Potted Pickering mango made a mango, should I keep it?

[rspkers]

Sunken cost fallacy this far in, I know. It's a very young pickering mango and I'm not seeing any vegetative growth since it flowered and fruited indoors this winter. The tree is maybe 2.5ft tall, with a 1in graft, and 1/2in trunk. I've read that I should expect a flush soonish, but am unsure when given my climate, zone 8a. Of note is that although it has some red blush to it, it seems to be getting more green and losing that blush since I took this picture about a week ago. I'm brand new to mangos and more of a citrus guy. I'm told mangos drop their fruit if they can't keep it like citrus do. Should I just let it do its thing and see if it keeps it? Or should I remove it myself? What do you guys think?

[Tropicaltoba]

I had the same dilemma a couple of years ago. Luckily for me I had 2 young 2.5ft tall potted Pickering. It did eventually produce a full sized and delicious fruit. I really haven’t noticed much difference between the growth habit of the one which bore the fruit and the one that didn’t. They grow really slow in containers.

[rspkers]

I had the same dilemma a couple of years ago. Luckily for me I had 2 young 2.5ft tall potted Pickering. It did eventually produce a full sized and delicious fruit. I really haven’t noticed much difference between the growth habit of the one which bore the fruit and the one that didn’t. They grow really slow in containers.

Wow, literally the same dilemma, size and all, lol. Really appreciate it. I guess that means I'm gonna let the tree do its thing and see what happens.

[nana7b]

I'm in NTX also and had a Pickering in 7gal that ripened 5 large and delicious fruit in the covid year. I was home and was able to keep squirrels etc. at bay.
While it was healthy it did not hold fruit after that year. I sold it a few years ago as it was getting too large for me(all my tropicals stay in the garage during the cold months)

[JakeFruit]

Remove it. On a tree that size the likely outcomes are all bad or not worth the risk/cost of growth opportunity. Maybe it holds to maturity, but even then the fruit quality/size will probably be short of what it will be on a mature tree. Meanwhile, you'll have pushed that maturity date out, possibly a season or more. One fruit now will come at a cost to the tree and future fruit.


I had a Sweet Tart mango grafted with something like a 1.5" trunk and I let it hold two fruits to near-maturity. I also had ST grafted to a mature tree, so I didn't really care if it died. Die it did early the next season, and the fruit I got to try only one season before the mature tree graft produced fruit was nothing close in quality/flavor.

[rspkers]

Remove it. On a tree that size the likely outcomes are all bad or not worth the risk/cost of growth opportunity. Maybe it holds to maturity, but even then the fruit quality/size will probably be short of what it will be on a mature tree. Meanwhile, you'll have pushed that maturity date out, possibly a season or more. One fruit now will come at a cost to the tree and future fruit.


I had a Sweet Tart mango grafted with something like a 1.5" trunk and I let it hold two fruits to near-maturity. I also had ST grafted to a mature tree, so I didn't really care if it died. Die it did early the next season, and the fruit I got to try only one season before the mature tree graft produced fruit was nothing close in quality/flavor.

Man, polar opposite to what the other guy experienced with his pickering. Now I'm really torn. 
I admit, removing it always felt like the right thing to do. The plant has grown quick the past year and has entirely stalled for the fruit. But really, 1.5in and it can't hold? Just how big does the tree need to get in a pot?

Edit: Checking back through my pictures from this time around last year, I should have got a flush end of march. Tree has fully stalled since the fruit, so yeah I think removing it is the right call, hard as it is. With luck, the little mango may ripen somewhat so I can least eat it.

[FL Boy]

It takes a lot of stored energy of the tree to produce a mango fruit...  All that sugar has to come from somewhere.  Pickering trees are precocious fruiters.  If you had a bunch of Pickerings to experience a painless learning curve, it would be different experience to cull the fruit on some, and leave others to fruit to see what would happen.  With just one plant, the experience is painful.  Believe me.  I'd cull it, and let your tree grow some more toget the energy stored for next year, or the next. 

[Tropicaltoba]

I had the same dilemma a couple of years ago. Luckily for me I had 2 young 2.5ft tall potted Pickering. It did eventually produce a full sized and delicious fruit. I really haven’t noticed much difference between the growth habit of the one which bore the fruit and the one that didn’t. They grow really slow in containers.

Wow, literally the same dilemma, size and all, lol. Really appreciate it. I guess that means I'm gonna let the tree do its thing and see what happens.

It may not have been the right thing to do, but I’m gonna be the little red guy on your shoulder and post this…

[DocTropical]

It takes a lot of stored energy of the tree to produce a mango fruit...  All that sugar has to come from somewhere.  Pickering trees are precocious fruiters.  If you had a bunch of Pickerings to experience a painless learning curve, it would be different experience to cull the fruit on some, and leave others to fruit to see what would happen.  With just one plant, the experience is painful.  Believe me.  I'd cull it, and let your tree grow some more toget the energy stored for next year, or the next.

Second this. If it’s a small tree, don’t let it hold fruit. It will stunt the tree and lower yields for the future. Against my better judgment I let a little gem with about a 1.25” trunk thickness 12” off the ground hold 5 small fruit. It did not grow after I took the fruit off (half of which were lost to raccoons). Then got damaged by cold. This year I am aggressively fertilizing it and will not let it hold fruit even though it wants to. Even still, for 2 small fruit I probably cost myself 1-2 years of growth and improved yields, maybe more.