The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: spoons on April 12, 2019, 12:21:56 PM

Was your rootstock active before you grafted the scion?

Yeah, they were pushing new buds. I grafted on 5 gallon rootstocks sold as corrinete by maddock. Strongest rootstocks I have seen, doesn't need stakes like manila or turpentine.

Nice!  Finger crossed for you.  I’m anticipating to graft a bunch i the next few days.

Since everyone is getting scions for mangos, how do you all feel about our current SoCal lows for grafting?

Looks like we are in the 57-59 degree range during the night.  I know most of my seedlings are either swelling or pushing new flushes the last couple weeks so at least i know the juices are flowing.

The Monoembryonic seedlings grow faster. Also, many members get confused with the generic “Manilla” mango label.

For growers in SoCal that want a good rootstock, I highly recommend the LaVern Manilla rootstocks from Home Depot. This is different than the Manilla/Ataulfo/Champagne Mangos that you pick up at the supermarket. The LaVern Manilla has been used for a long time here in SoCal and it adapts to our soil and climate very well.

The generic Manilla/Ataulfo/Champagne seedlings also work but they grow slower than the LaVern Manilla and they also grow slower than the Indian Monoembryonic varieties like Kent, Haden and Tommy Atkins.

If you want a Polyembryonic mango variety that grows fast and can adapt to our souls and climate, go with NDM. It takes off once it gets established.

Simon

Thanks for confirming my findings about ataulfo.  I will no longer plant them.  Very weak Rootstock compared to Kent and Keitt.  My only gripe about Kent is they are suseptible to anthracnose on the leaves.

I’d like to get my hands on some corriente seeds as i year they’re ideal in SoCal.

Very nice thread.  Wondering if he ever got any slips or ratoons 3 years ago?

Quote from: spoons on October 29, 2018, 09:29:32 AM

Quote from: spaugh on October 20, 2018, 12:51:09 PM

This is another project we have been working on for 3 or 4 months.  Just finished a week or so ago.  We cleared a quarter or half an acre or so of hillside and planted 50 mango trees.  The trees are on a 15x15 spacing. Theres some FL grafted trees, some FL seed stocks and some CA rootstock grafted with FL selections.  It doesnt look like much now but these trees are out on a prime location here with full south exposure and deep draining DG soil in the hottest are of coastal CA. 

Nice Brad!  What sort of irrigation system did you install?  What are you guys using on the terminal ends of the system?  Soakers or sprinklers?

I was planning to do the same on my south facing hillside.

Theres a half inch threaded riser at every tree.  We are running 8 stream micro sprinklers.  When the trees get larger I may swap them to the little spinning type.

Good deal, thanks for the info.  Gonna be setting my hillside up this Feb/Mar.  Pretty excited, hope to plant about 12-20 mango trees depending on if I can cut down a couple more shade trees.  My hillside is about the same grade maybe a little steeper in some sections.

Hey All, I’d like to see if anyone has made their own fish and kelp fertilizer?

I’m a Southern California fisherman and have access to many different types of fish and access to a lot of kelp off our California coast.  I just don’t know how to make it.  Do i just throw it all in a blender, toss it in a bucket with water and then let it ferment for a couple months?  I’m a little concerned about rats coming on my property and chewing through the plastic bucket lol.

Your watering schedule and how much to water really depends on your soil, the size of your tree and the time of year it is. During cold weather in Winter, especially if we get rains, I may not water my in ground trees for 1-2 months. Also as the canopy gets larger, there is more leaf surface area so you need more water compared to a small sapling.

Your tree doesn’t look very big from the few pictures you posted. I would recommend removing the blooms so that your tree can grow a bit larger.

Since your tree is blooming already, I recommend grafting it with a named cultivar. The Manilla mango seedling Fruit are not very good quality in my opinion. I’ve tasted fruit from many different Manilla Mango seedlings and I’ve only had one that was just ok with some fiber, nothing I would really buy at the supermarkets.

Many people think they are planting the “Manilla” like the the Ataulfo/Champagne/Manilla from the supermarkets but the Manilla seedlings from HD and many of the other nurseries are just seedlings and the fruit tastes very different than the Manillas you buy at the supermarkets.

The seedling Manilla Mangos often get Powdery Mildew on their blooms but once they get established, they still seem to produce fruit even if the PM were left unchecked.

Lemon Zest is one of my all time favorite Mangos to eat but it gets a lot of Powdery Mildew on its blooms. It seems to fruit better when grafted onto Manilla rootstock but this is just from observation off my tree.

Sweet Tart and CAC/COC would be good varieties to graft onto your tree. They are fairly disease resistant and set good crops in SoCal.

Simon

Hey Simon, thanks for your advice and feedback.  So I was able to get about 4-5 mangos from this tree this year.  They are very stringy and you were pretty much dead on in regards to lack of quality.  After closer look this is definitely a seedling and not a grafted tree.  I just finished pruning the tree and will let it grow so I can graft a couple varieties onto it next year.  I'm fairly excited to be able to try my hand at grafting.

What is CAC or COC?

After reading most of the entire thread, I've come to the conclusion that growing mango cultivars/varieties in San Diego are best done by grafting to a mature tree or top working rather than grafting to a young seedling rootstock, which is what I was originally planning on doing.

At this point I have over 2 dozen Ataulfo/Manila seedlings in 1 gallon pots and they are sprouting and growing.  I was really hoping to purchase a bunch of scions to graft them onto these younger rootstocks but based on what i've read and the 2 grafted trees i've purchased a couple years ago, i'm going to have to agree.  Neither of the grafted trees I have can support itself without a stake or 3.

The one tree I have has about half a dozen mangos growing but the plant itself is only about 5' tall.

I may graft one or two but I think i'm going to invest in the long haul and focus on growing these seedlings hopefully in a vegetative state for the next few years.  Gonna be tough to invest the time in watering with no fruits in sight.

Thank you Simon for posting this very valuable information.  Saves the Socal gardener lots of wasted time, effort and money from doing it the wrong way.

Hey All,

New resident to San Diego about 2 years ago.  Just after moving in I purchased a manila mango tree at the local home depot.  Transplanted it to my hillside around September 2016.  After doing some research last year I clipped off the top 6-7"  with hopes of it branching out multiple stems.  Success.

Fast forward to a few months ago I notice new leaves coming out and fruit buds flowering (is that the correct term?).  I notice insects starting to eat my leaves so last month I purchased Sevin insecticide spray and sprayed the trunk and leaves and it looks like the damage to the leaves have stopped and I haven't seen any bugs on the plant.

Here are some pictures of the fruits starting to grow.  It's on a hillside with loamy? type dirt so it's fairly fast draining and I've been watering it once every 2-3 days about 3-4 gallons of water per watering.

Am I doing this right or can you offer any advice?  I am in San Diego about 7-8 miles inland from the ocean.