When To Pick, When to Tip?

[Carbo]

My Cogshall is giving me her first crop this summer.  WooHoo!  9 mangoes a-growin'.  Not ever having been in this lofty position before, what's the surefire way to know when they are ripe to pick and eat?
Also, this gal is putting out a whole lotta growth flushes.  It's about 9 feet tall now, but I want to bush it up a bit and that means a tipping.  My question is when should she get a haircut?  Do I cut off all the new flushes?  Wait until they mature a bit?  Until the fruit is picked off?  Help a n00b out, willya?? 
Thanks, all!

[puglvr1]

Hi Carbo, Congrats on your first crop...Very exciting isn't it? I picked my Cogshall last year when they started to get a nice color/blush to them...when I squeezed it, it had a "little" give not rock hard anymore. Here's a few pictures of what they look like before I picked them. One of the good things about Cogshall is it does color up nicely when they start to ripen where some varieties won't...I picked some of them and let it ripen on the counter for a few days...I was afraid if I waited much longer the racoons and or squirrels would have had it instead of me,lol...like they did the year before that!!







Here's the best part...Yummy!!


As far at tipping the tree...I did mine as soon as I picked my fruits...actually to give the tree the most growing season...I "tipped" each branch as soon as I picked the fruit off that branch. Of course you can wait and do them all at the same time once you've picked all the fruits...up to you.   

[Carbo]

Your puppy sure looks sad.  I figure he'd be thrilled getting to sit guard over that mango.  Speaking of which, the ones on the tree are showing almost no signs of coloring up yet, but I suppose it is still way early in the growing process.

[puglvr1]

Carbo, he's not sad...he's mad because I woke him up from a nap to have his picture taken with my Cogshall,lol...

Some of those pictures were taken in June and the one with Max was taken the first week of July...mine are probably going to be a little earlier this year...maybe by a couple of weeks? Its hard to say...mine are ALL green as well. Several more weeks to go. I think my Glenn will be ready in early June.

I did notice the ones that get the most sun had the nicest color.

[lkailburn]

Hi Carbo, Congrats on your first crop...Very exciting isn't it? I picked my Cogshall last year when they started to get a nice color/blush to them...when I squeezed it, it had a "little" give not rock hard anymore. Here's a few pictures of what they look like before I picked them. One of the good things about Cogshall is it does color up nicely when they start to ripen where some varieties won't...I picked some of them and let it ripen on the counter for a few days...I was afraid if I waited much longer the racoons and or squirrels would have had it instead of me,lol...like they did the year before that!!







Here's the best part...Yummy!!


As far at tipping the tree...I did mine as soon as I picked my fruits...actually to give the tree the most growing season...I "tipped" each branch as soon as I picked the fruit off that branch. Of course you can wait and do them all at the same time once you've picked all the fruits...up to you.

My mouth drooled at the last photo! And i love your pug, so cute

-Luke

[puglvr1]

Thanks Luke, he's a really good dog!!

I'm counting the days/weeks till I can eat some of my fruits this year...its taking forever!! I just hope the varmints leave them alone this year!

[natsgarden123]

Beautiful fruit   

( and a very cute dog)