The Tropical Fruit Forum

I am not surprised by the poor growth of that macadamia seedling tree. I had the same issue with my Beaumont tree over 10 years ago. I suspect the native soil is heavier clay type. At my location, I replaced over 1.5 yards of my heavy clay with sandy soil and after I did this my tree took off.  It is not a good idea to plant seedling macadamia trees because even in ideal conditions it will take 8-10 to start to produce nuts and since the tree is Not true to type you never know what you're going to get. It's a big risk and a long wait with seedling trees. Both of my trees are grafted. The Beaumont is 10 years old and the Alba is seven years, about the same age as your seedling. Both grafted trees started to produce at four years of age. Also, macadamia trees like water and grow best with heavy applications of water. I also make several light applications of sulfer twice a year to lower the ph of the soil. They do poorly if the PH is too high.

Enclosed are a few recent pictures of my two trees. The nuts I got last year were excellent.

Johnny



 

Alba Macadamia Tree (7 years old)


Beaumont Mac Tree

Not a good idea to prune or shade Macadamia nut trees. The trees need full sun and ample room to grow full size or growth and quality will be compromised.  If you prune too much you will greatly reduce nut production. 

Johnny

If your grafting outdoors in SoCal in April your chance of success is fairly low based on past experience.  I start having success outdoors in May and peaking in July-August at my location. Hope you have better luck than me. Heat, or the lack thereof, is the biggest factor affecting the success of grafting sub-tropical fruit trees. Hope for a huge heat wave lasting 14-21 days in duration. 

That being said I also ordered (15) scions from Alex recently including some you ordered recently and grafted them on April 14th, 2021. But the big difference is I have Ataulfo Seedings trees that are in my small greenhouse. The daytime temperature in my greenhouse is 90 degrees when the outside temperature is 64.  In 2020 I had a 55-60% success rate with mango grafts in the greenhouse vs less than 10% outdoors. Just my experience. We are definitely not in Florida.

Give your sweet-tart mango tree more time. Remember one growing season in Florida is equivalent to 2-2.5 years in California because of the lack of heat especially in the Spring. June gloom and the coastal eddies have a major impact on our heat index keeping templatures much cooler relative to the East coast. Pacific Ocean temperatures are very cool this time of year, which has a major influence on our weather.

Johnny

I hope your right Rob about Coconut Cream taking more time to come into production. My Tree is approaching the five-year mark and so far no fruit. Time will tell with this cultivar.

Seacrest is a good grower here in California and appears to be an excellent-tasting mango. It Will be interesting to compare the two sometime in the future. 

Johnny

Your right. Culver City is not inland very much, probably similar to my location. I just looked it up. Not as familiar with the North part of LA county as I don't go up that way often.

Johnny

Your trees look fine. Give them more time. Some fruit trees take 5-8 years to produce a reliable crop. 

A least you get some good inland heat in the summer. At my coastal location, it is much cooler and we have less growth relatively.

Johnny

I live about 4-5 miles from the coast. Choose faster-growing varieties like Cac, Seacrest, Guava, LZ exct. There a lot of factors for successful mango growing but for me, one of the most critical is have sandy loam soil, avoid the clay. Here are a few recent photos of my mango trees in bloom.

Johnny 



Sweet Tart 3-13-2021


Mallika-Nam Doc Mai Multi Graft 3-23-2021


Lemon Zest 3-23-2021

My experience for buying manila seedling trees and growing my own from Ataulfo seed is the following.

30% will grow rapidly and make excellent rootstock for grafting. (It is best to let them grow in the ground 2 years prior to grafting)

50% will grow OK but at a reduced rate relative to the 1st group. These are the majority and will be adequate for grafting in the future.

20% suck and have poor vigor. Some will die or grow slowly.  These make poor samples for grafting.

It takes 1-2 years to find out what you have. It is hit and miss. Personally, I grow Ataulfo seedings in the spring and separate the top 30% for grafting after about one year of growth. The others I discard.

Any mango seedling tree has the potential to be a great rootstock but it takes time to find out what you have. This is a hit and miss. If you buy Laverne Manila Rootstock at home depot it the luck of the draw. I have several mango trees that are doing great and several more doing poorly. One died recently in it's pot. Remember these are seedlings and they are all slightly different and will respond based on the soil type and environmental conditions of your microclimate.     

You need to buy 5 mango seeding trees and keep the top two. It's a numbers game. Also, buy seedling trees from different sources to increase diversity and increase your chances of finding a winner. Look at the lower rootstock when you buy. The larger the girth the better in general.

Good luck to all.

Johnny

Mango trees are the most difficult subtropical fruit trees to grow and graft in coastal So Calif. Our clime here is marginal due to the lower heat hours and cooler winter relative to Florida.

There are many variables and success growing mangos can be elusive long term. You can read my previous threads on the subject and info covered by Simon.

Growing Mango Trees is a long-term proposition (5-10 years) and a lot of things have to go right for success.

Johnny

Your Lemon Zest mango tree looks great. My LZ is much younger and has not yet flowered but looks like it will soon.

Not sure more hang time on your fruit will improve the quality as our temperatures are cool now but if we get some warmth that could help.

Good luck with your fruit trees.

Enclosed is a photo of my young LZ mango Tree I just took in early February.

Johnny


California Lemon Zest Mango Tree, Feb 1,2021

You can graft now only if you have a heated greenhouse otherwise forget it, baby. It's a waste of time and money. The temperature is too cold. 

The best time to graft outdoors is in July-August in California.

Johnny

You can plant young mango trees now in December with no problem but there will be no growth since night temperatures are in the 40's and daylight hours are short. As long as we do not get any freezing temperatures young mango trees will be ok, but they may not look great.

If you plant outside Feb-March is a good time as the trees start to wake up a bit.

I keep all of my young mango trees in a greenhouse as I can keep the temperature up and get growth flushes even in mid-winter.

Johnny

Really cool Simon. You're doing a great job on your grafting and mango growth.

I plan to focus on vegetative growth on my Lemon Zest mango tree on Ataulfo rootstock for the next several years. The tree is still relatively small and only 8' tall but I hope over time it will really fill out and gain more height. Interesting I had no disease issues in 2020 and did not have to spray my Lemon Zest tree at all. Overall growth was good. Because of 2020/21 La Nina, we will likely have above-average temperatures this winter which is good for our sub-tropical fruit trees. The only downside of the La Nina is the lack of rainfall.   

Thanks for all of the useful information over the years.  Included in a photo of my Lemon Zest I took a few days ago.

Johnny


California Grown young Lemon Zest Tree