Does pruning all the fruit off a small/medium mango tree affect future bearing?

[bovine421]

I have a dwarf Hawaiian mango tree that is about 5 feet tall and 4 ft wide. I'm not concerned about getting fruit off of it because I have other trees I would like it to use all this energy to get bushier and larger.
I think I saw a video in the past that insinuated pruning off all the mangoes too often or 2 many seasons can stunt or discourage a tree from being a productive fruit bear. If there's any validity to this is there a rule of thumb on how many mangoes to let it carry maybe half dozen or less

[Epicatt2]

Hey Half Hop, great question.  I've been wondering about that, too.

But is your dwarf mango in the ground or in a large pot?

Mine (3) –a dwarf and 2 semi-dwarfs– are in 7 gallon pots but don't think that they're really big enough (only about five to six feet tall) so it may not be a good idea to top these just now. 

Hope some of the main mango mavens on here will come through with some good advice for us.

Happy New Year, All . . .

Cheers!

Paul M.
==

[bovine421]

Hey Half Hop, great question.  I've been wondering about that, too.

But is your dwarf mango in the ground or in a large pot?

Mine (3) –a dwarf and 2 semi-dwarfs– are in 7 gallon pots but don't think that they're really big enough (only about five to six feet tall) so it may not be a good idea to top these just now. 

Hope some of the main mango mavens on here will come through with some good advice for us.

Happy New Year, All . . .

Cheers!

Paul M.
==

Hopefully they will answer it. They may be busy and tired from spraying mango flowers in South Florida. I have four or five trees that I'm more concerned about growth then fruit. I was given a very Stern warning from my wife not to prune any of the fruit off her Julie.

[simon_grow]

Squam256 and Har can probably give a better answer but from the research I’ve read on mango production, removing all or most the fruit should not be detrimental to future harvests.

If on the other hand, you heavily prune your mango tree, that can definitely set you back in terms of fruit production. Some of the factors that affect fruit production is, rootstock, Scion/variety, health of the tree, size of the tree, fertilization, location/climate/bioburden.

In Florida, the maturity of the last growth flush influences blooming but this works in concert with other factors such as leaf nitrogen levels and cold stimulus.

Dwarf Hawaiian is known to be a good producer from my recollection so you should have little trouble getting fruit from your tree once it is established.

This article can help guide you in your pruning
https://www.growables.org/information/documents/MangoPruningStrategies.pdf

And this article will explain in detail about bloom induction in mangos
https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1677-04202007000400007&script=sci_arttext

Simon

[bovine421]

Squam256 and Har can probably give a better answer but from the research I’ve read on mango production, removing all or most the fruit should not be detrimental to future harvests.

If on the other hand, you heavily prune your mango tree, that can definitely set you back in terms of fruit production. Some of the factors that affect fruit production is, rootstock, Scion/variety, health of the tree, size of the tree, fertilization, location/climate/bioburden.

In Florida, the maturity of the last growth flush influences blooming but this works in concert with other factors such as leaf nitrogen levels and cold stimulus.

Dwarf Hawaiian is known to be a good producer from my recollection so you should have little trouble getting fruit from your tree once it is established.

This article can help guide you in your pruning
https://www.growables.org/information/documents/MangoPruningStrategies.pdf

And this article will explain in detail about bloom induction in mangos
https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1677-04202007000400007&script=sci_arttext

Simon

Thanks Simon_grow Because of Mangostition I'm going to let my DOT carry 3 mango's because on Schoolhouse Rock they say three is the magic number.LoL

The other 4 I will cross my fingers and roll the dice and prune a off all of the marble-sized mango's when that time comes for maximum growth.


The reason I have Mangostition is I've noticed when you ask certain questions on this forum about flowering and the weather. It gets textly quiet and you can hear crickets chirping. Metaphorically

[achetadomestica]

Bigger tree = More Fruit

The tree gets bigger faster if it's not using energy to produce fruit.

It's easier to sacrifice fruit when you have other trees producing.

[bsbullie]

Squam256 and Har can probably give a better answer but from the research I’ve read on mango production, removing all or most the fruit should not be detrimental to future harvests.

If on the other hand, you heavily prune your mango tree, that can definitely set you back in terms of fruit production. Some of the factors that affect fruit production is, rootstock, Scion/variety, health of the tree, size of the tree, fertilization, location/climate/bioburden.

In Florida, the maturity of the last growth flush influences blooming but this works in concert with other factors such as leaf nitrogen levels and cold stimulus.

