The Tropical Fruit Forum

I know. It gets repetitive. But maybe something new will come up.

I would like to plant a second avocado tree in my backyard and I want to keep it small - 15 feet or so max. The other tree is a Wurtz that shares the yard with a Sugarbelle citrus, a Glenn mango, a Honeykiss mangp, and a Pickering mango.  There's plenty of space, but I don't want it to overshadow the other trees.  All are in full sun.

Since Wurtz is late season, it would be nice to have a variety that is early or mid season. My wife doesn't like "Florida" avocados so I guess I need some oil content (although I like the Florida types).

So - I'm thinking Simmonds, Day, Florida Hass, or Oro Negro (though it's a late season avocado).

All the usual factors apply like productivity, disease resistance, ease of management, wind tolerance, etc.

I have read here and elsewhere till my eyes are crossed, so I'm throwing it out there.  I'm especially looking for those of you in SW Florida who have experience with these or other smaller tree varieties.

We had a near miss from Milton last week, and are close enough to the coast that I'm sure that the hurricane lifted some salt spray into the air and deposited it on plants in my yard. There was no actual salt water on the ground. I sprayed them off with fresh water, but the damage had been done. The hibiscus, incense bush, papayas, sugar belle, and mangos - among others - were  most affected.  I assume that the plants will recover by sprouting new growth, but was wondering if I should spray the mangos with copper to prevent fungus from taking up residence in the dead tissue.  Or will this cause more harm to the already compromised leaves.  Any advice?

I bought a 7 gallon Glenn mango early last spring and put it in the ground.  At first it looked healthy and flushed a couple times.  By late summer this happened:




August 13, 2023

It got so bad later on that it defoliated completely.  I figured that I had nothing to lose, so I pugged it:



January 16, 2024

After a few weeks, nothing happened.  No green buds, no anything.  So I extracted it.  I expected to have to chop through some roots, or at least have a decent root ball, but it pulled out of the ground like a weed with a root ball that was about the size of a softball.  I threw it in the yard waste can and put it on the curb.  A couple of days later, I was adding something to the can and noticed a few green wart sized buds on the upper trunk.  Again, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I plunked it into some potting soil in a small pot that might have been as small as a gallon, but no larger than 3 gallons.  I put it in an area with partial shade and watered it every now and then, and this happened:



February 13, 2024

And so I put it back in the ground in a completely different spot, just in case there was some soil factor that had attacked it.  Now, after two flushes, it looks like this:



June 3, 2024

The moral of the story, I suppose, is to have extreme patience.  Or maybe it's just that mangos are tough as nails.

On January 24, I got this Duncan by mail - shipped overnight from the Miami area to Bonita Springs. It looked healthy, but I couldn't figure out why a few of the lower/older leaves were discolored.  I was thinking cold damage, but not in a plant that never left south Florida in it's whole life.  I posted the first two pics to the mango disease thread and only got one reply stating it was cold damage.  I wasn't sure that was possible, but put the tree in the ground and it behaved for the most part until recently when the leaf changes have returned with a vengeance. The little guy has started it's first flush since being planted, but I'm worried about it.

Until recently, I had a good layer of mulch around it, staying about 10 inches from the trunk, but all but removed that when I asked the vendor what their opinion was, and they said the tree was healthy, but to remove the mulch so the roots would not be at risk of being overly wet. I water about every three days or so, because we haven't had any REGULAR appreciable rain for a long time here.  I have treated the leaves with copper a few times, but not more than every month or so. Fertilized once lightly with organic fertilizer out away from the roots.

Bacterial? Fungal? Other?

I don't see any bugs and nothing rubs off. It doesn't seem to be on the front or back surface, but is a discoloration of the thickness of the leaf and the leaf eventually dries up and drops off.

What should I do at this point?

Bottom two images are before planting, and the top two are today.

Mango varieties have different growth habits.  Some grow vertically, some grow like willow trees - laterally and hanging down. Some grow vigorously and some grow slowly.  Some are tall and some are short. Some are in a pot and some are in the ground.

When a tree is young, it needs training to get a useful shape, and I assume that is dependent on all the above factors, and somewhat on the preferences of the owner and the room that they have for the tree.

I would like to specifically ask about the Honey Kiss and the Duncan varieties.  Based on what these trees are like as adults, how long of a trunk (soil to first branching) would be ideal for a controlled, but relatively free growing (not restricted to space) and productive tree growing in the ground?

Also, it might be nice to list some other varieties and what you might consider proper distances from ground to first branches.  Might be a good reference post.

Is there any special technique for planting from a citrapot vs a regular nursery pot? The roots have to be pretty long.

I'm a super newbie to mango growing and I have a brand new Honey Kiss that I got about a week ago. It's still in the 3 gal pot because as soon as I unpacked it, it flushed new growth (two) and I though I'd wait till it hardened before putting it in the ground.  In the mean time, I think it's trying to bloom!  The whole tree is only 24 inches tall! Maybe I'm crazy, so I thought I'd ask here where people are not crazy and also have some experience. Here's the pic of the lower flush (not the one on the top of the tree, but a side branch).

I apologize if I am cross posting here, but I made the mistake of posting this question DEEP in another thread, and I don't think it's gonna be seen.

I have a Glenn Mango planted out in the open, in full sunshine, in sandy native soil.  It was planted early last summer - maybe late spring.  It was in a 7 gal pot and was very healthy.  It flushed three times by fall and the last flush withered with black spots.  Initially, I thought it was from a foliar nutrient spray that I used when the flush was young, but later the actual tips of the tree where the flush came from blackened and seemed to be rotting.  I cut it back twice to what I thought was good wood, but lost almost all the summer's growth to get there.

SO - I have rotor sprinklers that come on twice weekly at 0730. The tree does get wet, but it's early in the day and I can't imagine that it doesn't dry by mid day - and again, it's only twice weekly.

Can this actually cause fungus issues in a young tree?  Am I doomed to trying to grow mangos in this yard?

Help!

Hi all.  I am new to the board, and I joined so I could ask my first set of questions.  I have a young-ish Glenn Mango, about 4 feet tall that I recently pruned limbs showing evidence of 3 previous flushes without a pruning (limbs about 18 inches long before the prune).  It has been a healthy tree since putting it in the ground in late winter here in SW Florida, and flushed well last time, about 6 weeks ago.  Once the limbs hardened, I did the pruning. It looked like I was going to get more limbs than I could use, as I watched them sprout. New flushes were coming everywhere I had pruned - tiny new leaves and branches. Coincidentally, I was spraying my Meyer lemon with Southern Ag Citrus Nutritional Spray, and had a few ounces in the sprayer left over as I passed by the mango tree - so I sprayed the tree. It was sunset when I did this.

Well, now I have a mixed bag of stuff going on with my new foliage, and I am hoping it's due to the spray on the new growth.  The pics attached show some areas with darkened, shriveled new branches on some flushes. Some leaves are light colored and mottled with copper, instead of uniform copper. Some black spots on a couple new leaves.  One new flush looks pretty normal.

The only other thing that has happened is that the landscaper actually edged the grass in my yard with herbicide spray and there's a ring of dead grass around my little tree.  I have bare ground out to about a 4 foot radius from the trunk - out past the drip line of the tree, but it still worries me.  I gave them hell, but what's done is done.  Hopefully that's not what's going on.

Can you learned fellows give me some advice here?