Hi coconut. Can you go into why some people say to not fertilize or water trees? I’ve been told by my mango mentor to water especially in early stages , and during the dry season, but curious as why people would advocate against that? I’ve noticed young trees (around 2 years old) planted in ground, non-irrigated can grow just fine when receiving only rain water but I never considered extra water would be a bad thing, especially in the early stages.
It would be wrong of me to speculate on
why other people make their very personal choices on how to care for their trees. Speaking only for myself, I was drawn to the youtube videos that made the growing process look easy with minimal input, probably because I am lazy. Some growers, in some microclimates, might get fast growth and productive harvests by not watering and not fertilizing mango trees. I was not one of them. When I ignored my young mango trees they survived but never thrived. Only after I started heavy watering and mulching and fertilizing did they take off and start growing. Well irrigation made the biggest difference.
Withholding water (except in extreme drought) from
mature mango trees during blooming and fruit development times makes intellectual sense, because drought stress can induce flowering and excess water can dilute the flavor and sweetness of the fruit. On the other hand, the mango fruit is made up chiefly of water so the tree must require some amount of water during fruit development, right? Drought stress can cause fruit drop, and I feel like we are getting longer dry seasons stretching into June and even July. How much water is too much? I have to water my lawn to keep it alive during the dry season.
We all have to find the balance of what works best for our own trees and it really took me a while. Mango trees are not native to Florida, so trying to grow them "naturally" in fully native conditions proved difficult. The most important concept for me was to understand the distinct needs of juvenile trees and how that differs from mature trees.