Mangodog's 2012 Memorial Weekend Pic Fest

[MangoFang]

Well I've thinned the Keitt to 2 mangos and may shear them off very soon depending on my whimsy.  The tree
had a single flush (about 4 inches) of growth late last year (November) after I had the third of three fruits and then flowered this spring.  At this rate the tree will be 8 feet tall in about 10 years - good if one wants a condo mango, but i'd like this one to get big - a 15-20 foot tree would be ideal, so the remaining two may just come off...and I might consider slicing off the two Glenn fruits and maybe one of the Pickering too....frustrating to be sure but I see the wisdom of it....

Thanks gurus......Gary

[lycheeluva]

what a gorgeous and delicious garden

[behlgarden]

Mangodog! Great progress there. nice to see some varities you would get to taste this season. How is your Maha Chanok doing? No flowering there? Didnt see update. Also love those papayas.

[puglvr1]

My Keitt has been a pretty slow grower for me, mainly for two reasons. I didn't plant it in the sunniest spot and at least 4 freezes out of the 5 years its been planted. Mine usually only has 2 growth flushes a year...this year since its fruiting for the first time I'll be lucky to get one growth flush late summer early fall.

Mangofang...I feel your pain having to thin out fruits from your trees. I'm sure the tree will reward you with lots of mangoes in a couple of years.

[fruitlovers]

I have a different take than Sleepdoc, and others, with respect to removing fruit from a young tree.  Mangoes growing in the wild (and to old time homeowners who have landscape mango trees in their yard) do not have anybody removing their fruit should they fruit at a young age and I have not seen it stunt or debilitate the growth of the tree.  My thought is if the tree is fruiting and trying to hold the fruit, than it is the natural course the tree wants to take.  I have seen many times the blooms cut off a small mango tree and the tree then sends inflos out again (again, seems in this case its the natural habit the tree wants to flower).  In the case of letting the fruit set and then cutting the fruit or info off, you have already let the tree put a lot of energy to that point in the fruiting process...do you really think that by cutting the fruit off you have saved the tree from any detrimental growth habits?  My opinion, IF it wants to set and hold the fruit to maturity, let it be.  In almost all cases of juvenile trees holding fruit to near or at maturity, as soon as the fruit is picked the trees in almost all cases push a vegetative flush soon or almost immediately after harvest (or dropping of fruit).

I am probaby the first person to leave fruit (at least one or two) on a small tree to try the fruit when the conventional wisdom says to pull it off and let the tree grow.  But there is no question that the bearing of fruit can cause serious growth retardation to a small grafted tree.  That is the problem with your logic, Rob.  In nature, a seedling tree would never bear at that size so there is never a need to remove fruit to avoid the stunting of growth.  A grafted tree has been forced into maturity by man, way earlier than the root system supporting the seedling rootstock and the grafted portion of the tree is capable of fully handling.  Yes, some trees do seem to grow right through some early bearing of fruit, but many do not and are permanently stunted.  If you don't care about possible stunting, then let it fruit away with impugnity.  However, if you are trying to get a decent sized tree......thinning the fruit maybe the best thing.  The good news, I have never seen a mango tree that fruited itself to death.

Harry

I think both Harry and Rob have made good points. I tend to fall into traditional camp here that says to thin out fruits from very small trees. But as Rob has pointed out, once the fruits are fully formed the tree has already spent most of its energy making that fruit, and by then it's too late for thinning to have much good consequence. My conclusion would be to thin the fruit as soon as possible. Better yet to cut the inflorescence off right away if you want to conserve that tree energy for rooting and leafing rather than fruit production. If the tree continues to flower just continue to snip all the flowers off. A tree puts a tremendous amount of resources into making flowers and fruit. Something not brought up in this discussion is that people growing in containers also put an unnatural amount of soil fertilizers and foliar feeds onto their trees. So if you are very heavily feeding the tree and you are properly in tune with that, then you may be able to get away with it producing some fruits without straining the tree of resources for later growth. I think that is how growers like Adam are able to produce fruits on such small trees and still have the trees looking very healthy. I think it's possible, but very few people really feed the tree enough and in the proper balance to fruit them when very small. So this rule applies to most, but maybe not to adamant hobbyists or professional growers.