Why did over 50% of my mango trees Bloom before Christmas this year?

[palmcity]

When first starting mango tree growing years ago I read that a dry period in the winter is often preferred and the mango trees would respond after cool fronts approached with budding.

After this very wet fall and winter without any dry periods of exceeding 2 weeks duration (IMO), it is apparent that the dry period was not necessary for stimulation of mango bloom in my location in South Florida.

In years past I often asked people like Alex (has irrigation as most others with acreage) on this forum as to why their mango trees were blooming early and not mine (I have no irrigation system) since I am north of his location and I knew my temperature was colder than his if that (cool fronts) was the primary environmental stimuli for mango bloom. I now no longer believe that cool fronts are the primary stimuli needed as in prior years the cool fronts did nothing to stimulate my mango to bloom. Why???   There was not enough moisture in the soil & I was not irrigating and the quick fronts were not supplying enough water for a long enough time to the soil for the bloom response to occur with the cool weather and probably changes in seasonal sunlight to the trees (IMO). The lowest temperature in 34990 zip was 47 F the first week of December 2019 so far for this fall to winter end of 2019.

In prior dry fall/ winter years, the quick fronts would usually send some rain but not as much as Alex and others irrigation. Thus, I usually did not get a bloom response till Jan., Feb, or March. And of course with most cool to cold fronts there is some precipitation but usually less in the fall/winter vs. spring/supper cool fronts.


In California I have heard the primary problem is constant bloom with the cold fronts. I am curious if they can lessen the bloom response by severely limiting the water to the trees?

I do not know if I am happy or sad with this early bloom as I agree with most that IMO mango usually taste better in May & later vs. March/April but unsure if that is due to more sun, heat, or just more leaves per tree and fruit at the later times in spring to summer (I doubt the dilution of taste with rain theory but know many believe it)

Just in the mood to type... lol...
 

[Tommyng]

It was around 50’f here as well. Maybe the day or two of that was enough of a stimulus to induce blooming, sometimes trees just need a little stressor, and it doesn’t matter what form. My sugar apple trees flowered after that brief cold front.

[Squam256]

6 nights of cold at the beginning of this month is why your trees are flowering. That’s it.

[palmcity]

6 nights of cold at the beginning of this month is why your trees are flowering. That’s it.

That's it is that everyone has an opinion... lol...

In prior years without irrigation and significantly less rainfall, the 6 nights of cool weather did not and would not produce a bloom response during dry periods. The point is that I disagree as without significant moisture & no irrigation.... No bloom here in many prior years at this early point and I don't believe the current bloom would have occurred without the additional moisture here... in my case without irrigation I receive only rainfall.

Thus I disagree in cool temperature is "That's it." .... lol... IMO more moisture is definitely needed at my location for a bloom response regardless of cool temperature.... Cool temperature below 50F may not have even been needed. I should say it is definitely not needed as Miami International airport low temperature for 2019 end of year fall to Dec. 27 was 53 F. and as reported by many on this forum the mango bloom is unusally early and greater than in the previously dryer years....

Alex, I do appreciate your opinion and all others. I invite all IMO's to see more views and results/opinions.

[Squam256]

6 nights of cold at the beginning of this month is why your trees are flowering. That’s it.

That's it is that everyone has an opinion... lol...

In prior years without irrigation and significantly less rainfall, the 6 nights of cool weather did not and would not produce a bloom response during dry periods. The point is that I disagree as without significant moisture & no irrigation.... No bloom here in many prior years at this early point and I don't believe the current bloom would have occurred without the additional moisture here... in my case without irrigation I receive only rainfall.

Thus I disagree in cool temperature is "That's it." .... lol... IMO more moisture is definitely needed at my location for a bloom response regardless of cool temperature.... Cool temperature below 50F may not have even been needed. I should say it is definitely not needed as Miami International airport low temperature for 2019 end of year fall to Dec. 27 was 53 F. and as reported by many on this forum the mango bloom is unusally early and greater than in the previously dryer years....

Alex, I do appreciate your opinion and all others. I invite all IMO's to see more views and results/opinions.

Your trees got older and more mature. More likely to respond to bloom stimuli now.

[skhan]

This is the first fall in a while where I remember us in South Florida having a long cool spell this early.
Our nights were under 60F for quite a bit.

In recent years, this early, we would have a cold front for like 2 days that it goes back to 70F.

I'd think the lack of rain along with the decent temperatures before the cold front help quiet some trees. Not CAC though

To Alex's second point, all my flowering trees are around 6 years old so I guess at this point they know what the deal is.

