Heavy mulching of neighbor's Keitt mango tree

[MarinFla]

I use any of them and I splurged on a gallon of Dynagrow Foliage Pro and have been doing foliar spraying with some copper fungicide in addition to the chelated iron drenches. My trees look better now than ever!

[puglvr1]

Alexi--- Vigoro citrus and avocado fertilizer
Here is a decent fertilizer at Home Depot that is good for mangoes too. It comes in different size bags. You can get a smaller bag if you think you will be getting some 8-3-9 in a few months
I have used this myself. It has minors and is slow release nitrogen

bsb---- Excalibur selling custom made 8-3-9 for $20 for 50lbs is a great deal and is less expensive (per lb) than the 40lb bags that  HD and Lowes have as far as fertilizers with

• good NPK numbers
• minor elements
• coated, slow release nitrogen

The straight NPK fertilizers such as 6-6-6 and 10-10-10 are always less expensive because the have no minors plus their nitrogen granules are not (polymer) coated so they are quick release.

Zands, I use that same Bad of Vigoro for all my Mangoes, Lychee and other fruit trees...as much as I would LOVE to purchase the 50 lb bag of Excalibur or Pine Island's special blend it is not cost effective for me since its a over 5 hours round trip for me.

So far I've been happy with the Vigoro as well...I even got it for half price the last time I bought it since the bag was ripped and they had marked it down. 

Marin, I have the Dyna-gro Foliage Pro as well and it is expensive so I use it mostly on my Potted plants...its great stuff though! Its not bad since you only use one teaspoon per gallon of water so it does last a long time.

[Tropicalgrower89]

Alexi--- Vigoro citrus and avocado fertilizer
Here is a decent fertilizer at Home Depot that is good for mangoes too. It comes in different size bags. You can get a smaller bag if you think you will be getting some 8-3-9 in a few months
I have used this myself. It has minors and is slow release nitrogen

bsb---- Excalibur selling custom made 8-3-9 for $20 for 50lbs is a great deal and is less expensive (per lb) than the 40lb bags that  HD and Lowes have as far as fertilizers with

• good NPK numbers
• minor elements
• coated, slow release nitrogen

The straight NPK fertilizers such as 6-6-6 and 10-10-10 are always less expensive because the have no minors plus their nitrogen granules are not (polymer) coated so they are quick release.

Thanks for the recommendation Zands.  I'll see if I can swing by home depot this weekend.

[zands]

Thanks for the recommendation Zands.  I'll see if I can swing by home depot this weekend.

I have a half used 40lb bag of that Vigoro cirus/mango/avocado fertilizer.  It should come in 5lbs and 20lbs too.... definitely the 5lb size at least at the HD near me. The old version had 12-5-8 numbers, if you are lucky you will come across it but the 6-4-6 version has replaced it

puglvr --- I agree. That Vigoro 6-4-6 fertilizer is pretty good. And it does list mangoes on the back. Citrus and avocado on the front

[Tropicalgrower89]

Thanks for the recommendation Zands.  I'll see if I can swing by home depot this weekend.

I have a half used 40lb bag of that Vigoro cirus/mango/avocado fertilizer.  It should come in 5lbs and 20lbs too.... definitely the 5lb size at least at the HD near me. The old version had 12-5-8 numbers, if you are lucky you will come across it but the 6-4-6 version has replaced it

puglvr --- I agree. That Vigoro 6-4-6 fertilizer is pretty good. And it does list mangoes on the back. Citrus and avocado on the front

Cool. According to the home depot website, my local home depot has 3.5lb, 20lb, and 40lb vigoro fertilizers in stock. I think banana's would also benefit from this fertilizer. I'm also going to try it on one of my mamey sapote trees to see how it responds along with the guanbana and sweetsop.

[zands]

Cool. According to the home depot website, my local home depot has 3.5lb, 20lb, and 40lb vigoro fertilizers in stock. I think banana's would also benefit from this fertilizer. I'm also going to try it on one of my mamey sapote trees to see how it responds along with the guanbana and sweetsop.

Thanks!!!!....now I know HD has inventory on line at least for some items. Bananas can take the cheap 6-6-6 or 10-10-10 (quick release) though the Vigoro 6-4-6 is probably better for it. Some WalMart garden departments can be very good. All depends on the store. Last I looked they had 6-6-6 less expensive than HD or Lowes. About $12 for a 40 or 50lb bag

[fruitlovers]

May be a small contributor but the guy who cuts our lawn places the grass trimming around my trees, which break down very easily and blend into the mulch, around the trees. 

