Mango in pot.

[Pancrazio]

Well till now i assumed mango needed big pots. I must have been wrong.



Mango in a 50cm pot (a pot not even 2 feet wide) in the botanical garden of Lucca. The plant was about 3,50 mt (12ft).

[Mark in Texas]

Amazing!

[jackedfruit]

It sure is possible, with the right care you could grow pretty much anything in a container, but it requires a lot of regular/root pruning - especially in plastic or clay pots. Look at the Japanese, they grow them in 100L fabric containers with pretty amazing results.

[Delvi83]

Great....what impresses is that that Mango looks in perfect condition.
It is big, it has sane leaves and it bears fruits...unbelievable .......the pot is very small compared to the trunk, little more than the double in diameter....

How can a so big Mango thrive in a so small poT? What's the secret? We need it

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

I suspect the the roots at the bottom the the container busted through the water drain holes and are well into the soil below. Don't see how that small of a root structure can support the foliage and feed the large trunk. I have seen this many times with trees sitting in the same spot for many years.

Johnny

[sapote]

Johnny beat me on this: the root busted through and down to the ground.

As for the Japanese mango photo, where do they tie the string for supporting the fruit, at the fruit stem or on the fruit body? I just can't see how can you tie a string on the stem and be able to pull it up higher than the the top of the tree (meaning the stem will bend like an reverted V) without snapping the tiny fruit stem.

Sapote

[sapote]

P.S. on the Japanese hanging mango, one way I can think off is that they started using the hanging string when the fruit was pea size, and the stem would develop a natural bend at the tie.

[Majime]

In japan, we are using nets for supporting the fruits, those nets hang from the roof of the greenhouse or metalic poles with ropes and hooks.

[Tropicaliste]

Could it have broken through? Is Lucca able to support a mango tree in Winter? If not, then they are either housing it somehow, or moving the pot into a greenhouse. This would mean it hasn't broken through. Either way, it's very interesting. Thanks Pancrazio.

[Tropicdude]

I wonder if this was originally from an air layering.  read that air layering wont develop a tap root,  so is it possible that this would be beneficial to container culture?

[Pancrazio]

Johnny beat me on this: the root busted through and down to the ground.

No way guys. That plant is moved indoor every 6 months. Lucca is too cold to grow a mango outside in winter, the only place where you can grow a mango reliably in italy in 1000 km (700 miles) far south, and even there they are only grown at sea level in few warm locations. For the record, Lucca is also too cold to grow citrus in ground.
Now i can't assure that that plant doesn't have root in the soil below it, but they must be, at best, small few months old roots, because it wasn't there last winter.

[fyliu]

Is it fully outdoors or within a greenhouse?

The normal way of thinking is there should be about equal amount below soil as above it. Less below in the case of hydroponics.

For me personally, pretty much all my plants are smaller than the pot and I'm always amazed at how everybody grow huge plants that are much bigger than the pots they're in.

[Droshi]

I would guess regular root pruning, and steady watering. More soil will give you more of a buffer, but if you are good at giving small amounts of fert with each watering, and regular watering I bet you could do what's pictured. IMO it's way easier to just have more soil, and for me, cloth pots are also less maintenance.

[fyliu]

I know bonsai people are skilled in maintaining large plants relative to pot size and even pot depth. But this is still pretty extreme.

Those horizontal logs are pretty much necessary to keep the trees from falling over from top weight.