Hi folks, hope you had great holidays. I was wondering if there are magic tricks to force bloom on mango seedling. I have a seedling that is now 8-yr old and wondering what I can do to make it to bloom this year?
Any thoughts on someone who has been successful? Its a Lemon Zest seedling.
First question, are other mango trees around it flowering without problem?
If not, a soil test might help you to correct the lack of energy in the soil.
Water stress would be better then girdling or beating it up since there will not be any scar tissue formed on the cambium.
And dry stress is one of the natural flower stimulators of Mango so it's adapted.
People I know have tried to girdle and machete old mangosteen tree's with no success so it's not a guarantee and you will always be left with a weak tree after that.
It's good to judge maturity by girth and not by age because a tree could be stunted or not growing properly and sometimes in nurseries they keep seedlings stunted for many many years. One nurseryman I know have tiny 10 year old miracle fruit trees in tiny containers and just pots them up when he wants to fill the stock. And then they start to grow in a normal pace.
Simon,
One man I know (Donny) also use Potassium Nitrate and Calcium Nitrate to induce flowering in various tropical trees. Zinc sulphate heptahydrate is also used. He uses them in large quantities, far more then to correct a deficiency. About 1kg ZnSo for a large tree, I haven't dared to try it yet because that's a lot of zinc!!
I suspect it works in a electro chemical way rather then to correct deficiency, Increasing the ERGS (Energy released per gram of soil).
Here an old article about his place with descriptions of what he does.
He's fruit is really good and he got a lot of it.
http://www.rfcarchives.org.au/Next/PeoplePlaces/GrayProperty11-93.htm