The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hello tropical fruit lovers:  I am frequently asked to do presentations for garden clubs and other gardening organization get-togethers.  At a presentation last week a number of those present were talking about planting mango trees.   I was asked to give suggestions on what to do to protect young mango trees when Winter comes.  My first suggestion was to get 4 tree stakes like the ones in the picture that I used to support my large tree fern when I moved it.  You can get these tree stakes at Home Depot, Lowes or most nurseries.  They are round, about 2 inches in diameter and 8 feet long.  This suggestion applies to all young trees that are planted in the ground and will work for papaya, guava, etc as well as mango trees.   Drive the four stakes into the ground to form a square with your young mango tree in the center of the square.  Leave enough space to clear the widest branches.  Pick up several cheap drop cloth type painting tarps that will form a good cover for your young tree.  When Winter comes and a freeze is predicted for your area, cover the tree over night and remove the tarp after sunrise.



A second option is to use your old Christmas lights and wrap the young tree as if you were decorating it for Christmas.  A young tree may only require one string of Christmas lights.  An older tree might need a couple of light strings.  You MUST use the older incandescent type of Christmas lights because they produce heat.  The new Christmas lights are cheaper to run but they are cold and will do nothing but make your tree look pretty.  The main advantage of using your old outdated Christmas tree lights from the garage rafters besides the price is that you can wrap the tree before any freeze is predicted and leave the lights on the tree until there is no longer any frost danger.  If you don't still have your old Christmas tree lights, hit a few garage sales or check out the neighborhood to still if anyone has left theirs on the house from last year. If you see a house with the lights still on the house, knock on the door and you might get a string of lights for free!  When a freeze is predicted just run out your good quality extension cord, plug the lights in and know that your tree will not only look pretty but be safe from the freeze.

Hello friends,
I have a great new guava with some short comings.  The desirable characteristics are that our new guava has 3 inch diameter, extra large fruit all of which are very consistent in size.  Each one weighs about half a pound.  Our guava tre is 8 feet tall and produces about 3 crops per year.  The tree is also a consistent very heavy producer with about 100 fruit each fruiting cycle.  The guavas have creamy white flesh with numerous hard seeds and the fruit have a nice aroma but the fruit is not sweet enough for my taste.  I am looking for someone who has a large guava with good flavor that is on the sweet side.  I want to try some crosses with my guava to try for an improved variety with the best characteristics of both parent plants.  Does anyone out there have a good prospect for us to try?

Hello ASaffron  we are also very interested in trying the new pineapple variety that you posted on the forum.  Please advise when you have more info on pricing and shipping for quantities of one dozen plants.  Thanks

Mango Professor

Re: question of the burnt mango leaf margins.  I agree with the person who posed:  forget the miracle grow potting mix.  That mix is too hot, meaning too much fertilizer in the potting mix.  That mix also does not have enough sand for good drainage.  Young mango plants can be burnt or killed with commercial fertilizer that have too much nitrogen too.  Stick to an organic potting mix with at least 40% sand for good drainage.  With that kind of mix, good watering shouldn't be a problem.  For watering, go light in cool weather but give the plant plenty of water during hot Summer weather.  A trick that I use for large mango trees in a pot, 15 gallon size.  Picture below, note the blossom panicles.



Put the pot in a basin that you can pick up at any nursery. During the Summer or hot weather, watch the basin.  When the basin dries out, it is time to water again.  Picture of basis at bottom of pix.




Mango Professor

JF asked for an explanation of our mango pruning techniques.  This post explains the technique and we have also included some pictures to illustrate what to cut and what not to cut.

How to prune a mango tree for maximum production.

We are always looking for new ways to help our fellow mango lovers with the results of our research.  We also like to share ideas with fellow plant researchers around the world.  When we find something good, we always trade ideas and sometimes pick up great new things we can share with our friends through the Tropical Fruit Forum. 

Here is the latest new and exciting news for mango growers, both back yard gardeners and commercial ranchers!  You can keep your mango tree, any variety, to a reasonable size for hand picking and actually increase fruit production.  We can do that by careful, selective pruning.  Our friends in India and South Africa have been working to control the size of their mango trees.   We all know that if you just let a mango tree go, it will grow to massive size.  It is a little hard to pick the fruit from the top of a 40 or 50 foot tall mango tree.  The solution is to train your new mango tree and maintain a maximum height of about 10 feet tall.  That will allow you to pick most of the fruit by hand with only a picking pole to reach the rest at the top of the tree.

