Sweet Tart Mango Pruning / Tipping Question

[FlMikey]

Hello All,

I have a question about tipping my Sweet Tart.  It has flushed branches that have 1 main dominant shoot, and then will have 4 lateral branches (see attached photo's).  I want to encourage as much lateral branching as possible.  Should I clip the main shoot off or should I clip right underneath the entire bunch of shoots, so that it hopefully produces 4 shoots?  I know in this youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99bv-KJ8wkE), around 2:40 Chris mentions something about trimming that main shoot, but I'm not sure I 100% follow.  Or should I leave it as is, and wait for the next flush to tip?  Thank you for any help guys!

[MangoCountry]

Nice looking tree. I remove the central leader on all of my mangoes. It allows more light into the canopy and increased airflow. It also helps control height. I prune the scaffold branches every foot or so. This will create a bushy tree that is easy to harvest and control.

[pineislander]

What has happened is Sweet Tart has a habit of flushing at a branch tip and making many shoots tightly packed. In your first pic I count 7-8. This many shoots at one place might tend to be weak or crowded, or at least some appear weaker than others, and the one is becoming vertically dominant like the one in the video. She actually suggests tipping after the branch hardens off. That will stimulate shoots coming off at leaf nodes in fewer numbers than a tip flush and you may not be dealing with so many. She recommends picking all fruit by tipping the branch when picking.

You could select the branches you want now by snipping off the vertically dominant one, the weakest ones, any crossing ones, and any which head into the canopy. Ideally you would want 3 branches 90 degrees apart pointing outwards or even better downwards.
Or, you could tip now and select later.

[Orkine]

Someone posted this a week or so ago.  Watch from the 8:30 minutes point on the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh1AnvNa6mc

[FlMikey]

Thanks for the helpful replies everyone. 

Here's another video where at around 1:40 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-6_Y1ScV3I), she's dealing with a very similar growth pattern as me, and clips right beneath the internode.  So now I'm confused as to which approach - pick and choose the shoots I want to keep growing, or clip right beneath all the shoots?  I would imagine picking and choosing the branches I want is the surefire way because the tree has already determined the way it wants to grow.

Also, I believe I remember reading that the central shoot holds the most nitrogen, which means that fruit won't come from that shoot.  Is that correct?

[pineislander]

I want to encourage as much lateral branching as possible.  Should I clip the main shoot off or should I clip right underneath the entire bunch of shoots, so that it hopefully produces 4 shoots?

I'm planting 10 Sweet Tarts today. Since they are expected to be large and have this dense branching tendency I'll have to work with them this way:

To encourage branching in the future through spring and early summer tip after each growth flush hardens off instead of waiting for tip growth to flush naturally. I'll do this through the adolescent years of the tree as formative practice until it is old enough to bear, then switch to 'during harvest' or post-harvest pruning. The exception might be to annually choose about 20% of canopy for reduction. This renovates much of the canopy 100% every 5 years.

[Orkine]

As I understand it, it you cut just above the node several (4 to 6 according the video I shared) from the same area.
You then reduce to the number you want.  Some people don't like this and prefer to cut a couple of inches below the node in which case buds develop where the leafs below the cut are.  You get fewer shoots and they are not exactly at the same point.

I tipped a recently grafted sweet tart and I will get a photo to post later.  I cut below the node to get separate branching.

My suggestion is that for the first cut or heading, cutting just above the node makes sense.  For subsequent tipping, my preference will be below the node, but its only my preference. 

Perhaps Har, BSb and other mango experts can share their preferences or if there is a correct practice what it is.

[Mark in Texas]

Hello All,

 I want to encourage as much lateral branching as possible.

Exactly.  Check out this step by step thread.  Also did this to a Sweet Tart.\
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=21887.0

[Mark in Texas]

Someone posted this a week or so ago.  Watch from the 8:30 minutes point on the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh1AnvNa6mc

That was me.  I posted the video starting from the point you noted.

Kicker is some of us are not commercial and may have different needs or goals.  I always top, cut off, my grafted mango trees above the first node located above the graft.  Here's a photo showing 6 well places "scaffold" branches at that point. From here I keep it maintained by pruning.

Lemon Zest:

[Orkine]

Here are the photos.

This was tipped about 2 inches below the node.
Note the new growth is at the junction of each of the next lower three leafs. 



This is a similar tipping from the same plant.  The growth is older in this case.  Note the location is the same as with the other. 
Each of the three leafs down from the cut.



These on the other hand were tipped just above the node.  Note radial growth from the node.  Often you get 4 to 6 of these and would likely require one or more to be removed. 



If you know what you want you can chose the cut to make.  For me, initial cut just above the node.  subsequent cuts just below the node on new shoots (second flush) after they have hardened.

[FruitFreak]

Sorry this is a little off topic but here are some of my own ST pruning/topping pics.  The first scaffold branches were just too high for my liking so I decided to top the tree while it is still young in order to re-shape the structure.  ST growth habit seems manageable and responsive to pruning.  Basically it went from above waist high to  just above the knee. 

Also props to my Silky fine tooth.  This thing is one of my most treasured implements and I highly recommend it to the serious hobbyist or orchard man.  it makes quick work of shaping young trees by getting into tight spaces and razor sharp (seriously).  The best feature is it basically seals the tree wound as its cutting so you end up with a clean smooth finish with no bark peel. 

[Mark in Texas]

Very nice Marley.  That's a lot of work and TLC.

[FruitFreak]

Very nice Marley.  That's a lot of work and TLC.

Thanks Mark.  Lots of work and TLC indeed.  More TLC seems to be needed in this stage of establishment too. 

[simon_grow]

Great info everyone, I’ve posted this several times already but it’s a great read that gets into the specifics of pruning Mango. http://www.growables.org/information/documents/MangoPruningStrategies.pdf

Simon