We also have a large amount of fallen pine needles, which have naturally mulched a number of my trees.

I'm pretty lucky that the guy actually seems to care about the trees rather than the usual weed whacking that I've seen in the past.

Hi Natsgarden, i do the same with grass clippings. Have a grass catcher on my mower and use the clippings around all the fruit trees. They love it! Fertilizers are extremely expensive here now due to shipping costs added to regular price, so have to try to cut down on their use as much as possible.

[bsbullie]

May be a small contributor but the guy who cuts our lawn places the grass trimming around my trees, which break down very easily and blend into the mulch, around the trees. 

We also have a large amount of fallen pine needles, which have naturally mulched a number of my trees.

I'm pretty lucky that the guy actually seems to care about the trees rather than the usual weed whacking that I've seen in the past.

Aren't uncomposted grass clipping high in nitrogen ?  Wouldn't that be "bad" for certain fruit such as mangoes ?

Hi Natsgarden, i do the same with grass clippings. Have a grass catcher on my mower and use the clippings around all the fruit trees. They love it! Fertilizers are extremely expensive here now due to shipping costs added to regular price, so have to try to cut down on their use as much as possible.

[fruitlovers]

May be a small contributor but the guy who cuts our lawn places the grass trimming around my trees, which break down very easily and blend into the mulch, around the trees. 

We also have a large amount of fallen pine needles, which have naturally mulched a number of my trees.

I'm pretty lucky that the guy actually seems to care about the trees rather than the usual weed whacking that I've seen in the past.

Aren't uncomposted grass clipping high in nitrogen ?  Wouldn't that be "bad" for certain fruit such as mangoes ?

Hi Natsgarden, i do the same with grass clippings. Have a grass catcher on my mower and use the clippings around all the fruit trees. They love it! Fertilizers are extremely expensive here now due to shipping costs added to regular price, so have to try to cut down on their use as much as possible.

Yes grass clippings are high in nitrogen, no not bad as a mulch. If  you mixed them into the soil that would be a different story. By the time they work down into the root system not much nitrogen left at all, just mostly increases soil organic content percentage.
BTW grass clippings are good to heat up compost piles due to high nitrogen content. Use them there also to speed up composting process.

[bsbullie]

May be a small contributor but the guy who cuts our lawn places the grass trimming around my trees, which break down very easily and blend into the mulch, around the trees. 

We also have a large amount of fallen pine needles, which have naturally mulched a number of my trees.

I'm pretty lucky that the guy actually seems to care about the trees rather than the usual weed whacking that I've seen in the past.

Aren't uncomposted grass clipping high in nitrogen ?  Wouldn't that be "bad" for certain fruit such as mangoes ?

Hi Natsgarden, i do the same with grass clippings. Have a grass catcher on my mower and use the clippings around all the fruit trees. They love it! Fertilizers are extremely expensive here now due to shipping costs added to regular price, so have to try to cut down on their use as much as possible.

Yes grass clippings are high in nitrogen, no not bad as a mulch. If  you mixed them into the soil that would be a different story. By the time they work down into the root system not much nitrogen left at all, just mostly increases soil organic content percentage.
BTW grass clippings are good to heat up compost piles due to high nitrogen content. Use them there also to speed up composting process.

that I knew about

[KarenRei]

Only thing to be careful with grass clippings is to not let them rot while touching non-woody stems; they're famous for "burn" in such a situation.

[zands]

Yes grass clippings are high in nitrogen, no not bad as a mulch. If  you mixed them into the soil that would be a different story. By the time they work down into the root system not much nitrogen left at all, just mostly increases soil organic content percentage.
BTW grass clippings are good to heat up compost piles due to high nitrogen content. Use them there also to speed up composting process.

Ever notice how small a pile of grass clippings will shrink to? And very quickly? They cannot compete with wood chips as far as mass and supplying masses of carbon and humus to soil. I throw grass clipping on my fruit trees too BTW  Wood chips also supply minor elements to the soil that were used by the trees/shrubs that were trimmed and chipped. Also some potassium and phosphorus and some nitrogen though nitrogen is what you find in green stuff, not brown stuff like a leaf pile or chipped trees

They (grass clippings) are best used layered with brown materials in a compost pile. The nitrogen in grass can help it all breakdown quicker