We are not talking about dwarf mango varieties!  Any variety can be trained to a easily manageable height and this will also allow you to have room for a few more mango varieties in your yard if you want.  Commercial growers can double or triple their fruit production per acre using the techniques we describe and that is really exciting.

We have also included some pictures to illustrate the pruning techniques we are using to maintain the mango tree size with out adversely affecting the trees fruit production.  Mango trees have a unique method of growth that allows us to use careful pruning to manage the trees and it is very easy with the smaller size tree.

First there are two things to know about the mango growth.  This is time of year, the mango trees are coming into bloom in Southern California.  Take a careful look at the terminal mango branches in the first picture.  This is the last new growth that the tree put on in the fall of 2013 as cooler weather arrived.  The arrival of the Winter “chill” signals the mango plant to switch from active vegetative growth to a resting state so the tree could prepare for flowering and subsequent fruit production.  DO NOT cut any of this new growth with the little conical bud tips when you start to prune your mango tree.  If you cut off any of these, you will be cutting off new flowering wood and won’t get those luscious mangoes you will be expecting in 2014 growing season. 

 
The second picture shows a mango tree in full bloom with blossom panicles distributed across the tree.


The third picture shows a close up of a blossom panicle showing the flowers.


The fourth picture shows a terminal branch that has a flat area at the end of the branch in the center of the leaf swirl.  That flat area was where a blossom panicle was attached in the 2013 blooming and fruiting season.  This is the branch that you can cut off without doing any damage to the tree and it’s fruit production.  The trick is to cut back the branch to the beginning of the 2013 growing season’s growth.  This will not affect this years fruiting at all.  It will allow you to reduce the size of your mango tree and will also spur new growth that will give you fruiting blossom panicle growth for the 2015 fruiting season. 

Congratulations on your first home grown mango.  I have a couple of suggestions for you based on your description of the plant's performance and description.   Most of the SouthEast Asian mangoes varieties are very tropical and don't like cold weather.  The NDM tree is normally a strong and healthy grower.  Mine is large, healthy and produces nice large mangoes.  In your description of your tree, you said the tree is grafted so it can't be a dwarf.  The other things you described add to what sound to me like what a fruit tree on the edge of survival does.  The lack of leaves and the repeated blooming are both symptoms of plant desperation.  If the tree is small, I suggest you try building a mini greenhouse around the tree with 4 plant stakes and plastic drop cloth.  Make sure the top is hinged so you can provide ventilation on warm, Winter days.  Mangoes like lots of water in well drained soils.  If you have heavy, clay soil you need to be very careful with water.  When I water my young mangoes,  I add diluted fish emulsion fertilizer to get my mango trees into a vigorous growth mode.  I hope this helps.  JF also is an expert at growing mangoes and his suggestions are things I would pay very close attention to.  Good luck with your tree.

to Simon.  Unfortunately we are plant breeders and our priority for our fruit to use it in our breeding program.  We don't sell any of our fruit because we grow out the seeds of our new mango varieties to see what the next generation will produce.  As for tasting the fruit before you buy a plant, you may be able to get some after a couple of years from the people who are ordering trees.  Our supply of the new cold hardy varieties are nearly sold out for 2014.  If any of your friends or neighbors are San Diego members of the California Rare Fruit Growers, many will be growing the new varieties and you may be able to get a fruit to try from one of them.  As a foot note, we had to strip our trees of most of their fruit this year in order to induce the trees to produce an adequate supply of bud-wood to meet the demand for grafting material to grow trees to meet the orders.
Tim Thompson

Hello JF,  Sure if we are going to top work the tree it is like starting the growth process in the diagram.  If you put one or two varieties on the rootstock, you follow the tree training diagram as the grafts begin to grow and you will have a very manageable tree.
Tim Thompson

Regarding our second generation mangoes, the Parrot mango and the other two that we posted today are still first generation seedlings that were planted in the 1990's.  Our second generation varieties are growing and looking good but we will have to wait a bit to see what their fruit looks like.  You will see them first on the forum so stay tuned!

