Another 'Pickering' problem . . .

[Epicatt2]

I bought a 'Pickering' grafted in a 1 gallon pot last October (2022) from an established nursery in south Florida.  It reacted to the late December cold snap here in Tampa by gradually dropping all its leaves and then slowly dying back to the understock.  There has been no further activity from this one, not even from the understock which is still green.

So I went ahead and ordered another 'Pickering' from the same nursery, also in a 1 gallon pot.  It came in late February, looks perfectly healthy, but is just sitting, inactive, hasn't made any effort at flushing new leaves now since I received it.  I has been very sparingly watered and only once fertilized with a tiny splash of very weak diluted Jack's fertilizer. It gets full sun for half a day.

Any thoughts about this particular mango cultivar and why it continues sitting inactive for me? 

Any suggestions welcomed!

Paul M.
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[Tropicalgrower89]

Gently take it out of the pot and see if it is root bound and if the soil is too wet. Try to up-pot the tree into a 3 gallon pot with fresh good-draining potting soil. One thing I've noticed about regular miracle gro potting soil that I use is that can stay very wet for a long time even though it seems to drain very well and that the top layer looks dry making me think that it needs water. Maybe try cactus potting mix. That tends to drain better and not stay too wet from what I've read and I've heard of people using that mix for potted mangoes. Personally, I would like to try it myself.

[Orkine]

Some good suggestions.
How thick is the rootstock?  It is possible all is well and the plant is preparing for its spring flush which could happen anytime now.  I have a number of small mango plants that had been idle for months and are only now beginning bud out of push new growth.  I also have some for which "spring is yet to start"  and they are showing no signs of growth.
What you are seeing may be completely normal.
I won't fret considering you only got it in February.  Just make sure it in not overwatered and it gets good light.

[johnb51]

I have a year-old Little Gem that's done nothing since last summer, a Honey Kiss that's had one growth flush this year but is still smaller than the LG, and a Cecilove that sat in the pot and then in the ground for several months before doing anything.  However, they all look healthy and get plenty of sun.  Young mango trees can be a little mysterious. 

[kapps]

I put a 1 gal Sunrise mango into the ground last February and it took months to push new growth. That year, it only pushed a couple times. Once things started warming up this year, it had a significant push of new growth which is hardening off now. It seems like some plants do most of their growing below ground for the first 6 months or so. On the contrary, I’ve had jackfruit and avocados that start immediately pushing new growth when put in the ground.

As others have said, potted mangoes are difficult with the wrong soil. I had a couple seedlings in pots with a lot of sand/perlite in the mix but stuck the pots halfway into mulch to control rootball temperature. They started looking bad and I found the bottom of the pots were way too wet even with rare watering due to the mulch surrounding the pots.

[Epicatt2]

All my condo mango cultivars (4) are in a 1:1:1 mix that I make up of one part each of:

milled sphagnum : humus : coarse bulders sand

which seems to dry out fairly readily.  They have all grown okay except the 'Beverly' whose leaves all just recently suddenly dried up for no apparent reason and I fear that it may be dead.

So, from the earlier suggestions here I will just wait a while longer to see what the 'Pickering' does.

Fingers X-ed!

Paul M.
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