What is wrong with my mango grafts?

[Malhar]

I grafted Sweet Tart, Venus and Cac on to Manila seeding on 5/10/22 - all cleft grafts. Cac never had any growth but is still green.  Sweet tart and Venus took and developed new leafs.  However, growth has stalled and now leafs are turning yellow. All the graft unions are well healed with good amount of callous formation.  I removed the tape around graft union thinking that it may be strangulating the graft union. I have been removing any new growth on the root stock below graft to ensure all the energy is going to grafts.

What do the experts feel the problem is? Is it some type of nutritional deficiency?  Any thing I can do to help them grow?

[Seanny]

Looks to be fertilizer burn.

[Orkine]

Interesting question, did you fertilize?
Also how much watering are you doing.
Mano may hurt from over "babying" as much as from under caring.

[Malhar]

Have not fertilized recently.  Seedling is in the ground and gets watered thru a drip system with 3 emitters of 1 gph each, for 30 minutes every 5 days.

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

You Grafted too early. May in SoCal has a low take rate. You Should have waited until July-August when temperatures are warmer unless we have a hot spring which 2022 is not. Heat equates to mango graft success. Mild temperatures equate to primary failures. Hopefully, your grafts will make it.

Also, you don't show the rootstock. Is it vigorous and flushing when you did the grafts? The quality of the rootstock is important in long-term success. All of these factors affect grafting mangoes in Socal. 

 Live and learn.

Johnny

[simon_grow]

I agree with Johnny’s assessment and would add that although you see some callousing, the union was not optimal. I see some small gaps through the film so you have enough contact to form the union but the union is not 100% along the cleft.

I also noticed the lenticils on your rootstock. I’ve noticed that grafts of young greenwood scions have the highest success rate when grafted onto similar young green rootstock shoots or recently hardened branches. The branches with a lot of lenticils that have gone through winter without a flush are a bit harder to graft.

Hopefully the union will heal more completely with the warmer weather. Nice job grafting! If your rootstock was more vigorous ( and without lenticils) and the weather was warmer, those grafts would probably be pushing more vigorously and the unions will definitely heal more rapidly.

Plant more rootstocks and eventually you’ll get a few that are vigorous.

Simon

[Malhar]

Thank you Johnny and Simon for all your suggestions. Would it be worth trying to regraft them now that weather is warmer?

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

If the grafts fail try again in Mid August. A daytime high of 85-90 is ideal for grafting mangoes. At my location highs have been in the mid 70's lately.

Before I graft I select a strong and vigorous rootstock and plant it in the ground. I wait two years then graft when the seedling mango tree starts to push new growth. Proper preparation equates to success. It's not only the graft but the quality of the rootstock. Both are equally important for long-term success.

The attached photo shows several grafts I did in the summer of 2020. The redish mangos are the Guava mango. The other ones in front (Yellow-Green) are Angie.

Johnny


Manila Rootstock with Various Grafts (7-12-22)

[Seanny]

Your grafts look good.
If the leaves are not burning, then they are having micros deficiency. 
Small leaves indicate deficiency in Ca or boron.
Mango is notorious for boron deficiency.
Try adding boron.

Add 2 tsp Borax to a 2L bottle. This make a 1% boron solution.
Shake.
Rest then shake again 10 minutes later.
Water your mango tree.
Or Foliar spray.
Some plants don’t like boron on young leaves.
I don’t know if it’s bad for young mango leaves.
You have nothing to lose so spray some and water the rest of the solution.




Mango is an evergreen.
We can graft them any time here.
Graft needs more pampering in winter.
Graft above is from May 17.

[sapote]

It seems the rootstock is a young weak tree with no protection from strong sun. A weak rootstock can’t have strong grafts.

[Victoria Ave]

Have not fertilized recently.  Seedling is in the ground and gets watered thru a drip system with 3 emitters of 1 gph each, for 30 minutes every 5 days.

So every 5 days the tree gets 1.5 gallons of water? This seems really low or am I drastically over watering my trees?

[Malhar]

Thank you Seanny, will certainly try that.

@Victoria Ave: I live in Irvine about 10 miles from ocean and it is not very hot here.  I have killed a few mango trees by over watering them.  So, I am trying to be extra careful to avoid over watering.  Obviously, it is much hotter in Riverside and your tree will need lot more water. than mine.

[Victoria Ave]

Absolutely it does. Just seemed like very little, but I am making assumptions on the overall size of your tree.

