Many of us here on this forum grow mango and one important consideration when growing this wonderful fruit is the rootstock it is grown on. It is my understanding, perhaps I am mistaken, that most of the grafted Mangos coming out of Florida nurseries are grown on a particular selection of "Turpentine" rootstock that was especially selected for growth in Florida due to good fruiting and adaptability to specific amounts of salt in the soil.
I've been researching Mango rootstocks recently and have several highly unscientific experiments growing in my small yard in an attempt to find highly vigorous Mango rootstocks that will perform well in marginal mango growing areas with relatively cool weather and high pH soils that are heavy in clay and slow to drain water and low in oxygen levels.
I believe that here in Southern California, the major factor contributing to slow growth and thus low yields is the adaptability or lack there of, of specific rootstocks used in the nurseries. Once trees are large enough, production is high but the time it takes to achieve a tree size capable of producing large numbers of fruit takes many years which decreases the yield potential of mango trees grown here. Although no scientific experiments that I know of have been performed to compare the growth rate and overall adaptability of specific rootstocks most commonly available in nurseries here in SoCal, anecdotle evidence suggest that seedling rootstocks and Lavern Manilla rootstocks perform better than Florida Turpentine rootstocks.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=15673.50Also see reply #169 from this thread
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=16549.150Here in SoCal, most mangos bloom profusely as cold weather is the single most important factor for bloom induction. In cooler climates such as SoCal, young grafted trees less than 1 year old and under 18 inches tall often produce blooms and attempt to hold fruit. See reply #137, 142.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=16549.125Most commercial Mango growing operations around the world use seedlings from polyembryonic mangos due to the uniformity of clonal rootstocks but this type of selection greatly limits the selection of potentially advantageous rootstocks for home gardeners that may not require commercial orchard type trees.
It has been over 200 years since Mangos were introduced into Southern Florida and it has been almost a century since some of the old time favorites such as Kent, Carrie and Edward were planted in the Florida homestead and it appears that "Turpentine" is still the preferred rootstock due to lack of experimentation.
http://www.fairchildgarden.org/events-community-outreach/events-details/artmid/486/userid/1/articleid/986/the-history-of-mangos-in-south-florida I suggest that more backyard growers experiment with different types of Mono and Polyembryonic mango seedlings and keep track of the progress of their trees. At a minimum, it will be beneficial to research articles that are available on the Internet to find out if there have been any advances in mango rootstock technology so that those more adventurous growers may experiment and possibly find rootstocks that exhibit beneficial characteristics that are currently not available with the Turpentine rootstock such as high yield and dwarfing. Rootstocks that are more disease resistant or better adapted to sandy or mucky soils may also be discovered when tropical fruit hunters and growers push the envelope and think outside the box.
I will update this this thread with more information and articles that I find that may benefit us in our acquisition of knowledge especially relating to Mango rootstocks and I hope others will do the same.
Here is an article on Mango rootstocks that some may find very interesting. It includes information on several rootstocks that show high yields on small as well as large trees. Looks like there is such a thing as dwarfing rootstock, not really dwarfing but small stature trees that still produce heavily.
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/6/1720.fullSimon