Growing Mango trees in Southern California

[sapote]

  They are doing really well despite all the water and cold temps (zone 10b) with surprisingly no damage to leaves at all. They are now flowering and hoping to graft to them in summer time. 

Direct hot sun in summer can be very bad for the young trees, so be warned. Protect the bark.

[Jose Spain]

I’ve grown very fond of bud grafting mango trees and have found that they grow vigorously and require significantly less scion material.

Simon

Hi Simon, this thread keeps providing super useful info not just for you guys living in SoCal but for anyone living in Mediterranean-type climates. Almost everything you comment on here is applicable to my area. I was wondering what particular type of bud grafting are you using and if there are any particulars (season, temps, rootstock characteristics...) worth keeping in mind. I often use chip and inverted T on citrus, Prunus and figs but on mango I have only used once, I did a couple of bud grafting (chip) years ago from a Maha scion and one took and healed particularly well (is an inground tree now). I never tried again but I'd like to give it a try this season since I plan to graft some material particularly hard to get here.

Jose

[love_Tropic]

Planning moving to Inland empire in the next year or so. May be Near one of the places (Chino hills, Chino, corona or Riverside). How challenging to grow tropical trees in IE? Mostly like to grow Mango and Avocados... Can topical trees mange winter there? Any specific varieties do better then others? Appreciate your suggestions. 
Thanks,
Mike

[Victoria Ave]

Hey Mike, I live in downtown Riverside. Despite my experiences there are tons of avocado trees here, and I could take you on a tour of mature mango trees.

That said, many of those avocados are grafted and all of the mangos are seedlings. Your best bet is going to be an ungrafted seedling mango. My espada, lemon meringue, Corriente, and Manila seedlings are pushing out plenty of new growth right now while my grafts are struggling with the first of what is usually three blooms before we get hot enough to start growing.

[love_Tropic]

Hey Mike, I live in downtown Riverside. Despite my experiences there are tons of avocado trees here, and I could take you on a tour of mature mango trees.

That said, many of those avocados are grafted and all of the mangos are seedlings. Your best bet is going to be an ungrafted seedling mango. My espada, lemon meringue, Corriente, and Manila seedlings are pushing out plenty of new growth right now while my grafts are struggling with the first of what is usually three blooms before we get hot enough to start growing.

Thank you for your valuable response! Looking to grow Hass, Reed,Gwen, Sharwil and pinkerton. Also, having Alphonso Mango, and it did not bloom at all... but pushing out new growth.  other keitt bloomed lot and just starting to push new growth...  Trying to get seedling of ST and (Lemon meringue or Lemon Zest) or other poly seedlings like Honey Kiss....

[Mugenia]

Here are some of the mango trees from my friend's house. He has over 40 varieties grafted on turpentine and planted in the ground from 15 to 45 plus gallon. He lives about a mile down the hill from my place. He's very successful with growing mangoes on turpentine rootstock in California. Growing mangoes on turpentine rootstock can be done in southern California. Unlike him, I don't have the patience and can only grow seedlings. I also a bunch of them on my plot. We live in the Redlands area. Enjoy.

[Mugenia]

[love_Tropic]

Here are some of the mango trees from my friend's house. He has over 40 varieties grafted on turpentine and planted in the ground from 15 to 45 plus gallon. He lives about a mile down the hill from my place. He's very successful with growing mangoes on turpentine rootstock in California. Growing mangoes on turpentine rootstock can be done in southern California. Unlike him, I don't have the patience and can only grow seedlings. I also a bunch of them on my plot. We live in the Redlands area. Enjoy.

Awesome!!!  Yes! I think, inland is better for Mango trees than costal areas. As costal areas will not pickup hot weather until July. Whereas inland picks up hot by mid-April.

[Victoria Ave]

Man I feel better about my 7’ tall ugly Valencia pride on turpentine after seeing that. It’s a shame how stunted grafted trees get with the constant flower cycle. I got the Valencia pride hoping for the vigorous 20’ monsters I read about on the internet before I knew any better haha

[Eggo]

Definitely thanks to Simon and everyone that started this thread and kept it going.  This is one tree of 5 of my top working project on some of my mature mango trees. The rootstalk is ataulfo. The tree is maybe 20 years old. This tree so far has over a dozen grafted varieties, all new from last year.  I also have several smaller trees.  At the moment I have over 50 varieties altogether. I intend to hopefully and luckily try to add new varieties every year. It is difficult as locally there is not much source of scions available like in Florida. I get an almost perfect take on local source than ship ones and they could get expensive with all the grafted failures. I initially never started out with this intention. Ate mangos all my life. Always preferred them green. I had different southeast asian ones. I liked the ripe ones but never really wow by any like say an cherimoya, atemoya, lychee, mangosteen. That was not until about 2 years ago when I was gifted my first zill mango,  Peach Cobbler, wow. Now a few years later I find my myself collecting mangos ahaha.