[palmcity]

Your trees got older and more mature. More likely to respond to bloom stimuli now.

Agree most of my trees are more mature thus more roots to tap into more moisture and more natural desire to stop growing and start fruiting with maturity. However,  I have 3 trees that are each 20+ years old that did not bloom for Christmas the past 4 years but all 3 of the trees bloomed this year with the warmer 6 day cool fronts of 2019 vs. prior years.

IMO the difference is definitely more rainfall this fall to winter than prior years.

[knlim000]

I think we need to create a new thread just for mango blooming data tracking with info:
your location, blooming time, variety, weather pattern, rain pattern, age of tree, unground/pot, watering schedule, other factor needed? 

we need to keep it short and no conversions in the thread, just a single line with those info. If we build up those data, it will help all of us to see the pattern and maybe useful info.

[JoeP450]

Hey Palmcity,

Funny you bring this topic up about rain as I was thinking about this very idea last night. I also live in palm city BTW and it’s been raining like crazy. Most of my trees bloomed end of January last year. One other idea I was thinking about could be the rate or speed of temp drop, maybe duration of cold is not as important as speed of temp drop thus “shocking” the tree with a quick cold zap. It seemed like this year the cold came abruptly though I haven’t looked at historical charts for comparison and I only started track my trees blooms last year.

-Joep450

[palmcity]

Hey Palmcity,

Funny you bring this topic up about rain as I was thinking about this very idea last night. I also live in palm city BTW and it’s been raining like crazy. Most of my trees bloomed end of January last year.
-Joep450

I have new buds coming out on more trees almost daily now as the rain continues. I think there are multiple stressors to potentially help initiate bloom but without sufficient moisture they usually fail to stimulate bud formation at my location IMO.  IMO after sufficient moisture in soil, would probably be temperature changes, hours of daylight, then check of fertilizer/nutrient availability from soil which is usually ok if the tree made it through fall to this point. But, really just guessing and trying to observe.

But as mentioned, I'm not sure if I really want more blooming for early season mango that the trees are trying to give me due to fungus chance and IMO less tasty mango before May usually.

It is amazing how other  trees like the Laurel Oak know to drop their old leaves at this time of the year to begin growing new leaves in a few weeks. Is it due to daylight hours etc. as very regular in leaf drop dates without any consistent yearly temperature that I can tell that might be affecting the leaf drop. Or is there a built in factor like bird migration built into the animals for timing and destination of seasonal locations and flight paths to take for these trips.

[achetadomestica]

If all it took was 5 cool days to get mangos to bloom why wouldn't
people put some say Pickerings in a greenhouse and either chill them
with an AC or put ice around the base of the plants for 5 days in say
August and get a crop in December when no one has fresh mangos?

 

[palmcity]

Rosigold is only tree with some small fruit (last 3 years no Rosigold fruit reached maturity as fungus ate the fruit)



Trees with older blooms.




Unfortunately more & more & more trees starting to bloom:
















Many more trees blooming unfortunately.....
This is what you do when your retired.... Walk outside & take pictures... lol.

[fliptop]

I'm not retired but still wander around my yard taking pictures, ha! On the east side of Punta Gorda, my Sweet Tart is kicking out blooms and if I remember correctly, it also looks like my Pickering and Neelam are too... Definitely an earlier start than last year and indeed, recently it felt like I was going through the summer afternoon rain pattern. I'm curious to see how this plays out. . . .

[pineislander]

Other possibilities for flowering other than cold or water stress are:
-alternate year blooming- where a tree takes a season off it is more prone to having a bloom
 
-more mature wood related to time of pruning - where the previous season pruning occurred earlier or you got less frequent flushes wood is more mature going into winter.

[JoeP450]

If all it took was 5 cool days to get mangos to bloom why wouldn't
people put some say Pickerings in a greenhouse and either chill them
with an AC or put ice around the base of the plants for 5 days in say
August and get a crop in December when no one has fresh mangos?

An idea for an experiment: get a few dwarfish condo mangos that have flowered previously in pots like NDM, Ice Cream, or Pickering for example or any other mango that was heavily pruned to maintain size..... put them in a walk in dairy cooler like they have at grocery stores in the back, then have a full spectrum LED light set up overhead as light supply. You could then manipulate the temp, adjust hours of available light, add or withhold water and see what happens.

-joe

[Squam256]

If all it took was 5 cool days to get mangos to bloom why wouldn't
people put some say Pickerings in a greenhouse and either chill them
with an AC or put ice around the base of the plants for 5 days in say
August and get a crop in December when no one has fresh mangos?

It’s been done