Author Topic: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?  (Read 2466 times)

dross99_si

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Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« on: September 08, 2018, 08:09:39 PM »
Hi guys, I live in SE Florida (zone 9b) and have a bunch of mango seedlings growing in pots as well as a 3gal Pickering that we purchased the other day. At the moment everything is being grown in straight Vigoro potting soil from Home Depot because I didn't know any better. The more I research and read the more concerned I am becoming about over watering, proper drainage and root rot. Guess I didn't really do my homework before jumping straight in.
I've read many posts about gritty mix, Fafard 3B, make your own with pine bark/perlite/coir/sphagnum moss etc..
My question is what combo or out-of-the-bag potting mix will work well for my particular area?
I know it will be different than what works well in say Arizona due to the humidity levels and whatnot.
Thank you all I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
My wife and I love growing these mango plants and want them to be healthy.

Cookie Monster

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2018, 10:44:40 AM »
Mangoes aren't overly picky with regard to potting soil. Your vigoro mix is probably fine.

Best mix would have a lot of sand in it. Mangoes love sand. Zills HPP uses sand + sawdust.

Peat plus perlite and pine bark fines works.
Jeff  :-)

palmcity

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2018, 04:39:15 PM »
Best mix would have a lot of sand in it. Mangoes love sand. Zills HPP uses sand + sawdust.

It's funny that you mentioned about Zills hpp as over the past year I have planted over 6 mango trees coming from them through a retailer. I have been very very happy with how easy it is to take the root ball out of the pots and place it into the dug out hole. Also checking the potted plant for any circular roots is much easier with their composition than in previous years probably due to the sand sawdust which I was unaware of the composition till you posted. It is a big plus to my planting and would probably be a good idea for other nursery operators to go to that lighter less binding root to soil system. Some of the other companies potted plants have a much firmer root to soil binding & is a real pain to try to separate some of the roots when starting to circle in the pot.

So I am complimenting the Zills system of potting the mango trees.

Of course planting the tree within the first year of arriving at the retail distributor also helps in the ability to  loosen the root ball easier since less plant growth since original potting. Plant wholesalers could easily accomplish this by placing a month/yr on the tag next to the plant name before sale to the retail operators. This would greatly help the homeowners knowing which tree to purchase. I am also assuming it would help in creating some end of the year sales on some retail trees sitting too long in pots; so overall I think it would actually increase the wholesaler sales if they dated their plants before sale to retailers.

pineislander

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2018, 04:54:44 PM »
I bought 50 Zill mangoes direct earlier this year and agree about their soil mix but also could tell that there is a big difference between trees direct from Zills and trees which have been crowded up at some nursery and forced to run upwards losing leaf and getting tall thin and spindly.

dross99_si

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2018, 05:49:49 PM »
Best mix would have a lot of sand in it. Mangoes love sand. Zills HPP uses sand + sawdust.

It's funny that you mentioned about Zills hpp as over the past year I have planted over 6 mango trees coming from them through a retailer. I have been very very happy with how easy it is to take the root ball out of the pots and place it into the dug out hole. Also checking the potted plant for any circular roots is much easier with their composition than in previous years probably due to the sand sawdust which I was unaware of the composition till you posted. It is a big plus to my planting and would probably be a good idea for other nursery operators to go to that lighter less binding root to soil system. Some of the other companies potted plants have a much firmer root to soil binding & is a real pain to try to separate some of the roots when starting to circle in the pot.

So I am complimenting the Zills system of potting the mango trees.

Of course planting the tree within the first year of arriving at the retail distributor also helps in the ability to  loosen the root ball easier since less plant growth since original potting. Plant wholesalers could easily accomplish this by placing a month/yr on the tag next to the plant name before sale to the retail operators. This would greatly help the homeowners knowing which tree to purchase. I am also assuming it would help in creating some end of the year sales on some retail trees sitting too long in pots; so overall I think it would actually increase the wholesaler sales if they dated their plants before sale to retailers.

