Hi Lycheeluva,
I agree with you about keeping saucers under potted mango trees. I am not doing it right now, but I did over the winter last year. Man, I wish I only had to water every couple weeks! I tried this with my Carrie last year, and it almost died on me. The thing is, the soil wasn't even really dry. It was actually moist from the soil surface to the bottom of the pot. Once I started watering every 2 or 3 days, it perked right up, and even started flushing growth.
Same with my Maha Chanok but that tree is almost 5ft tall. The tree needs to be repotted. I water that tree about the same. Every 2 or 3 days and when I water both mango trees, I saturate the root balls. IF I don't they seem to go down hill VERY fast.
This has been my experience with potted mango trees BUT, for the past 2 years, I have had them under my 600 watt HPS light and that makes my ave. room temps around 85 degrees. That has to play into why the need much more water.
I have read that people in FL pot there mango and other tropical fruit trees, into Al's gritty mix. I know that in FL during the rainy season, they can get a ton of rain, and that maybe the reason why the gritty mix works so well. Personally, I think if I used the gritty mix, I would have to water my mango trees daily. The only trees that I would keep in the gritty mix, would be my citrus trees.
What mix do you use for your citrus and mango trees? I cannot wait to see how your Maha fruits turn out. The fruit I tried was EXCELLENT!! I have not had extensive exprience with tasting many diffrent mango varieties. I did try mangoes in FL from diffrent fruit stands but they were not labelled as to what variety they were. They were all very good fruits but nothing to rave about. I hit Puerto Rico during mango season, and that was awesome to me! Mango everywhere!! I remember buying 8 for $2.00! But nothing so far has beaten, or come clost to the Maha Chanok! I am hoping to be in S. FL around 4th of July so I am hoping I can try some named varieties...especially Carrie considering that from what I hear you either love the fruit or you hate it!