2015 SoCal Mango bloom updates

[goosteen]

That's a lot of chopped fruit!  Yours seems to develop faster than mine, as most are pea size right now with some grape size.  However I started thinning last night because I got bored and impatient,  hopefully it was not to early. 

Here are some pictures... this is an Alphonso tree and a Kiett tree, after about 1 year. 




Hard to tell because the pictures suck, but this was one of my fastest growings trees for the year.  It almost quadrupled in size.  The only one that beat it was a Pinache fig tree.   







This one didn't do too bad either.

[simon_grow]

Nice little trees!  Are you removing all your fruit? If you are, I think thats a smart move.  Please keep us updated on the progress of your plants. 

Simon

[goosteen]

Will probably keep 1 or 2, last year I let the keitt keep one, but it only got about half size, and tasted ok.  Hoping this year will be better.

[goosteen]

So far there's been no new growth this year....Where as this time last year things were putting on lots of new shoots.   I'm thinking it's the cold weather.  Has anyone else in so cal experienced this? 

[marklee]

These are the mangos that will be ready sometime in the fall here in So. California
Lemon Zest


Maha Chanok


Nam DocMai


Sweet Tart


Also have Neem, Kensington Pride and Po Pyu Kalay flowering.

[MangoFang]

Nice work, Marklee!  I'm noticing the wonderful shapes and colors developing.
What a grand hobby we have!....and should I assume you have more than one
mango for each of these trees?


Gary

[marklee]

Nice work, Marklee!  I'm noticing the wonderful shapes and colors developing.
What a grand hobby we have!....and should I assume you have more than one
mango for each of these trees?


Gary

Yes Gary, there are more hanging, except the Maha, the tree is still kind of small, but I had to let one stay on the tree. Your mangoes must be about twice the size as these.

[MangoFang]

well....yes....the few that I have:

1 Edward is huge
1 Rosigold is nice-sized
about 14 Glenns are nice-sized
another 8 or so Keitt are getting big.
about 4 Kents
1 Lemon Zest

...and THAT's IT!!!!!!!!! 

Don't know what i did wrong, if anything, but the blooming simply didn't happen
for half the trees, after the 2 nights of 29 degrees maybe in January?  Don't know....

Maybe they got too much water, not enough nutrients, just not sure.....definitely
it's been grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr of a spring for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gary

[gnappi]

Wow..I really realize how lucky we south Florida growers are..

Rapid growth rates,
No need for 6 foot deep hole
Cheap prices for trees
rare freeze threat

Sure we have to contend with more tropical pests, fungus and diseases than out west and up north,  plus the occasional hurricane ..but I'll take that anyday..

Digging 6 foot deep holes??!!! Wow that's impressive and scary!

I'll second those sentiments and add that we "generally" have sufficient water from rain, aquifers that don't (or haven't yet) run dry, and great weather most of the year!

[simon_grow]

Nice update guys! I'm having the opposite problem. I let a few of my trees hold some fruit and removed all the fruit from other trees and the trees are reblooming! I don't want this! My trees have very few leaves and have very little means of supporting fruit.

I removed all the fruit except 5 from my Glenn tree and the friggin tree is reblooming even though it's still holding fruit. I think I'm just going to let my trees hold some fruit so hopefully it won't fruit next year. I want my trees to develops large canopies before holding fruit because I want enough fruit to share with friends and family and especially our SoCal mango tasting events.

We have the benefit of cooler weather here which helps with bloom and I believe the cooler weather causes the fruit to develope slower and may possibly help with flavor because the fruit has more time to develope. The downside is that the trees grow slow unless you're working with seedlings or Manilla rootstock.

Simon

[sapote]

I think I'm just going to let my trees hold some fruit so hopefully it won't fruit next year.

Simon

Simon, I'm not sure about this. Last year I let my Maha had 2 fruits and this year it kept sending out more flowers and not a single leaf so far. This weekend I will pick off the remain pea size fruits hoping for new grow and no more flowers. My Edward has a lot of new grow but not a single fruit although it sent out a few flowers stokes, and Lancetilla is still sending out tons of flowers. I think something was wrong with my method. I recently modified the ground level around the trees in hope that this will improve the situation: I built a water basin 12" away from the trunk to encourage the roots grow outward more. In the past the ground might be a bit lower near the trunk (didn't want the soil covered the trunk) and the concentration of water there might cause root bounded and so less growth.

Sapote

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the information sapote. I have some mangos that have been in the ground for about 3-4 years now that I have removed every single fruit since they were planted and they still continually flower so removing the fruit and blooms hasn't been working for me. I've removed fruit from pea size all the way up to goofball size and they keep blooming. My Glenn and and Alphonso, my oldest trees will also throw out an occasional vegetative flush but still mostly flowers. I'm letting both these trees hold fruit this year because my patience is wearing thin.

Here's some updated pictures of my current fruit.
Glenn


Lemon Zest

String of Maha Chanoks

Baby Alphonso's

[bsbullie]

Simon - where did you get the Mahachanok from?  Not sure if its the angle however the shape of those fruits looks off.

As for letting them hold fruit this year so they wont next, never heard of such a theory.   If you dont want them to hold fruit, cut off inflos when fruit are between bb and msrble size and fertilize the tree.  That should get it out of bloom/fruiting mide.  If it does throw another bloom, cut the inflos off again after any fruit that set get between bb and marble size.

[simon_grow]

Hey Rob, I got to be tree from Plantogram which I believe got their trees from Excaliber. The angle of the picture was awkward and doesn't really show the long and curved shape of the fruit. I'll update with more pictures when the fruit get larger.

I've tasted Maha Chanok from California before and they can be washed out in flavor so I'm eagerly awaiting to see how mine will taste. I'll report back with a taste report and a Brix readings when the fruit are ripe. Mangos mature really slowly here because of the cooler weather and I'm hoping this will help flavor up my fruit. The Maha I tried previously was grown in the dessert where it's much warmer and Gary waters a lot which may water down the sugars and flavor.

Simon

[sapote]

Simon,

I see you have tomato plants near the Maha and Alphonso; I'm concerned about having tomato disease spread to the more expensive mangoes.

Sapote

[simon_grow]

Yes Tomatos are notorious for fungal diseases. Tomatos are highly prone to Fusarium, verticillium etc and one strain of Fusarium is implicated in Mangomalformation disease but the strain of Fusarium is particular to mango and I'm not positive that fungal diseases from Tomatos can be easily passed onto Mango. I've been growing mango and Tomatos at my house since I've been here and I feel that if something is passed from one plant to another, I'll just let the strong survive.

Simon