The Tropical Fruit Forum

It’s too late to lop it off and graft it unless you do the side veneer like Cookie Monster said. If you want to do a cleft draft, you could lop it now (making sure to leave a good number of leaves In the canopy) and hope that it pushes several branches in its final growth flush this year. Then after the first flush next year hardens off, graft into those shoots.

Alternatively, leave it as-is over the winter and then lop it off as low as you want when it starts warming up in spring. Graft it once the first flush hardens off. This would let you get a lower graft and possibly use less scions of that’s a concern for you. You just need one scion to take off on a short stump and you’ll have a full mango bush/tree in a couple years.

Maybe I got lucky but I’m 1 for 2 on Maha. I’m no expert so that’s around my normal take rate for mangoes.

Bone meal has little nitrogen and high phosphorus. Sulfate of potash gets you the potassium. I mix these and use around my mango’s.  For plants that like some nitrogen, add some blood meal to the mix.

+1 for Mike

I’m another who isn’t crazy about PPK. The fruit/sap smell is amazing but the rubbery and somewhat chalky texture (at least on mine) lowers its ranking. Also, my PPK is not vigorous. It’s not on some special rootstock but my tree has been 3 years in the ground from a well-developed 3 gallon and it’s only about 4’ tall. I get 1-2 growth flushes every year.

That’s usually what happens to fruit trees when they have a year with poor fruit set.

Does interstock grafting work at all with mango’s?  I’ve read some articles where they use it for citrus but with all the topworked trees, you would think that if someone found a dwarfing variety, it would be common knowledge.

I’m local in Sebastian as well and wouldn’t mind dropping by for a couple slips.

There is already at least one Sunrise and 2 Sunsets. I’ve never heard of Fruit Punch being called anything else.

Maybe it’s different here in Florida but I agree with Daintree based on my travels to the west coast. Generally, I would let the front desk know that I wanted housekeeping the next day. They wouldn’t come into my room otherwise.

I have tried both seedling Chempedek and Chempejack. The Chempedek never really grew unless it was the middle of summer with high humidity. It died after its 2nd winter. The Chempejack was put in the ground at the same time about 2 feet away.  It has also grown very slow but better than the Chempedek and seems to be willing to put out new growth for more months out of the year.  Surprisingly, it has taken 32 degrees without protection and didn’t lose leaves which is more than I can say for a small grafted Mai 1 that I also had in the ground last winter.

I keep hearing that the Chempedeks have poor root systems so this may be the issue. I am planning on approach grafting a jackfruit seedling to my Chempejack to see if that gets it going.

Quote from: ASaffron on December 03, 2012, 10:41:09 AM

why do I keep thinking PPK is a fast grower?

every time I see a batch of 3gal grafted mangoes from Zill, the largest ones seem to be PPK.

anyone else notice it's a fast grower??

Yes, PPK is fast and vigorous.

I must have an oddball rootstock because my PPK has been very slow for 3 years. It flushes 2 times per year tops. I’ve grafted a backup into my Angie and that branch is definitely outpacing Angie so I very well could have a dwarfing rootstock.

Sunrise has been in constant growth mode this year but it took a year to actually get started.