Dwarf Hawaiian is known to be a good producer from my recollection so you should have little trouble getting fruit from your tree once it is established.

This article can help guide you in your pruning
https://www.growables.org/information/documents/MangoPruningStrategies.pdf

And this article will explain in detail about bloom induction in mangos
https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1677-04202007000400007&script=sci_arttext

Simon

Thanks Simon_grow Because of Mangostition I'm going to let my DOT carry 3 mango's because on Schoolhouse Rock they say three is the magic number.LoL

The other 4 I will cross my fingers and roll the dice and prune a off all of the marble-sized mango's when that time comes for maximum growth.


The reason I have Mangostition is I've noticed when you ask certain questions on this forum about flowering and the weather. It gets textly quiet and you can hear crickets chirping. Metaphorically

How big/old is your Dot?

If these are smaller trees you are referring to, dont cut pannicles off.  Let the fruit get to about pencil eraser size and literally pluck those fruitlets off by hand.  Leave the pannicle on to dry up and die.  You gwt then pop the dead pannicle off around April or so.

[bovine421]

Squam256 and Har can probably give a better answer but from the research I’ve read on mango production, removing all or most the fruit should not be detrimental to future harvests.

If on the other hand, you heavily prune your mango tree, that can definitely set you back in terms of fruit production. Some of the factors that affect fruit production is, rootstock, Scion/variety, health of the tree, size of the tree, fertilization, location/climate/bioburden.

In Florida, the maturity of the last growth flush influences blooming but this works in concert with other factors such as leaf nitrogen levels and cold stimulus.

Dwarf Hawaiian is known to be a good producer from my recollection so you should have little trouble getting fruit from your tree once it is established.

This article can help guide you in your pruning
https://www.growables.org/information/documents/MangoPruningStrategies.pdf

And this article will explain in detail about bloom induction in mangos
https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1677-04202007000400007&script=sci_arttext

Simon

Thanks Simon_grow Because of Mangostition I'm going to let my DOT carry 3 mango's because on Schoolhouse Rock they say three is the magic number.LoL

The other 4 I will cross my fingers and roll the dice and prune a off all of the marble-sized mango's when that time comes for maximum growth.


The reason I have Mangostition is I've noticed when you ask certain questions on this forum about flowering and the weather. It gets textly quiet and you can hear crickets chirping. Metaphorically

How big/old is your Dot?

If these are smaller trees you are referring to, dont cut pannicles off.  Let the fruit get to about pencil eraser size and literally pluck those fruitlets off by hand.  Leave the pannicle on to dry up and die.  You gwt then pop the dead pannicle off around April or so.

Dot is a 15 gallon tree that I planted last spring.
I have trained it to have a very satisfactory scaffolding.I  would like to see it flourish this summer.
the others are more in 7 gallon range size.

[bsbullie]

Dont let the Dot hold any fruit...or any of the others.

[bovine421]

Dont let the Dot hold any fruit...or any of the others.

I will always defer to Wisdom over mangostition Thanks Rob

Now that I remember that Dot mango has a story.
Last spring there were no Dot mango tree's to be had in Florida. I tried East Coast&West Coast  could find narr one. Then I had an epiphany contact Chris from Truly Tropicals. Sure enough she had a large 7 gallon which to me was the size of a 15. That made me happy happy happy

[EddieF]

Any long term studies of 2 or 4 identical trees with 2 allowed to fruit, other 2 not?

[bovine421]

Any long term studies of 2 or 4 identical trees with 2 allowed to fruit, other 2 not?

We may be making inferences that are not there. The hormonal Act of flowering Maybe all there is to it. Carrying fruit to the full term may have no relevance whatsoever. Even if the tree aborts all the fruit because of stress levels I would not think  that would interfere with the nexts cycle of fruiting. What effects the ratio of male to female flowers may be a more important question to ask.
Being that I am a member of the  dyslexic left handed book burning Club Alexandria chapter. I will go back and take the article that Simon_ grow sent and hold it up to a mirror and try to decipher it some more 

[johnb51]

I think Chris at TT doesn't particularly believe in removing fruit from small trees.  I've gotten that impression from her videos, but you could ask her personally.  Rob, on the other hand, is a staunch believer, and I feel like ducking right now cuz he's going to throw something at me for saying anything contradictory!

[EddieF]

One tip i got from a TT vid is if, you're not going to let it fruit, cut off most of each bloom spike leaving just a couple flowers on each.
If entire spike's cut off, it might try to regrow another.

