One $US5,000 tree from China, 19 years and counting, and a lot of hard work is what Tibby Dixon has put into having the first seedless lychees growing in Australia.

The North Queensland farmer has left the traditional path of growing trees solely for fruit, and develops lychee varieties, selling young plants to other farmers to grow.

But the pick of the crop might just be a seedless variety he has been propagating from a single tree imported from China.

Developing seedless lychees involves selective breeding and cross-pollination. ( ABC Rural: Melanie Groves )

"The cultivar [variety] itself is a medium-sized fruit, [with] no seed, [and] very flavoursome," Mr Dixon said.

"To me, it actually tastes like it has a bit of pineapple in it — that's what my tastebuds tell me.

"It's very different to all the other cultivars we have."

Mr Dixon, who is based at Sarina Beach near Mackay, has harvested only a few kilograms of the seedless fruit from the trees this year, and has preferred to focus on growing the trees to establish more plants.

How do you make lychees seedless?

Developing a new variety takes a lot of time and skill.

Mr Dixon has developed multiple lychee varieties, and the process involves both selective breeding and cross-pollinating flowers by hand over several generations of trees.

"First of all you have to start off with a really good cultivar, and then you get on with it and you keep cross-pollinating it," he said.

Cross-pollination is done by collecting pollen from one variety of flower and transferring it to a flower on a different tree. ( ABC Rural: Renee Cluff )

"[Then] hopefully somewhere down the line you can actually get something with a small seed, and from there you cross-pollinate again.

"By chance you might end up with a seedless lychee."

Our best stories in your inbox Subscribe to Rural RoundUp: Get our best stories from rural and regional Australia every Friday.

Cross-pollination is done by collecting pollen from the male part of a lychee flower, which is then transferred by hand to the female part of the flower on a different variety.

The job is finicky, and the pollen is sometimes stored until the flowers are considered more receptive.

When will seedless lychees hit the supermarket shelf?

The variety is still in the early stages of development and is yet to be planted on a commercial scale.

It can take up to 10 years of trialling before successful varieties of lychees will be propagated. ( File Photo: Derek Foley )

Mr Dixon is in the process of growing a crop of trees which will one day bear fruit on Australian farms.

"Within a couple of years we should have enough to sell out in commercial numbers," he said.

Mr Dixon's trial varieties are grown until a fruit-bearing age, and then the crop is trialled to ensure consistent productivity.

"It's been a long, hard slog," he said.