Author Topic: Growing a mango in East Central Florida  (Read 2910 times)

DallasYoung

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Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« on: April 18, 2019, 10:20:18 AM »
I have a perfect spot in my backyard I’d like to put a mango tree, but I’m not sure what variety would be best for my area. In a little south of Daytona, close to the intracoastal waterway River. I’ll be within 25’ of an outlet so any tips on heating it if we get a cold snap are also welcomed!

What variety would do best here if I’m looking for a delicious fiberless mango, and any tips on finding a reliable nursery in the Daytona/Orlando area? Thanks in advance!

Yook

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2019, 06:56:26 PM »
Our kids tropical nursery and green jungle nursery both had good selections and knowledgeable owners.

I recently bought a Pickering which I intend to keep ina pot to avoid snaps. Both my neighbors have huge trees though so maybe I should have just put it in the ground:/ there is a big thread floating around here which compiles people’s opinions and success with a large amount of different mangos. Pine island nursery has a good website to look at the varieties too. Best of luck

Dangermouse01

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2019, 08:43:30 PM »
The Brevard Tropical Fruit Club will be having it's annual fruit tree sale on Saturday, April 27, from 8:00 (no earlier) to 4:00.
Located at the Melbourne Auditorium, 625 East Hibiscus Blvd, Melbourne FL 32901.

Everything except the citrus is brought in by Pine Island Nursery.

Always a long line of people waiting to get in when the gates open at 8:00.

WGphil

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2019, 07:39:37 AM »
We unloaded about 6,000 plots last year that Eric brought from pine island

None went back

But his mango selection trails others

Their mango selection doesn’t include the new Zills selections however 
« Last Edit: April 19, 2019, 07:53:39 AM by WGphil »

achetadomestica

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2019, 09:27:48 AM »
I am also in zone 9b but on the edge of 10a.
I am curious are there any large mango trees growing in your area?
If you anticipate weather issues try to find the warmest spot in your
yard, like the South side of your home or the South side of an oak tree.
There sometimes is a 5 degree difference in yards. Every fall I stockpile
mulch. If we were to have a mid 20F or lower night I plan to water heavy
and put mulch above the graft lines. Unfortunately I have allot of trees that
will need protection if you only have one it will be much easier. If you are
barely able to keep your tree alive each year the fruit production will be poor
and you can always remove tree and plant a low chill peach or something else
that is productive and needs some cold.
Here's a great website for info on mango types
https://www.tropicalacresfarms.com/
Our kids nursery has a great reputation. You may want to consider a more compact
tree like pickering
« Last Edit: April 19, 2019, 09:30:52 AM by achetadomestica »

sunworshiper

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2019, 05:24:48 PM »
If you think that you are borderline for your area being too cold, the best thing you can do is choose a variety that will be easy to maintain as a small tree. There is a great list of compact varieties here http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=17443.0 that tells you about tree size & how they taste. I'm in Orlando & keep my mango trees at 6' tall so I can put a hoop house over each one during freezes (don't need to do that every year, but many years). Also, what kind of soil do you have, sand or muck? Some varieties do better on different soil types. I bought an Angie, which apparently produces great fruit in south florida's soil, but on sandy soil (what I have) the fruit are not good. I top worked it into a different variety. I've currently got Pickering, Manilita, Maha Chanok & Fairchild. Those are all solid choices for a tree you want keep small but still productive. Have fun choosing!

DallasYoung

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2019, 09:59:57 PM »
Thanks a lot for the replies! I will be doing some more research before I choose. I would love to take it to the Brevard tropical fruit tree sale but I’ll be in North Carolina next weekend.

johnb51

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2019, 12:01:22 AM »
I bought an Angie, which apparently produces great fruit in south florida's soil, but on sandy soil (what I have) the fruit are not good.

I never heard that before--that Angie mangoes grown on sandy soil are not good. What is that based on?  Please give us the facts on which that statement is based.  There's a hell of a lot of sandy soil in South Florida, including at some of our major players--Truly Tropical (Delray Beach), Tropical Acres Farms (WPB), and Walter Zill's (Boynton Beach)!
« Last Edit: April 20, 2019, 12:16:24 AM by johnb51 »
John

achetadomestica

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2019, 01:12:25 AM »
I bought an Angie, which apparently produces great fruit in south florida's soil, but on sandy soil (what I have) the fruit are not good.


Are you sure the excessive rainfall or another factor was the cause? I hear over and over people say
mangos perform differently each year? How many years has the Angie been bad?

