Author Topic: Latest Additions of Mango Plants in Toronto, Canada (Read 12788 times)

bobbyjo · « **on:** July 07, 2012, 03:42:46 PM »

These are my four new mango additions.
Fairchild:

Graham:

Ice Cream:

Pickering:

I also have a Mallika, Nam Doc Mai, Julie and Carrie. They are all doing good but no flowers or fruits so far.

Also wanted to let people in Canada know that the policy (D-08-04e) by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency that allows one to bring back up to 50 houseplants may or may NOT work. Previosly I had brought back four mango and a star fruit without any problems. This time, I was turned back by CBSA and had to leave them with the US mailbox warehouse company while I got a phytosanitary certificate. According to the border guard, the policy was for houseplants and not trees. He found some policy that states certain plants including mango require a phyto:

BestDay · « **Reply #1 on:** July 07, 2012, 08:29:00 PM »

Nice looking trees. You must have a very tropical living room!

Bill

samuelforest · « **Reply #2 on:** July 09, 2012, 09:58:33 PM »

Hi Bobbyjo! Nice trees, that's a great collection

I just wanted to know what do you use as soil and what do you do to overwinter the trees in winter? I need your advice, should I try? What is long to get the phyto? Did the plants suffer because you waited for the certificate?

bobbyjo · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2012, 08:09:37 AM »

@BestDay: Thanks, I am quite happy with what I got and also the fact that they weren't badly stressed from the week and half that it took for me to get them. The familyroom is pretty well filled with my plants for the winter months. I have four other mangos, Mallika, Nam Doc Mai, Julie & Carrie that I will post photos of later.

@Samuel: I am no expert when it comes to indoor tropical plants - I have killed many while learning the art. This is what I have been doing and so far I haven't lost as many. I use a version of the 5:1:1 mix of Tapla. My source of bark is from Rona (58262227734) which is a 2 cu. ft. mini bark. Then I add about 1 scoop of peat moss, 1 part perlite & lime. I fertilize with Foliage Pro 9-3-6, 1.5mL to 4L of water.
In the winter I move them into the family room where I have CFL lighting from about 7:00a to 10:00p. Just this winter I added a 240V heater to bring the room up to ~24C & found the plant responded well to the warmer environment so I just had a natural gas fireplace insert installed in my wood burning fireplace to heat the familyroom up this winter.

As for the phyto, it would be best to get one at the time of your order then you avoid any problems at the border. For me it took a week later. The plants were not too badly stressed as the mailbox company allowed me to take them out of the box so they were getting their cycle of light and darkness.

samuelforest · « **Reply #4 on:** July 10, 2012, 09:59:49 AM »

Thanks!

Robert, when you use tapla's mix do you need to bareroot the plants like with the gritty mix? As for cfl lighting, what wattage do you use? I prefer using HID. I don,t know how old your trees are, but in winter you should drop the temperature at night to introduce flowering to about 10C-15C.

I know it is possible to me to get plants shipped to my house, but I contacted PlantOGram and the cost would be 260$ for a Mahachanok mango tree...I noticed that you bought from pine island, was the cost high? I order from floraexotica which is really cheap and the trees are from Pine Island.

bobbyjo · « **Reply #5 on:** July 10, 2012, 10:55:40 AM »

Samuel:
For most plants, I bareroot them prior to re-potting in Tapla's soil mix. For these four mangos, I didn't fully bareroot them as I was worried they were too stressed from the week and a half it took for me to get them - I removed some of the soil but not all.
My CFL's on one side of the room are a 26 & 60W and on the other side are a 26 & 13W.
I only started heating the room up to 24C in January '12. Before that the house temp would be ~18C in the mornings (6:00a to 3:00p) and at night when I go to sleep but still no flowering on my mangos.
I think some of the people (including nurseries) don't like shipping direct to Canada because they get held up at customs who may want a CFIA inspector to review the package, etc. and the survival rate decreases dramatically. That's why I have been having them sent to Niagara Falls and then driving over to pick them up. Before the last problem, it would be about five days at most for me to have them.
This time the cost per plant was a lot ~$85 after the cost ($30 each x 4), shipping ($75 so ~$20 each) & the phyto, also $75 & then with the travel insurance, tolls, gas, exchange, etc. for two trips, it came up to ~$85. When I bought my Mallika from Flora Exotica last year, the cost was about $90 with shipping so not much of a saving when the phyto is calculated in along with have to make two trips.