Tim Thompson

Hello JF, regarding the fruiting season question.  At my Camarillo location in Ventura County, our Tequila Sunrise mango is has now finished and the mid season mangoes are ready to pick.  My season begins in mid September and will end in mid December.  Those pictures of the mango trees are terrific and someone asked about how the trees owners pick their fruit.  I remember the guy who used a pole and the mangoes hit the hard ground pretty hard so were bruised.  We have been corresponding with people in other parts of the world who are experimenting with different techniques to grow mangoes and have a good solution.  In India researchers have come up with a growth management system where they keep standard variety mango trees to a maximum height of about 9 or 10 feet so they can be picked by hand with out ladders.  My son Tony, created a diagram to illustrate this technique for us to share with our friends.  For the commercial grower, they can get more pounds per acre of trees.  For the back yard gardener, you can grow more varieties in the same space and possibly spread your mango season out a little longer.

Hello friends,  regarding the questions about the Tequila Sunrise and Parrot mangoes.  The Tequila Sunrise mango is one of our new ones being patented.  The Parrot mango is one from our breeding program that has fruited for the first time this year.  Several people asked for details on the plants and their source.  With all of the new mango varieties we are developing, we first evaluate the seedling plants to determine if they will grow in our Southern California climate without any special care or protection. At our Camarillo location, we see temperatures in the 30 degree range nearly every year.  All our seedling mangoes must be able to handle more frost than the tropical varieties.  They must also grow outdoors with full exposure to our cool, damp Spring and Fall weather which promotes powdery mildew on your rose bushes.  Any of our seedling mango trees that show vulnerability to our levels of frost, fungal infections or pests like thrips are culled.   The mango seedlings that show the most vigor are retained to see what kind of fruit they will produce.  The average seedling mango plants will take from 8 to 10 years or more to fruit for the first time.  The Parrot mango, for example, came from a mango seed that we planted in 1998.  The new variety development program is not quick and easy.  This year is the first year the Parrot mango and several others  that were planed in the 1990's produced fruit.  We have attached below, pictures of 2 more mangoes, we have also fruited for the first time this year.  All of these will have to continue to be evaluated for an additional two or three years.  We will need to verify that the production will continue at an acceptable level and not exhibit any tendency to alternate bearing.  We want to see good, consistent production of good tasting fruit before we will consider recommending any new mango variety to anyone whether they are a back yard gardener or commercial farmer. 

Tim Thompson

There were a couple of good questions about grafting that I would like to contribute to.  The first is from the to BKaus in Phoenix AZ.  I am grafting mangoes in California outdoors right now and we only reach about 80 degree level during the day.   Most of what I am doing now is "Top-working" to produce budwood.  There is one trick that I use when grafting that I will share with our forum friends.  I always give the seedling or top worked trees a generous feeding with dilute liquid fish emulsion fertilizer for several weeks after grafting.  I also fertilize them before grafting but you can't turn back the clock so start now.  It gives the plant a good kick start.  In my area, it will stay warm enough for grafting outdoors for several more weeks.

To Tim about pix of healed grafts.  The only grafting that I did earlier this year was for grafting demonstrations including the video we did.  Most were for other people on their trees or seedlings.  Of the ones that I have, none of those have healed sufficiently to unwrap them yet.  I will take a good close-up pix in a couple of weeks so I can post it here in the grafting section.  I am attaching a pix of a healed graft scar of a "Nurse Graft" that I did on a macadamia nut tree. 

Tim Thompson   

Hello Karen.  If your mangoes have been processed in the normal manner, they will spend some time in cold storage and also were probably treated with a hot water bath after being picked to kill any fruit fly eggs or larva.  That does not normally reduce the ability to grow a mango plant from seed.  We have grown thousands of mangoes from seed as part of our mango breeding program.  I have attached a picture of a brand new mango we have just fruited for the first time as an incentive for people to try and do it.

First and most important, make sure the mango you have is NOT a Tommy Atkins mango.  They have a very low germination rate for us even under ideal conditions. The Haden and Kent mangoes seem to give the best results  My suggestion for you to try is based on what you have said and what I have experienced so it is my best guess of what might work for you.  For a store bought mango, keep it on the kitchen counter until ready to eat.  After cutting the fruit and while the seed is still in the husk, put the husk on a plate and air dry the husk until you can handle it without it slipping out of your hands.  Next, very carefully clip off just the stem end of the husk.  If you damage the seed at that sprouting end, start over from scratch.  Since your location suggests to me a cooler than normal climate, try placing the container you plant the seed in somewhere where it will have bottom heat and don't let it dry out.  I bet that will work for you.  Good luck and we will all be interested to see if it works for you.

Tim Thompson