing issues. However, Crane said that, from what he researched, mites may cause some damage, but in the long run, changes in the world’s weather are a real concern.

“I think the most important change in Lychee is due to climate change,” Crane said. “If you want to consistently produce lychee crops, if you need a chance, you need to be in a place where it’s under 60 degrees in December and January.”

Rainfall patterns have also changed the way lychees grow, and research shows and disrupt bees that help pollinate fruit.

There are already warning signs in foreign growth zones. China’s largest producer and exporter, Lychee Harveyter, reported last year that the “worst season of history” and production fell 50%. reason? Hot temperatures and heavy rain. According to the Chinese world, it was China’s hottest and wettest year recorded in 2024. Bloomberg reported that it has destroyed a $4 billion industry.

Lychee growers are not the only ones who may be forced to seek more fruitful territory. The grapes in French vineyards have changed so much that French wineries are buying property in the UK and in the northern countries, Telegraph and National Geographic reported.

Move further north

Florida is one of the only places in the United States that subtropical fruit grows, with orchards covering more than 1,000 acres statewide, most of which are located at the southern tip of the state. But that may change.

At the same time, the growth conditions for lychee in South Florida are declining, Crane said, opposition is on the north.

Historically, lychee was not grown in central parts of the state because the trees cannot handle the freeze. However, in Miami-Dade in the 80s, growers didn’t have to worry about it getting too cold and replacing lychee trees with lychee.

Now, in another indication of the state’s changing climate patterns, freezes are less common even north. Crane worked with climatologists and scientists to find out how it has changed in central Florida over the past 30 years, and found that over time there is less freeze in Okeechobee annually. Growers can also say:

“I was Floridian for the rest of my life, but as a kid who passed frozen orange trees, Holmbreaker, 73, said, “You’re not seeing that anymore.” Of course, there are fewer orange groves overall, as the industry has shrunk due to pressure from development and foreign imports.

Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says nighttime temperatures are gradually increasing in South Florida. A study from the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance, made up of thermal scientists and county officials, found that days above 80 degrees Fahrenheit increased from 1939 to 2020 near Miami International Airport.

The crane forecast is that the gloves are heading north as well. It will move from Palm Beach County to St. Lucie’s sample, not from the current area that stretches from Key to Palm Beach County.

This Climate Report is funded by MSC Cruises USA and the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with journalism funding partners. The Miami Herald retains editing control for all content.

The story was originally published by the Miami Herald and was shared in collaboration with the Martin Room Initiative, founded by the Florida Creemate Report Network, the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media, and the Tampa Bay Times.