Thinking in the wild, while tree's ars short, most flowers & baby fruit get removed by animals?
Only way to learn is to buy 2 same plants & leave one be.

I still need a few more trees.  2 semi dwarf _____?

[johnb51]

I still need a few more trees.  2 semi dwarf _____?

Mangos, or something different?

[bsbullie]

One tip i got from a TT vid is if, you're not going to let it fruit, cut off most of each bloom spike leaving just a couple flowers on each.
If entire spike's cut off, it might try to regrow another.

Thinking in the wild, while tree's ars short, most flowers & baby fruit get removed by animals?
Only way to learn is to buy 2 same plants & leave one be.

I still need a few more trees.  2 semi dwarf _____?

These are mango trees, its not rocket science.   You are thinking and trying waaaaay too hard.  People is South Florida have been growing them for decades  (I say SFla as lets keep the focus here to this region as it may be and many times can be different for other regions).  If you want to perform scientific experiments, knock yourself out  but its not necessary.

I have tried cutting part of the pannicle off but you would still have to deal with any fruit that has set.  With that being said, best to pluck off the fruit when it gets to the eraser size and leave the pannicle.  Many to most of the small fruit will drop naturally before that.  If you pluck when the fruit are too small (bb size), I have seen that cause a triggering effect of sending another set of pannicles (same with cutting the pannicle off completely.

[bovine421]

Eddie why not get something exotic like Sophie Frey




John you are on your own cannot help you my friend

[bsbullie]

Eddie why not get something exotic like Sophie Frey




John you are on your own cannot help you my friend

Do you know about this variety?  Why would you recommend it?

[Julie]

You should definitely remove the fruit from a small tree just planted from a 3g or 7g container for the first season after you plant it.  In my area (Miami) the mango trees flower a lot and produce a lot of fruit, however leaving a fruit on a tiny tree will kill the tree (I know from experience).  It definitely does not affect production in future seasons.  PIN also tells customers to remove the fruit from small trees for the first season.

[bovine421]

Eddie why not get something exotic like Sophie Frey




John you are on your own cannot help you my friend

Do you know about this variety?  Why would you recommend it?

John I too will be making the Walk of Shame to Behind the wood shed
I think for nostalgia and preservation sake someone  other than Alex should have this tree. I have never asked him how his tree performed or if he even still has it. What I remember for reading it was one of the original Zill family trees offspring of
 Julie. Have you had the privilege to observe this tree? How many are in existence that you know of?

I have only been studying mango for two seasons now I'm still drinking milk may never be ready to chew meat

[bovine421]

You should definitely remove the fruit from a small tree just planted from a 3g or 7g container for the first season after you plant it.  In my area (Miami) the mango trees flower a lot and produce a lot of fruit, however leaving a fruit on a tiny tree will kill the tree (I know from experience).  It definitely does not affect production in future seasons.  PIN also tells customers to remove the fruit from small trees for the first season.

Thank you for that information. That pretty much confirms what Rob was saying.
Logically it makes sense but I still had to ask just to be sure. March 20th is the Spring Equinox. I will start giving them the Go-Go water soluble Fertilizer juice every other week until June rainy season. Then I will switch to time release. I appreciate both you and Rob's advice once again thank you

[EddieF]

I will do the same on 3 & 7 gallon.  The 2 15 gallons i planted maybe remove all but 1 on strongest branch.
I'll try for experience to get clean fruit set on the 3 & 7 before removing them bb size.  Good time to learn what to spray & not.  Sulfur water.  Maybe spray some flowers with it too to see reaction.

[Julie]

You should definitely remove the fruit from a small tree just planted from a 3g or 7g container for the first season after you plant it.  In my area (Miami) the mango trees flower a lot and produce a lot of fruit, however leaving a fruit on a tiny tree will kill the tree (I know from experience).  It definitely does not affect production in future seasons.  PIN also tells customers to remove the fruit from small trees for the first season.

Thank you for that information. That pretty much confirms what Rob was saying.
Logically it makes sense but I still had to ask just to be sure. March 20th is the Spring Equinox. I will start giving them the Go-Go water soluble Fertilizer juice every other week until June rainy season. Then I will switch to time release. I appreciate both you and Rob's advice once again thank you

No problem!  I have not ever fertilized my trees, only mulch, and they reliably produce fruit every year, but this is in Miami zone 10B so it may be different.  For me all of my mangoes produce fruit reliably except the Cogshall tree and the Keitt tree that was uprooted during Irma.