The Mangoman

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2019, 02:54:39 AM »
Lukas nursery in Oviedo has a great selection of mango trees. I would plant a Nam Doc Mai, a glenn, cogshall or a ducan if you want to keep a smaller great tasting tree, and an organge sherbert, Keitt or lemon meringue if you want to go for taste. I have a new plan to only let the newest 8 mango trees grow to only 10-11’ planted next to my detached garage that has a hieght of 12’. Then I’m going to build a side post about 35’ away and cover them all using a huge roll of 40’ visqeen. I am then going to cover them all in about 1 hour time!!🤗
I just planted a nom doc mai, an Irwin, an orange sherbet, a lanciltia, and madame Franque, a pineapple pleasure, a cogshall, and an Alphonso🥺
I have a Carrie  since 2006 which I really do not care for, but is doing really great. A Glenn and a Gary from 2006 as well that are recovering.

I live in Deltona Fl which gets down to the teens some years, about every 10 years or so. Growing mango trees here is hell. Yet, because I love them so much I keep trying. 4 out of the 6 trees I put in the ground survived. Mostly because I cover them and put a heat source.

I have a Kent tree that was about 22 feet high and wide that I got about 60 mangoes from in 2017. Too big to cover so one dumb night of 26 degrees for 4 hours decimated my tree and fruits in February 2018. Happy to report that even though I had to cut back the tree to about 10’ high, it not only grew back 5’ but I have about 50-70 mangoes growing right now!!!

It got about 34 degrees here a couple of times this year and I did not cover once.
Very surprised












« Last Edit: April 20, 2019, 03:30:16 AM by The Mangoman »

sunworshiper

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2019, 08:08:46 AM »
I bought an Angie, which apparently produces great fruit in south florida's soil, but on sandy soil (what I have) the fruit are not good.

I never heard that before--that Angie mangoes grown on sandy soil are not good. What is that based on?  Please give us the facts on which that statement is based.  There's a hell of a lot of sandy soil in South Florida, including at some of our major players--Truly Tropical (Delray Beach), Tropical Acres Farms (WPB), and Walter Zill's (Boynton Beach)!

Perfectly fair to ask for evidence. There isn't enough evidence to say for sure what causes the variability just discussion speculating that soil seems to be one of the differences. The thread discussing is here http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=16319.0 I'd love to hear if anyone has a tree on all sand soil that is producing good tasting fruit. Anyhow, so as not to hijack this thread, I recommend for varieties like this that seem to vary according to growing conditions & whose taste can be polarizing - taste the fruit from a grower whose trees are producing good tasting fruits to make sure you like it, and ask questions about the growing conditions to see how similar they are to your own before deciding to plant one. I gave mine 2 years fruiting with both years producing off tasting fruit before I top-worked it into a Maha Chanok, which is now fruiting for the first time. So I'll have an opportunity this season to find out if there is some factor affecting that spot in my yard that isn't variety specific. I have tasted Maha Chanok from other growers and love it, so I'll know for sure if the ones my tree produces taste off in some way. I'm not expecting that to be the case since my pickering is about 8' away and produces good fruit. But if there does turn out to be something about that spot influencing taste, I'll start a new thread and post what I experience so others can learn from it too.


johnb51

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2019, 09:28:13 AM »
Ha!  You got me on that one, sunworshiper.  I'm the one who started the other thread about Angie, and I had even speculated about sandy soil!  But no one backed that up.  Forgetting sh*t in my semi-old age (68)!  I've kept my tree because it's an awesome, perfect-growing tree with beautiful fruit.  The fruit is still variable in flavor, but it's so different than Pickering that it's a good early mango to have as a companion.
John

johnb51

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2019, 09:34:13 AM »
Lukas nursery in Oviedo has a great selection of mango trees. I would plant a Nam Doc Mai, a glenn, cogshall or a ducan if you want to keep a smaller great tasting tree, and an organge sherbert, Keitt or lemon meringue if you want to go for taste. I have a new plan to only let the newest 8 mango trees grow to only 10-11’ planted next to my detached garage that has a hieght of 12’. Then I’m going to build a side post about 35’ away and cover them all using a huge roll of 40’ visqeen. I am then going to cover them all in about 1 hour time!!🤗
I just planted a nom doc mai, an Irwin, an orange sherbet, a lanciltia, and madame Franque, a pineapple pleasure, a cogshall, and an Alphonso🥺
I have a Carrie  since 2006 which I really do not care for, but is doing really great. A Glenn and a Gary from 2006 as well that are recovering.

I live in Deltona Fl which gets down to the teens some years, about every 10 years or so. Growing mango trees here is hell. Yet, because I love them so much I keep trying. 4 out of the 6 trees I put in the ground survived. Mostly because I cover them and put a heat source.

I have a Kent tree that was about 22 feet high and wide that I got about 60 mangoes from in 2017. Too big to cover so one dumb night of 26 degrees for 4 hours decimated my tree and fruits in February 2018. Happy to report that even though I had to cut back the tree to about 10’ high, it not only grew back 5’ but I have about 50-70 mangoes growing right now!!!

