My puggged kent mango tree

[shinzo]

Hi guys,
 4 weeks ago,  i pugged my mango tree (kent) which was in ground since august 2015.
Here it was before the pugging. leggy, skinny and high (starting at 5 ft) scaffold branches. Last year I had trouble with stunted growth on them so I drenched it with a mix 5% zinc  5% manganese three times since last autumn.



Last February, Two weeks after a hard cold spell (the coldest of the winter) the leaves showed multiple damage (I think a cocktail of freeze damage, salt burn and may be fungal disease, but I am not sure).



Anyway, at the beginning of march, when I noticed buds breaking all over the scaffold branches, I decided to pug it to a stump at 4 ft high in order to promote healthier and more sturdy scaffold branches.





Here it is now with multiple flush points all over the trunk (above the graft point).





My question is the following : knowing the state of the old (removed) leaves, is there a risk for the new growth to suffer from fungal diseases ? If so should I apply as prevention a systemic  fungicide or sulphur or whatever (i prefer not to, but if i have to i will do it because i don't want to gamble with the scaffold branches)? If so at which state of development can I spray the fungicide?
Weather information to assess the fungal risk : yesterday we had rain, and next week we are expecting 3 or 4 rainy days, the temps are between min 53 F and max 70 F.

[simon_grow]

It's hard to say without knowing exactly what killed the growth. It looks like it was the younger growth that was killed, was the growth flush fully hardened or was it still a bit red or copper colored? Younger unhardened growth dies off easily in frost events, at least where I live.

To me, that dead growth looks like die back. Possibly caused by fungus but just guessing here.

With all your rains, contact fungicides would just wash away and will need to be re applied. All the rains can also promote the spread of fungal spores. If it were me, I would not spray because of all the rains. You are probably the only mango grower around your area so mango diseases may not be as prevalent in your area but who knows, the dead growth does look like some sort of die back to me.

Btw, looks like you need new pruners. The cut looks a bit rough when you topped your tree:)

Simon

[shinzo]

Thank you simon, the killed growth was of last spring.
Would drenching with sulfur help? or sulfur is only efficient against fungus when sprayed directly on the foliage?

[JF]

I'm afraid your mango tree has phomopsis. If you dig out you will see a poor develop root system. I would start over with another tree

[gozp]

I'm afraid your mango tree has phomopsis. If you dig out you will see a poor develop root system. I would start over with another tree

Isnt there a cure or treatment for phomopsis?

[shinzo]

I hope the tree will bounce back because i have no intention of buying another mango tree sine the price here is almost 20% of the minimum wage.
i will stick to it till its last breath :/

[shinzo]

Here is additional pictures of the removed part of the tree for more accurate diagnosis.

[simon_grow]

See this thread. http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=23248.0

You may want to give your tree some Manganese and Magnesium.

Simon

[edzone9]

Here is My Pugged Honey Kiss Mango Doing Fine , Your Kent should snap Back.

Good Luck !
Ed

[bigalxx15]

Here's a few pictures of my Coconut Cream Mango tree. The first picture is on May 14, 2016, the second picture is on July 10, 2016 about a week after it was pugged, the last picture was taken a few weeks ago.

[edzone9]

Big Differsnce in a Shape ! I did the Same Recently to my Sweet at art Was Tall And Lanky ..
It's already putting out new foliage , I guess if the tree is healthy and happy it will recover fast ..

Great looking CC

Ed

[bigalxx15]

Thanks Ed! I just tipped all the new growth a few days ago, I really want to create a really dense canopy
on my Coconut Cream mango tree.

[simon_grow]

Heading back, tipping, etc will create a more bushy tree with a lower canopy but I believe Shinzo is more worried about the die back. I've headed back trees with die back and the new growth was fine but if he does have die back caused by disease, there is something to worry about as the die back can re appear later on the new branches.

Hopefully the weather is warm enough that the new growth is vegetative and hopefully the die back was cut away. Please keep us updated Shinzo.

Simon

[edzone9]

My belief if the Mango tree is healthy before the pigging it should come back easily , if you Pugged a Un-Healthy tree , than chances are slim it will come back ..

Ed

[shinzo]

As Simon mentioned, i am more worried about the die back thing which i thought freeze damage till i posted this thread. The flushes look healthy till now and are growing well.
I hope the bad part was cut away since i removed all the canopy and that the cut shows no black or brown spots inside the trunk.
I drenched it with zinc and manganese today, i'll drench with magnesium (and may be sulfur if it might help) next week.
I will keep you updated with pictures to follow its evolution.
Thank you guys for your answers.

[JF]

His chances are slim that it will bounce back..... the tree looks horrible. His climate is similar to SoCal we seen this before.

[edzone9]

Here's My Sweet Tart was growing tall & Lanky not a nice shape !

Pugged it 2.5 Weeks agp ..

Before



After






I already can see that it's going to develop a nice rounded canopy ..

Ed

[edzone9]

Here's My Lil Honey Kiss Mango ..

[shinzo]

Hi guys, as promised, here is an update of my pugged mango tree. These flushes already outgrew last year's stunted flushes. I hope it will keep in this path. I am watering it each 3 days.

[FruitFreak]

Hi guys, as promised, here is an update of my pugged mango tree. These flushes already outgrew last year's stunted flushes. I hope it will keep in this path. I am watering it each 3 days.

I would pluck off that bottom shoot.

[edzone9]

It's Comming back !

Congrats !

Ed

[simon_grow]

Congratulations, keep your eye out for any die back. I would personally keep as many leaves as possible as your tree has no hardened growth and has few leaves for photosynthesis.

Simon

[shinzo]

Thank you guys for your support.
Yes i think i am going to keep all the branches for now, for more photosynthesis and to see which branches will grow adequately and which will not.. 

[Mark in Texas]

I hope the tree will bounce back because i have no intention of buying another mango tree sine the price here is almost 20% of the minimum wage.
i will stick to it till its last breath :/

Yes, systemic copper pentahydrate fungicide/bactericides like Phyton 35 or MagnaBon.  Have done soil drenches.  Grapevines are especially susceptible to phomopsis.  We use a mancozeb fungicide like Dithane. 

Biggest mistake growers make is leaving out the surfactant. Without it you're just pissin' into the wind.

Glad it made it. Now, create about 4-7 lower scaffold branches like you would a peach, plum or pear.  Here's a Lemon Zest topped above the first node.  I got what I wanted (as usual).  7 lower scaffold branches to work from.  It is now a nice 4' tall tree, blooming and setting fruit.

[CA Hockey]

Congrats! I topped my first mango (keitt) for the same reason, but I was a newbie (still kind of am) and did it in January of last year. It put out lots of flowers despite having very few leaves and I got stuck in a cycle of pinching off flowers and buds for quite a while. Every time I removed flowers, the darn tree kept replacing them instead of moving on. My local tropical nurseryman advised me to remove the buds when fruit were about marble sized to avoid this cycle. the tree took about 7 months to recover and develop some decent growth. Unfortunately I think it suffered from some overwatering and lost just about everything. I actually gave up on the tree and moved it to my equivalent of tree purgatory... where it has since sprouted a little bud just north of the graft union.


Long story short, my first pugging experiment resulted in a much shorter tree than I had planned for, so cheers to you for getting some nice growth back so quickly!  Does season matter when doing this?

-K