The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hi all, I have some Mango trees that I got several weeks ago.  They are from Florida so I'm assuming they are on turpentine rootstock.  My plan is to up pot the 3 gallons to 7 gallons and the 7 gallons to 15 gallons.  My question is this, what shape does a turpentine rootstock want to grow?  Does it grow deep and narrow or wide and shallow.  I can get the regular 15 gallon pots or the 15 gallons that are wider but not as deep.  Since I can get either one I figure I might as well try to get the right shaped one.

Thanks,
Bill

A little update for you guys.  My trees have been here for 11 days and most are doing fine.  After dropping several leaves most of the trees now appear to be normal.  One is having a growth flush but the Ice Cream is suffering major shock.  It has dropped many more leaves than the others with many curled up dry leaves.  It had a little anthracnose on it so I sprayed it and the Julie with a soap copper spray about 5 days ago.  The Julie looks fine but the Ice Cream is looking bad.  I'm not worried it's going to die.  It is just having a much harder time than the other plants.  Except for the Ice Cream I would say these trees suffered as much shock as the trees shipped in pots from POG.

Someone was asking about the difference in shipping between POG and TT.  The shipping from TT for 7 trees was $40 less than the shipping from POG for 4 trees.  The trees from Top Tropicals were rootballed but except for the Ice Cream that didn't appear to add any additional stress to the trees.  I will say the trees from POG looked better but overall I think Top Tropicals is a much better value.  Just my 2 cents.  Hope this info helps other trying to decided where to buy their trees.

Bill

Hi all, I introduced myself in the new guys post and now wanted to give back to this forum.  I ordered 4 trees several weeks ago from Plant O Gram and shared that experience on Gareden Web.  Since then I have found this forum and since it appears everyone has switched over to this forum I thought I would share my experience with Top Tropical here.  I know some people in the past have had a bad experience with Top Tropical.  I decided to order from them because they are the only company that I found that ships 7 gallon trees to California.  Plus their shipping is very reasonable. 

They shipped the trees FedEx ground and I received them in five days.  The trees were packaged very, very will.  All tree were rootballed.  I worried about the rootballing process adding stress to the trees but it appears that they just knocked of the loose dirt and then bagged the roots.  Much less soil was removed than I thought would be.

The first tree is a Julie 3 gallon.  It was the smallest of the bunch at about 2.5 feet tall.  It also has what appears to be Anthracnose on it.  No big deal the Anthracnose should clear up fast in our dry SoCal weather.



Southern Blush, 3 gallon is about 3 feet tall.  This is the sorriest looking tree of the bunch.  It just looks old, neglected, with no new growth.  It also is rootbound.



Dot, 3 gallon is about 3.5 feet tall.  This is a very nice looking tree.  Looks like they freshly pruned it to fit it in the box.



Valencia Pride, 7 gallon is almost 4.5 feet tall.  This is a very nice looking tree.  It appears that they pruned it to fit it in the box.  It has nice green growth and several branches.



Ice Cream, 7 gallon is 4.5 feet tall.  This tree is amazing.  It truly is a fully developed tree.  I can't believe how wide it is.  When I ordered this I was excited that a 7 gallon dwarf tree would be almost fruiting size.  My expectations where surpassed.  It has some Anthracnose on it but that is what this tree is known for.  Again I expect it to clear up fast in our dry SoCal weather.



Rosigold, 7 gallon is almost 5 feet tall.  Again this is a very nice tree.  It is very developed with good green growth and lots of later branches.  Very nice size tree.



Edward, 7 gallon is over 5 feet tall.  Again this is a very nice tree.  Very wide trunk that is almost 1.5 inches wide.  Good green growth with many lateral branches.  Sure beats some of the 3 gallon whips I've seen people get in the mail.



So overall I'm very happy with the order.  It is very nice to be able to order 7 gallon trees and the shipping is very reasonable.  The southern Blush and Julie were the least impressive trees in the order.  But with some TLC they should look very nice in a year or so.  The trees have been here about a week and are starting to drop some leaves.  I will let you guys know how they do in shock wise compared to the trees from POG. 

Let me know what you guys think?

Bill

Congratulations on the trees.  How tall is that middle one.  It looks like a very nice tree for 3 gallons!

Bill

Ok guys, thanks for the feedback.  I have more trees than I will be able to plant and I was just trying to get an idea of what kind of production to expect.  I'm guessing 10 mangos off of a 10-15 foot tree.  How knows maybe the tree will love my dry weather and go crazy.  We can only hope.

Bill

Hi, My name is Bill.  I'm new to the forum.  I have been posting in the GW forum and just found this one.  I live in Long Beach, CA and just got 11 different mango trees!  Besides that I grow Avocados, Bananas, Raspberries and Blackberries.  I look forward to sharing and learning a lot in this forum.

Bill