It got about 34 degrees here a couple of times this year and I did not cover once.
Very surprised







Your Kent fruit doesn't have disease issues?  In SoFla everybody is getting rid of Kent due to all its problems.
John

sunworshiper

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2019, 01:49:39 PM »
Ha!  You got me on that one, sunworshiper.  I'm the one who started the other thread about Angie, and I had even speculated about sandy soil!  But no one backed that up.  Forgetting sh*t in my semi-old age (68)!  I've kept my tree because it's an awesome, perfect-growing tree with beautiful fruit.  The fruit is still variable in flavor, but it's so different than Pickering that it's a good early mango to have as a companion.

No worries John! I hope when I'm 68 I'm still growing mangos=)

For all the newbies out there trying to wade through all the info, here's the info I'd have liked to been able to find easily for getting started:
* No variety has significantly better cold tolerance, they are all about the same and will require protection if the temps drop below 32F
* All varieties will require pruning to keep small. Ones that are listed as "dwarf", "compact", "low vigor" or with "short internode lengths" will be easier to keep small. I chose compact varieties, and I still regularly prune off 2-6' of height each year to keep them small enough that I can frost protect
* Environmental factors like kind of soil, amount of moisture, and fertilizer can impact flavor. Some varieties are very stable, and have fruit with consistent quality from year to year despite a wide range of environmental factors. Other varieties are more sensitive, for example cookiemonster helped me figure out that my soil is so sandy I'd have to add massive quantities of gypsum to keep my Cogshall from having jelly seed. Too much work for me, I'm topworking that one too. So if you can only have one tree, might be worth it to make sure it is a variety that has consistent quality. If you can have a whole orchard full of trees, then you can just chuck the ones that taste bad and still have plenty of tasty ones.
* Different varieties can have substantially different disease tolerances, so it is worth understanding what diseases are prevalent in your area and finding resistant varieties
* Don't worry too much about getting the perfect variety. If you get a healthy tree to grow and you don't like the taste of the fruit (or just find a variety you like more), learning to graft is easy and you can convert it to a different variety, a process that takes a lot less time than planting a new tree. Of the 4 original trees I planted, 1 lost to frost and I replanted a different variety, 2 have been topworked to different varieties and only one of the original trees remains untouched (Manilita).

All that said, mangos are second only to lychee as my favorite fruit trees. They require way less work to grow than citrus, and it is a complete joy to harvest each fruit!

The Mangoman

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2019, 11:29:03 PM »
Hey John, I water my trees regularly and the only thing I notice is that the lower branches never hold the fruit. I do not cut any branches off, as I feel the lower beaches keep some warmth in. Kinda like a blanket.

I love the taste of Kent and Glenn, I guess the remind me of my Hollywood Fl trees as a kid.

The Glenn and Carrie and Gary I have also seem to do very well here. Except for the cold that is🥺


johnb51

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #15 on: April 21, 2019, 08:37:09 AM »
I love the flavor of Kent, as well.  I planted Providence for that, but it hasn't fruited yet, and I've read that it will be problematic, too.  So it looks like I will try Spirit of 76.  I wanted to plant Spirit of 76 and Orange Sherbet in the same hole.  I hope they are compatible.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2019, 08:42:11 AM by johnb51 »
John

The Mangoman

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #16 on: April 21, 2019, 05:09:52 PM »
Look up truly tropical videos on YouTube. Chris helps out so much on the different types, tastes, and disease prone varieties.

I am so excited to see how my 50x 35 area does with 8 mango trees, 3 lychee trees, and about 20 banana trees. I will be able to cover them all when the weather goes down in about an hour, instead of the 1 hour per tree it used to take me🤗

Tropheus76

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Re: Growing a mango in East Central Florida
« Reply #17 on: April 22, 2019, 09:50:08 AM »
For keeping in pots and just general keeping small, Pickering, Maha Chinok, or Graham. That said cold in our 9B will help keep any variety smallish and what you want is a thick bush as opposed to a tree. A heavily mulched bush will hold heat better than a tree can. Then ensure to push the mulch back after the cold passes. My potted mangos are far taller than my in ground Zills varieties due tot he cold beating them down. My in ground graham is covered in mangoes but might be 4 foot at its highest.

Never been to Ourkids. Lucas is awesome to walk around in. I would never buy fruit trees because they upcharge so bad for fruit trees its ridiculous. I go to Bob's at Green Jungle on south Goldenrod for fruit trees. I can get 3 blueberry bushes there for what one costs at Lucas. GJ also loves its mangoes and has a great selection for that and other fruit trees at a much better cost. Now what Lucas is great for is its non-fruiting flowering trees and bushes. Their prices are great for those and they have the widest selection for bee and butterfly attracting trees and plants I have seen. I get quality oddball stuff from there for half of what I would find online and my parents come down from GA and just enjoy wandering around for a couple hours(literally). But for some reason they just charge an arm and a leg for fruit trees. Don't worry about supporting local family business in regards to Lucas, they are a multi-million dollar operation not including a multi-million dollar contract with UCF for doing their landscaping. They aren't hurting if you don't buy one of their over priced mangoes.