How to prevent Mango from blooming

[behlgarden]

every year here in So Cal we get recent grafts that barely pushed or dormant to start blooming instead of growth in Spring and when you knock out blooms OR wait for fruitlets to be pea size to knock them off, soon after grafts and small plants bloom again, cycle about 2-3 times at expense of growth.

any good way to prevent stop blooms? I heard folks use KNO3 for blooms, what is the antidote to stop blooms?

[Squam256]

Gibberellic Acid will inhibit bloom but doesn’t work on all cultivars and I suspect would be even less effective in California

[lebmung]

Use a nitrogen fertileser such as urea heavily. Also use an auxine to promote apical growth.

[simon_grow]

Heavy nitrogen application both Foliar combined with ground applications do not work. I’ve tried it over several years and they continue to bloom.

Simon

[spaugh]

I know this doesnt really help behl but I was able to keep 10 or so grafted trees from flowering last winter inside my greenhouse.  I planted them in may and most then flowered.  It still got cold at night in the GH but was 90+ during the day all winter.  Had nice flushes all winter and no blooms.

[Kada]

I'm not so familiar wit photoperiod and mango flowering, but I would try lighting.

[Jose Spain]

Gibberellic Acid will inhibit bloom but doesn’t work on all cultivars and I suspect would be even less effective in California

It works in Malaga for Osteen at least, 0.5 ml of gib. acid/per 1 liter, 3-4 times in Autumn every 15 days (how many times depending on hasl, coast plots needs just 3 applications, those in the hills need 4), starting when night temperatures drop below 15ºC (Sep-Oct). I'm trying it myself this year for the first time with some cvs (LZ, FP, NDM4, Keitt...). 

[Jose Spain]

Also I managed to avoid bloom in a young NDM4 by using bambu canes and two layers of transparent plastic making an individual greenhouse around the tree. I was actually trying to minimize the thriving of Pseudomonas, avoiding bloom was an unexpected, collateral effect. Since the estructure is still in place, I'll probably set the plastic again to avoid the bloom in spring.

[simon_grow]

Gibberellic Acid will inhibit bloom but doesn’t work on all cultivars and I suspect would be even less effective in California

It works in Malaga for Osteen at least, 0.5 ml of gib. acid/per 1 liter, 3-4 times in Autumn every 15 days (how many times depending on hasl, coast plots needs just 3 applications, those in the hills need 4), starting when night temperatures drop below 15ºC (Sep-Oct). I'm trying it myself this year for the first time with some cvs (LZ, FP, NDM4, Keitt...).

Jose, do you know the final concentration of GA? I have the powder form so I will need the final concentration to know how much to dilute.

On a side note, I have been dealing with this issue for so many years and planting seeds from Polyembryonic varieties is one of the best solutions I can come up with so far. If you get lucky with a clone, you will get good fruit and not have to worry about flowering.

For those that don’t live in cold climates, the cold weather is one of the strongest bloom inducer that I know of. Here in SoCal, some of our Mangos are already blooming.

Once bloom occurs, much energy is wasted forming flower panicles and even if the panicles are removed, the tree will bloom again. The bloom at my location typically lasts 6-7 months. Half the year is wasted on a a fruitless effort. This is young trees I’m talking about. For fully mature trees, we want the blooms and fruit set but for young trees that are still establishing, this is a horrible thing to waste half the year.

We must remember that not only are we wasting time but the plant is wasting much energy as well. The bloom panicles are large and use up much of the stored resources. For a small plant, this can be 1-2 growth flushes of stored energy if it hadn’t bloomed.

Simon

[Jose Spain]

The comercial product growers use here is this one: https://www.terralia.com/vademecum_de_productos_fitosanitarios_y_nutricionales/view_trademark?book_id=1&trademark_id=1537

It has 0,5% p/v of GA, so I guess that with 0,5 ml of powder in 1 litre you could get an equivalent concentration?

I found this paper: https://www.revistafitotecniamexicana.org/documentos/29-3/2a.pdf

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the info Jose!

Simon

[Jose Spain]

Thanks for the info Jose!

Simon

Let me know how it works for you, with our Mediterranean climate if we manage to avoid these blooms we'd gain years of growth.

[pineislander]

You might also want to consider what was found in these experiements:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b32c/50567019328e3cf762f3de022d2f13cad835.pdf