I got ours at Nelson's. They had a decent selection. Where do you get yours?

dross99_si

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2018, 08:22:13 PM »
So is the Fafard 3b good straight out of the bag? Do they make a different blend that's better?
Or should I make my own and if so what's a good ingredient ratio?
Thanks again

Cookie Monster

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #6 on: September 11, 2018, 10:47:53 AM »
I haven't been to zill's in a long while, but I've heard that the quality has gone down over the past couple of years. When I was buying from them, a typical 3 gallon tree wouid stand 5+ feet from the ground with a trunk diameter thicker than my thumb. Recently, the trees I've been seeing from them have been much smaller. One of my friends who is in the nursery business and retails their trees has told me that they should remove the "High Performance Plants" from their name :-).

I bought 50 Zill mangoes direct earlier this year and agree about their soil mix but also could tell that there is a big difference between trees direct from Zills and trees which have been crowded up at some nursery and forced to run upwards losing leaf and getting tall thin and spindly.
Jeff  :-)

pineislander

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #7 on: September 11, 2018, 12:32:20 PM »
Some of the recent trees may be small since demand has been so high following Irma and they aren't staying at the nursery so long.
All of mine were reasonable size and good quality but I bought early this year and heard the demand was very strong. When I was selecting there I went for diameter over all other factors, then if some had branches reasonably high I went for them, height was my last concern. Most trees I planted got tipped the same day I planted them if they hadn't started already.

I could tell none of mine had been in pots too long, all I did was run a knife up and down down vertically and criss-cross along the bottom to find anything circling and there weren't many, only toothpick size or less.

Cookie Monster

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #8 on: September 11, 2018, 01:54:19 PM »
I heard that quality issues have been a problem for longer than the past year. What I was told was that Gary hasn't been as involved with nursery op's as he used to be. I think it's a combo of that and the booming housing market + booming economy which have driven up demand.

I think the issue can be partially mitigated by going to zills in person and selecting trees vs using delivery and having them select trees at random to go on the delivery truck. I haven't been up there in probably 4 years, so I'm relying on word of mouth and pictures I see on this forum of little spindly 3 gallon trees.

During the Zill's quality heyday, a typical 3 gallon would have 6 - 7 full flushes (whether branched or unbranched is largely irrelevant -- the point being that they were well grown and ready for pot-up to 7gal), and were barely a year old from seed.

Fortunately mango trees do grow rapidly if dropped into the right environment. But there were some serious bargains back during the economic downturn -- including bearing jaboticabas for under $40 :D.

Some of the recent trees may be small since demand has been so high following Irma and they aren't staying at the nursery so long.
All of mine were reasonable size and good quality but I bought early this year and heard the demand was very strong. When I was selecting there I went for diameter over all other factors, then if some had branches reasonably high I went for them, height was my last concern. Most trees I planted got tipped the same day I planted them if they hadn't started already.

I could tell none of mine had been in pots too long, all I did was run a knife up and down down vertically and criss-cross along the bottom to find anything circling and there weren't many, only toothpick size or less.
Jeff  :-)

dross99_si

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2018, 10:20:59 PM »
Mangoes aren't overly picky with regard to potting soil. Your vigoro mix is probably fine.

Best mix would have a lot of sand in it. Mangoes love sand. Zills HPP uses sand + sawdust.

Peat plus perlite and pine bark fines works.

5-1-1 ratio will work ok?
I found some really nice pine fines on Amazon from Bonsai Jack. A little pricey maybe but they’re pre-sifted and pretty much uniform size. No sapwood BS.

Guanabanus

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2018, 05:52:42 AM »
Add sand, not only for texture, but also for silica, which in acidic soil, will slowly provide some soluble Silicon, for plant strength.
Har

dross99_si

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Re: Best potting soil for mango in south florida?
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2018, 02:56:16 PM »
Add sand, not only for texture, but also for silica, which in acidic soil, will slowly provide some soluble Silicon, for plant strength.

Thank you Har, I really appreciate your input  :)
What would be an appropriate amount of coarse silica sand to add to a 5-1-1 mix?
I also plan to add a handful of azomite. Is that a good idea?
« Last Edit: September 17, 2018, 04:41:20 PM by dross99_si »