Hello all,
I’m interested to know if top working this mango tree would work. It came with the house and I would rather a small bushy tree, I’m afraid this one will grow to be a monster. I was thinking of possibly air layering a branch to get a clone just in case the top work doesn’t work. I’m open to all advice. Thanks!!
Go to Tropical Acres or Truly Tropical and sample as many different varieties as you can to find your favorite. Once you find your favorite, check to make sure it’s resistant or less prone to MBBS and also make sure it’s a good producing variety. I highly recommend Sweet Tart even though it may crack and also alternate bear. You can also have Mangos delivered to you from Tropical Acres.
Once you find out which mango varieties suits your requirements, hire someone like Har or learn to top work the tree. If you want a smaller bushier tree, you may want to chop the tree down to about 3.5-4 feet, doesn’t look like you’ll be left with any scaffold branches, and then bark graft with 2-3 scions depending on how large a diameter your rootstock is.
Sweet Tart is a rather large and good grower so may not be your best option but with tipping, you can keep it pretty bushy. Once the fruiting wood is established, severely cut back on Nitrogen and focus more on Potassium. Something like 0-10–10 is pretty good if you include a minor and trace package when needed. With your lawn, the tree will probably steal any Nitrogen fertilizer that you give your lawn so definitely try to stay away from Nitrogen.
Chris from Truly Tropical has excellent videos on top working and grafting mango trees. If I live nearby, I would gladly stop by and just bark graft the tree for you since it’s only a single tree but I’m all the way in San Diego. Good luck with your tree, mangos are awesome, I hope you can keep the rootstock. Please try to sample some Zill mangos like Lemon Zest, Sweet Tart, Coconut Cream, Pina Colada, Pineapple Pleasure. Just don’t grow LZ because of disease issues but tasting it should be on your bucket list.
Simon