[Victoria Ave]

Love to see it!

[simon_grow]

I’ve grown very fond of bud grafting mango trees and have found that they grow vigorously and require significantly less scion material.

Simon

Hi Simon, this thread keeps providing super useful info not just for you guys living in SoCal but for anyone living in Mediterranean-type climates. Almost everything you comment on here is applicable to my area. I was wondering what particular type of bud grafting are you using and if there are any particulars (season, temps, rootstock characteristics...) worth keeping in mind. I often use chip and inverted T on citrus, Prunus and figs but on mango I have only used once, I did a couple of bud grafting (chip) years ago from a Maha scion and one took and healed particularly well (is an inground tree now). I never tried again but I'd like to give it a try this season since I plan to graft some material particularly hard to get here.

Jose

Hey Jose, I use chip budding for my Mangos. This video is for figs but it the same technique I use for bud grafting my mango trees. It’s best to perform this type of graft during your active growing season when temperatures are above the threshold for flowering. For Southern California, this would be around June through August. If you graft too late, the bud can push blooms and it can take longer for the graft to take so your percentage of successful grafts will be lower.

Simon

[sapote]

Here are some of the mango trees from my friend's house. He has over 40 varieties grafted on turpentine and planted in the ground from 15 to 45 plus gallon. He lives about a mile down the hill from my place. He's very successful with growing mangoes on turpentine rootstock in California. Growing mangoes on turpentine rootstock can be done in southern California. Unlike him, I don't have the patience and can only grow seedlings. I also a bunch of them on my plot. We live in the Redlands area. Enjoy.

I'm sorry but he made the mistake of growing turpentine grafted trees. All of them have skinny trunk and lanky. Other socal root stock would have thick trunk and a full body. I made the same mistake before, and now all my trees are HD rootstock or from other seedlings.

[simon_grow]

Planning moving to Inland empire in the next year or so. May be Near one of the places (Chino hills, Chino, corona or Riverside). How challenging to grow tropical trees in IE? Mostly like to grow Mango and Avocados... Can topical trees mange winter there? Any specific varieties do better then others? Appreciate your suggestions. 
Thanks,
Mike

Mike, it depends on your specific climate/microclimate. If you have neighbors with Mangos or Avocados, that would be a great sign that it’s possible. Larger trees may withstand cold better than smaller trees. You could also try growing out some seedlings for rootstocks.

Simon

[love_Tropic]

Mike, it depends on your specific climate/microclimate. If you have neighbors with Mangos or Avocados, that would be a great sign that it’s possible. Larger trees may withstand cold better than smaller trees. You could also try growing out some seedlings for rootstocks.

Simon

Thanks Simon,
Yes! having a kent and alphonso rootstock planning to add HD manila too.  growing in 15 Gal. Container.   

[Jose Spain]

I’ve grown very fond of bud grafting mango trees and have found that they grow vigorously and require significantly less scion material.

Simon

Hi Simon, this thread keeps providing super useful info not just for you guys living in SoCal but for anyone living in Mediterranean-type climates. Almost everything you comment on here is applicable to my area. I was wondering what particular type of bud grafting are you using and if there are any particulars (season, temps, rootstock characteristics...) worth keeping in mind. I often use chip and inverted T on citrus, Prunus and figs but on mango I have only used once, I did a couple of bud grafting (chip) years ago from a Maha scion and one took and healed particularly well (is an inground tree now). I never tried again but I'd like to give it a try this season since I plan to graft some material particularly hard to get here.

Jose

Hey Jose, I use chip budding for my Mangos. This video is for figs but it the same technique I use for bud grafting my mango trees.
Simon

Thanks for the info! I know chip budding for figs but maybe some people would benefit from watching the video, I think you forgot to put the link  . I'll definitely give it a try with mangos this summer, whenever it starts (still 3 weeks ahead with fresh temps  ).

