Mango fruit drop

[mangokothiyan]

The hot and dry weather over the last few weeks (thankfully, it rained for a bit yesterday evening) has resulted in a larger-than-usual fruit drop on some of the cultivars in my backyard. Bailey's Marvel, Maha Chanok, Lemon Meringue, NDM#4, Ugly Betty and Sweet Tart have seen a lot of fruits drop. In contrast, Sunrise and Carrie haven't seen many fruits drop at all. However, the fruit set on Carrie and  Sunrise was disappointing; the trees were covered with flowers but had an excessive number of male flowers. Both trees have however flowered again.

[Cookie Monster]

Need to water your trees during these drought periods. Our sandy soil dries out very rapidly. Carrie rarely drops fruit. It's one of the more "honest" mangoes, in that the fruit set you see at the beginning typically stays til harvest. Many are disappointed at the initial fruit set, but when harvest time comes, fruit load is similar to the other mango trees (which spent months dumping fruit).

Carrie trees do set good crops when they get older, at least that has been my experience. Sunrise might be the same way.

[Carbo]

My Pickering is playing with my emotions.  This is its third year in ground, transplanted from a 3 gallon pot.  It stands about 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide.  Well, it exploded with blooms in January on every branch.  I was thrilled.  But since setting all that fruit many of the mangoes are on the ground.  The death rate has slowed recently but fruit is still falling daily.  I'm a believer in the "less is more" approach:  haven't watered or fed the tree, (central Broward County, by the way).  Is this the norm for Pickering?  Will fruit drop be less as the tree matures?

[Cookie Monster]

Very typical of pickering. But drought dress does not help.

My Pickering is playing with my emotions.  This is its third year in ground, transplanted from a 3 gallon pot.  It stands about 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide.  Well, it exploded with blooms in January on every branch.  I was thrilled.  But since setting all that fruit many of the mangoes are on the ground.  The death rate has slowed recently but fruit is still falling daily.  I'm a believer in the "less is more" approach:  haven't watered or fed the tree, (central Broward County, by the way).  Is this the norm for Pickering?  Will fruit drop be less as the tree matures?

[Carbo]

Just went out to take a look and surprised to see about another dozen fruits on the ground.    And the ones falling aren't little marbles or golf ball sized any longer.  The Cogshall adjacent to it had an initial 50% bloom back in Jan/Feb, and has dropped few fruits.  (It also had a second bloom a few weeks back when we had a few days and nights of cooler weather.)