Author Topic: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL  (Read 2221 times)

bbates123

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Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« on: February 24, 2018, 04:08:41 PM »
I live in the Ft Myers region and I have a Pickering and a Sweet Tart that have been planted for a little over a year now. The sweet tart started blooming in late November and the Pickering in early December.  Both of them produced quite a bit of blossoms, but the majority of the blossoms wound up turning brown and dying.  They both have a few small fruit that survived the dying blossoms. The sweet tart has a few fruit about the size of half dollars and the pickering has a few that are more like peas at this point.  I'm not too concerned because I know I'm really not supposed to let these trees fruit yet anyhow.  I'm just wondering if the dying blossoms are a sign of other issues that I need to be concerned about.

Squam256

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2018, 05:25:24 PM »
Are you watering the trees?

Barnacle1982

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2018, 07:05:28 PM »
When you say watering does that mean the entire tree or just the ground? Same thing happens to my Coconut Cream every year it gets full of flowers and then 80% turn brown and fall off.

Squam256

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2018, 08:22:38 PM »
When you say watering does that mean the entire tree or just the ground? Same thing happens to my Coconut Cream every year it gets full of flowers and then 80% turn brown and fall off.

The ground in which the tree is growing.

Coconut Cream can make lots of male flowers which won’t set fruit.

bbates123

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2018, 07:26:51 AM »
Are you watering the trees?

I'm not directly watering the trees but they're getting water from the lawn irrigation which goes off twice a week.

Squam256

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2018, 10:52:33 AM »
Are you watering the trees?

I'm not directly watering the trees but they're getting water from the lawn irrigation which goes off twice a week.

Probably insufficient.

TheDom

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2018, 11:34:38 AM »
So are you saying the blossoms turned brown and died before opening, and that the ones that set fruit behaved differently? Because the way you describe it sounds like normal mango bloom behavior: they push out, the flowers open, some fruit sets, and everything where there isn't fruit turns brown shrivels up and dies.
Dom

bbates123

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2018, 02:36:00 PM »
Are you watering the trees?

I'm not directly watering the trees but they're getting water from the lawn irrigation which goes off twice a week.

Probably insufficient.

So in other words, mango trees don't like our typical dry Florida winters and will benefit from extra irrigation above and beyond typical lawn watering?  Many of my neighbors have large healthy looking mango trees that I know for certain don't get extra irrigation.  Is it more important when they're young?


bbates123

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2018, 02:40:31 PM »
So are you saying the blossoms turned brown and died before opening, and that the ones that set fruit behaved differently? Because the way you describe it sounds like normal mango bloom behavior: they push out, the flowers open, some fruit sets, and everything where there isn't fruit turns brown shrivels up and dies.

I guess I need to look at the blossoms more closely because I'm not sure if they turned brown before or after opening.  Typically a cluster of blossoms will shoot out and 2-4 fruit will set in each "cluster" and the rest turns brown and dies.

I'm not looking for these trees to produce a lot of fruit in their 2nd year but is it normal for a younger tree to produce less fruit, and produce more fruit as it gets older?




TheDom

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2018, 06:12:19 PM »
In this pic the middle part shows mango flowers that are just recently opened, the right side shows some that have been open for a bit and have some fruit set, and on the left are some that had set fruit and are working on drying out. Sometimes you won't get fruit on every single flower spike. Sometimes it is due to all male flowers, sometimes it is a fungal issue, sometimes it is just poor luck. Some varieties also set heavier and more regularly than others. This pic is of Pickering, which is generally regarded as a workhorse producer.

Dom

pineislander

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2018, 07:27:33 AM »
Cape Coral has had a very dry January and above average warmth in February (I'm next door west on Pine Island). Our ground water level is about 5 feet here though and well established trees do well without water. Trees planted a little over one year may have not developed enough roots to get down into wet soil and might benefit from water. I might guess those roots are down no more than 2 feet. You could try digging a hole 2 feet deep within the sprinkler zone and see how dry it is which would take the guesswork out of it.
 

bbates123

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Re: Brown/dying blossoms on mangos in SW FL
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2018, 09:57:00 AM »
OK, thanks for the helpful info everybody.  Pineislander is right, our winter has been very very dry and Feb has been very warm.  On top of it all I discovered about 6 weeks ago that the sprinklers weren't running in the zone where those trees are.  I don't know how long that was the case but I realized it when the grass was getting browner than I was expecting.  Next year I'll take care to be sure those trees get more water if it's super dry again.