bsbullie · « **Reply #6 on:** July 10, 2012, 11:42:42 AM »

I understand you are in Canada and want fruit but I wouldn't do anything to manipulate the temps to induce flowering with trees that age/size. They are really to small and would have a heck of a time holding any fruit. You also hqve to consider a means of pollination with a tree kept in the living room.

zands · « **Reply #7 on:** July 10, 2012, 11:47:27 AM »

Way to go. I give you northern guys a lot of credit for trying to get mangoes to fruits up there. BobbyJo is a guys name?

samuelforest · « **Reply #8 on:** July 10, 2012, 11:51:58 AM »

For now, I know, but it's better to recreate the natural growing enviroment indoors for the trees. As for flowering they are small that's true, you should wait as BsBullie. I play soth temperatures with my last mango,but it didn't flower. My new one did, but right in summer. It's now in full bloom.

Robert, you might be right...I know it's time consuming to deal with customs for nurseries. For me it is really cheap to order from flora exotica because I just go to the picking place and I don't need to pay shipping. My new pickering cost only 65$ ans my big 7 feet carrie with the pot cost 150$. I had to rent a truck too, but still cheap. I'll still order from flora because I'm really satisfied, but I'd like to get maha mango, but pine island don't sell some, so flora don't. I ask Perry which is really nice and he'll try to deal with PlantOgram.

samuelforest · « **Reply #9 on:** July 10, 2012, 11:56:50 AM »

Thanks Zands, but we are not professionals too. We just try and sometimes it works. My last mango did die and I hope my next ones will survive. I never tought too that other people would grow mangoes like me. I'm really surprise to find other person growing tropicals up north.

KarenRei · « **Reply #10 on:** July 10, 2012, 12:03:51 PM »

Quote from: bsbullie on July 10, 2012, 11:42:42 AM

I understand you are in Canada and want fruit but I wouldn't do anything to manipulate the temps to induce flowering with trees that age/size. They are really to small and would have a heck of a time holding any fruit. You also hqve to consider a means of pollination with a tree kept in the living room.

Indoors doesn't equal no pollinators, necessarily. First, no matter where you are, you're probably going to at least have spiders and spider mites to a limited degree (hard to get 100% control). So there's accidental pollination possibility. Then there's a variety of predators and pests which deliberately feed on pollen at various stages in their life which you might have (in fact, most predators can eat pollen if pests aren't available, including both ladybugs, lacewings, and predatory mites). If there's a consistent pollen source, you might have a year-round supply of pollen-exclusive insects as well.

Secondly, some growers may have their plants indoors but not be fully isolated from the outdoors. In my case, it's doubly so. In the Reykjavík area in the summer, people typically open windows in lieu of air conditioning, and there's usually no screens (we don't have mosquitoes or anything that's a problem - a couple parts of the country get swarms of non-biting midges, but you don't even get those in most places). So there's the ability for insects to move freely inside and outside. And even when the weather is too cold for open windows, there's one window I always leave open - from my bathtub to the two-story geothermal greenhouse that acts as an entry area for the duplex. With its greater size (and longer period of time with windows open), and the fact that my neighbor loves raising flowers, it sustains insect populations better.

I was hoping to have plumeria to help support my insects, but the cutting I took with me to Iceland was rotten. At least my scarlet runner beans have started flowering (yeah, not *everything* I grow is tropical

).

zands · « **Reply #11 on:** July 10, 2012, 12:11:29 PM »

Quote from: samuelforest on July 10, 2012, 11:56:50 AM

Thanks Zands, but we are not professionals too. We just try and sometimes it works. My last mango did die and I hope my next ones will survive. I never tought too that other people would grow mangoes like me. I'm really surprise to find other person growing tropicals up north.

You ate a good mango in Quebec. Or maybe on a Caribbean vacation. You said to yourself, "I have to grow this thing!". I can buy good cherries and apples in the store in Florida but is more difficult for you to buy good mangoes in Northern US and Canada

samuelforest · « **Reply #12 on:** July 10, 2012, 12:28:45 PM »

It's not hard, just hard to find good mangoes. We usually get tommy aktins all year long and some haden or kent in summer. I wanted to grow mangoes because I didn't like the store bought one which tasted awful. One time I bought a really good mango and didn't the variety, I found it in a liban store. It was 5$ each, but it was amazing. At that time I wanted to grow some. I remember buying a mango for 15$ and didn't taste good...it was from thailand.