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the heads up about the link! Here it is below

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvz_7xcWQ3Y&pp=ygUQQ2hpcCBidWRkaW5nIGZpZw%3D%3D

I also wanted to mention that JSacadura has excellent, excellent videos about grafting so I highly recommend watching and subscribing to his channel.

Simon

[simon_grow]

I haven’t been grafting as much mangos lately but here’s a few bud grafts I did late last year around September-October which I don’t recommend because it is too late in the season. Some of the buds didn’t push till last month and some pushed blooms immediately. Stick to the May-August grafting for best success in SoCal as this is our primary vegetative growing season.

This thread is getting very long so I want to reiterate how important it is for us to fertilize and push growth during our short vegetative season here in SoCal.

Also, one of the main issues with grafted trees is that the flowering caused by the grafting of mature scions is what causes the major issues such as droopiness which leads to horizontal exposure of cambium to full sunlight which causes sunburns which leads to wounds which can get infected. The grafting of mature scions also significantly slows growth because up to 8 months out of the year will be spent flowering and holding fruit.

This is why I recommend planting seedlings where you will typically get 3 years of vegetative growth before flowering and if you multiple rootstock a seedling and grow a single trunk tree without grafting it with mature scions, you can get a large rootstock tree with great scaffold branches in several years.

Alternatively, you can spend about $1000+ on a large potted mango tree which you can plant into the ground.











Simon

[Jose Spain]

Nice looking grafts! Another advantage of this technique is that it heals really well, to the point that is not easy to distinguish the grafting union after a short period of time. I don't know how is the rate of takes in comparison with cleft and veneer grafts in mangoes though. In figs is pretty good but it depends mainly on two things in my experience: the cv (some seem faster to push than others, and not always it seems related to the vigor of the cv) and most importantly, the vigor of the branch where we place the chip(s). On suckers and dominant branches, the percentage of the quick growth of the chips is always higher than in secondary/weaker branches (and the % of takes as well). This is for figs, as I said, but probably the same goes for mangoes.

The videos of Jaime are a must for people that are starting to graft, really good stuff.

[Tropic5oh]

Thanks for the heads up about the link! Here it is below

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvz_7xcWQ3Y&pp=ygUQQ2hpcCBidWRkaW5nIGZpZw%3D%3D

I also wanted to mention that JSacadura has excellent, excellent videos about grafting so I highly recommend watching and subscribing to his channel.

Simon

Wow, great video!! This gave me some ideas to spice up a large brown Turkey Fig in the yard!

[simon_grow]

My percentages for bud grafts are about the same as for cleft, veneer and other types of grafts. In this case, I did about 8-10 grafts and they all took.

Only this one graft pushed in Winter when it was hailing and it died back but the bud graft is still green so it could push again.


Simon

[Jose Spain]

My percentages for bud grafts are about the same as for cleft, veneer and other types of grafts. In this case, I did about 8-10 grafts and they all took.

Only this one graft pushed in Winter when it was hailing and it died back but the bud graft is still green so it could push again.


Simon

Well, those are relevant data, the same percentage as for cleft grafts is an argument clearly in favor of the bud graft when we don't have much budwood. In addition, chip graft allows us to place two chips on the same branch, doubling the chances of success in a particular spot, without damaging the rootstock (another plus). I don't recommend more than 2 per branch though, and one might be enough once you control this technique (which is easy), especially if the branch receiving the chips is dominant/vigorous. Another thing to take into consideration is that chips, whenever possible, should be on the upper side of the branch, so the weight of the new cv as it grows doesn't pull down from the union (it can break as the tree starts to produce). Definitely encouraging data. Thanks, Simon.

[Victoria Ave]

Thanks for that link and info Simon. Just bud grafted some fuerte avocado I found in Bakersfield onto a seedling I have. It looks good and I love how clean the graft is. Excited to try it on my mangos! I have a PPK seedling that is growing really strong. I will try bud grafting that onto my mature rootstock tree and maybe get a few years of solid vegetative growth then some fruit

[sapote]

I learned that bud graft or veneer graft is not a good choice for some varieties, which grow faster when cleft graft was used.

 

[simon_grow]

Hey Sapote, do you have any pictures or data? I’m just curious. My Bud grafts have grown really well and I don’t see why bud grafts would grow slower for certain varieties. Are you sure it’s not because the bud grafts you did had a poor graft union? What type of bud graft did you use?

Simon