[hawkfish007]

Malhar, over the years I found the key to successful graft here in SoCal is to start with a healthy rootstock. I am in the minority here, I prefer to graft from mid April, otherwise, it’s hard to get scions until August from tropicalacres. Benefit of early grafting is, the scion gets a full summer to grow. I don’t like to graft in August or later because there is a high probability of the scion to flower in winter and continue flowering throughout its life. Here are couple E-4 scions I grafted on ataulfo rootstock (scions from tropicalacres) on 4/20/22. I had the rootstock for 2 years and it was probably 2 years old when I bought it. I left the third major branch to graft Angie but couldn’t find Angie scions. I will probably cut the branch and keep the tree as E-4 only. As you can see I have the pot against a brick wall to keep it warm at night. I use buddy tape to wrap the scions and graft union then tighten the union with garden Velcro tape. I use the same Velcro to stake the branches after the scion takes (~4 weeks later).


E-4 scions grafted on 4/20/22

4/20/22



Growth of the scions in 2 months or less

[Jaboticaba45]

This happened to my m-4 graft. The first set of leaves were tiny and stunted. But later, the next push was normal and healthy. I think time affects it.

[Malhar]

@hawkfish007:  I think you may be correct - probably my root stock is not very healthy. Some of it's leaves have dried edges which I had thought to be due to powdery mildew in winter. However, tree keeps showing new growth in different branches making me think that root stock is overall healthy.

Since my initial post, leaves on the scions have dried up. I checked the graft union which was well healed. Will try to graft again next year.

[Eggo]

Malhar, over the years I found the key to successful graft here in SoCal is to start with a healthy rootstock. I am in the minority here, I prefer to graft from mid April, otherwise, it’s hard to get scions until August from tropicalacres. Benefit of early grafting is, the scion gets a full summer to grow. I don’t like to graft in August or later because there is a high probability of the scion to flower in winter and continue flowering throughout its life. Here are couple E-4 scions I grafted on ataulfo rootstock (scions from tropicalacres) on 4/20/22. I had the rootstock for 2 years and it was probably 2 years old when I bought it. I left the third major branch to graft Angie but couldn’t find Angie scions. I will probably cut the branch and keep the tree as E-4 only. As you can see I have the pot against a brick wall to keep it warm at night. I use buddy tape to wrap the scions and graft union then tighten the union with garden Velcro tape. I use the same Velcro to stake the branches after the scion takes (~4 weeks later).


E-4 scions grafted on 4/20/22

4/20/22



Growth of the scions in 2 months or less

I agree with you. Still new to grafting mangos but i would want to give it a full summer growth.  Here's some multigrafts. These were all grafted in April this year but the last week of April gave me the better take %.  Most already did or are already pushing it's second flush since the graft.


Sweet Tart, Super Julie, Little Gem, Sunrise, and Delores


Alampur Baneshan, ST Maui, and Cecilove



Juliett, Mallika, Val Carrie, Brahm Kai Mea, Honey Kiss, Ambrosia, Diamond, with Peach Cobbler and Maha Chanok on the lower branches.  This one is going to be a mess of a tree but will sort out the vigor later when I have enough grafting material to take, ahah.

[hawkfish007]

Eggo, now that’s what I call a multi-grafted tree, congrats on the takes. I haven’t dared to graft more than three varieties on 1 tree yet. I would love to see their progress, please update us periodically.

[Malhar]

Eggo:  Your grafts look great and have grown a lot since I saw them.  Great job!
BTW, unfortunately, the NDM scion you gave me never took.  When I looked carefully, it seemed that I did not align it well with root stock. Thanks again for your generosity.

[Kiko]

It looks like need some nitrogen, mangoes are heavy feeders, needs like iron.
I'm in Florida and here we graft all year long and base on your pictures it looks it needs some feeding.

[Orkine]

Eggo, now that’s what I call a multi-grafted tree, congrats on the takes. I haven’t dared to graft more than three varieties on 1 tree yet. I would love to see their progress, please update us periodically.

Very smart.  Too many on a tree and you may lose the less vigorous varieties unless you actively prune to make sure all get some sun.

[Eggo]

I'll provide an update as the trees grows and get messier ahah

Malhar, reach out to me if you want to try again.

Orkine, thanks again for the scions earlier this year. I only got the mallika to take but it's growing vigorously 🤞

[Malhar]

Thank you Eggo, I am thinking about just letting my root stock to grow this year and try again in spring.

[Victoria Ave]

Last summer I cut my root stock back big time and bark grafted on some Valencia pride. One took and the root stock sent out new scaffold branches. I grafted sweet tart, Carrie, and Edward onto the new shoots July 1st. Two carrie scions, and one sweet tart are pushing through the parafilm now and the other two scions look like they are slowly swelling. Looks like I shall have a cocktail monstrosity as well.

[Malhar]

Your tree looks great.  Good luck and hope they keep growing!