KarenRei · « **Reply #13 on:** July 10, 2012, 12:51:32 PM »

Quote

It was 5$ each, but it was amazing.

Lol, that's not much more than the regular price for mangos up here

bobbyjo · « **Reply #14 on:** July 10, 2012, 01:05:12 PM »

@bsbullie & @KarenRei: Thanks for the info. I am in no hurry for fuits just as long as I know there is a possibility they will flower/fruit. My other plants, citrus & june plum, have either flowered then all the fruits fell off or have not flowered at all. A bit discouraging especially when I hear from others on this site how easy it is to get some like the june plums to fruit. I do take them outside in the summer usually by the first of June and bring them back in by mid-September.
@zands: My name is Robert (a guy), bobbyjo is a nickname I got from my university days. I was born in Trinidad but left when I was about 12 and that was 40 years ago. I still remember the fruits there and those my parents would grow in the backyard hence the reason I am trying to grow them in Canada. My favorite mango is Julie and we do have them here in Toronto but I still want to grow one even after reading about all the problems with this variety.
@samuelforest: If you can pick up at Flora then it is worth it but for me in TO, the shipping cost makes it too expensive but with the last border experience I have to re-think.

samuelforest · « **Reply #15 on:** July 10, 2012, 01:05:30 PM »

How much for you guys in Iceland? Is it enough hot in summer to put your plants outside?

samuelforest · « **Reply #16 on:** July 10, 2012, 01:07:10 PM »

Where do you buy your Julie mangoes Robert? Never found some at the stores?

bobbyjo · « **Reply #17 on:** July 10, 2012, 01:19:43 PM »

Samuel:
I have bought Julies from No Frills (part of Loblaws), a West Indian store called Danforth Food Mart & I think in TO chinatown or other Asian grocery stores. They are about $1.99/lb. If you have No Frills in Montreal, check them out. Here in the GTA some of them have a half decent variety of West Indian fruits - I've seen breadfruits, june plum, other mangos, Jamaican avacado, etc.

samuelforest · « **Reply #18 on:** July 10, 2012, 01:29:05 PM »

Thanks Robert, I'll check. Is it still the season?

bobbyjo · « **Reply #19 on:** July 10, 2012, 02:06:10 PM »

Don't recall seeing any recently but I wasn't specifically looking for them. If you can't get them in Montreal, I can pick some up and ship them to you. Let me know.

samuelforest · « **Reply #20 on:** July 10, 2012, 02:51:22 PM »

There's no no frills in Quebec. Shipping them is a good idea. I'll check in my asian market and if there's not I'll tell you.

bobbyjo · « **Reply #21 on:** July 10, 2012, 05:54:13 PM »

My other mangos.
Carrie (from Jeff Hagen last year)

Julie (from Jeff Hagen last year)

Mallika (from Flora Exotica/Pine Island Nursery last year)

Nam Doc Mai (from Nipa Hut 2010)

The Carrie & Julie are small. I think Jeff grafted them last June.

samuelforest · « **Reply #22 on:** July 10, 2012, 08:36:29 PM »

Great trees Robert! Just a comment, don't you think the pots are big for the trees? I really pike the shape of the nam doc mai BTW

KarenRei · « **Reply #23 on:** July 10, 2012, 08:50:20 PM »

Quote from: samuelforest on July 10, 2012, 01:05:30 PM

How much for you guys in Iceland? Is it enough hot in summer to put your plants outside?

$4 is a typical price for a mango here, I'd say - sometimes you can get them cheaper, sometimes you can't get them for that price. And they're not very good (unsurprisingly!). Most food in Iceland is awesome, but most of the fruits and vegetables suck. At least I feel blessed compared to the folk in Greenland; while we get fruits and vegetables shipped in from other countries, they get fruits and vegetables shipped in from us!

The average July high is about 15C here and the average low around 9C, with a good bit of variation sometimes. It's also windy. I see no point to stressing my plants like that. They stay indoors and enjoy nice temperatures, a big south-facing picture window, and lots of (cheap, clean) artificial light.

samuelforest · « **Reply #24 on:** July 10, 2012, 09:13:17 PM »

Nevev thought it was cold like that in Iceland...I could never survive put there. I already think my country is cold.

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Author Topic: Latest Additions of Mango Plants in Toronto, Canada (Read 12788 times)