Author Topic: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022  (Read 1469 times)

CA Hockey

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SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« on: August 26, 2022, 03:41:06 AM »
My mango report over the past few years in socal. The mango report is relatively pathetic this year. It's probably a mix of poor fertilizer choice,  severe powdery mildew,  and an extended freeze that damaged several trees.

In late February we had an unusually prolonged frost that caused cold damage. I'd never seen cold damage in my mango trees. Leaves partially wilted,  and unfortunately these half-dead leaves were severely disease-prone as the dead portions were like a magnet for disease.

Sweet tart is an easy grower here in CA but flowering is hit and miss. Only 1 fruit this year. In years past brix has been higher than 30. Easy grower. no die back that I can ever remember. It has grown too big for itself and broken branches because of how heavy it has gotten.

Pina colada,  coconut cream, M4, orange essence,  phoenix - reliable flowering and disease free for me. Pina colada is of course slow growing but tastes fantastic. Highest brix for me was 36.

Sugarloaf also fruits reliably for me but my tree is small.

Lemon zest flowers profusely but loses almost everything to powdery mildew. The tree grows quickly though and loves this weather and will flower. If you want to grow it in socal, you need to manage die back quickly and spray for powdery mildew starting in February.

Orange sherbet grows very well. Flowered heavily for me the first year but hasn't flowered for a few years until putting out 1 mango this year.

Taralay has been a reliable heavy producer for me for a few years now except for this year. I did change my fertilizer regimen and gave heavy nitrogen this year.

Honey kiss... Grows but is prone to random die back.

Dot - gave fantastic fruit for a couple of years but 90% of the tree died back due to infection. It's hanging on by a thread.

Ppk doesn't like my climate. It's alive and flowers once per season sparsely but it prefers to grow when we have humid monsoon weather from Arizona. It didn't flush at all this season until this past week,  and now it's going bonkers.

Kesar was like Ppk but finally succumbed to die back. I have a new graft on different rootstock and will get a better chance to judge it.

Venus - hard to say. It's growing under a mulberry and so is essentially shaded and suffers from random die back. I think it would do better in full sun.

Orange essence is a problem free aggressive grower and sets lots of fruit. If you are a rookie and want a Florida mango tree grow this.

Phoenix also grows vigorously and sets lots of fruit but does have random die back.

I mention the die back because it spreads rapidly and will kill the tree of it gets deep enough into the trunk.

Furit punch does well and is relatively disease free.

Juicy Peach seems like a dud but I got some wood from Alex at tropical acres and am regrafting it onto more vigorous rootstock. The original Juicy Peach has grown maybe 5 8nches in 4 years.

Pineapple Pleasure also seems like a dud. Hasn't flowered in 4 years. 1 tree has grown several feet whioe another has grown just a few inches.

Cotton candy is growing and did produce good quality fruit. I've only had it for 2 years now.

Mabruka flowers at the end of fall for me and produces fruit over winter and then something or someone steals it as it flattens up in spring.

Mallika died. Never liked the fruit. Giving it another chance.

M4 is also an easy grower and fruits reliably for me. It is later season for me like it is in Florida.

Cecilove is small and hasn't flowered yet.

Karen Michelle is small and hasn't flowered yet

M10 is small and haven't flowered yet.

palingkecil

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2022, 04:10:55 AM »
Thank you for your effort making this report. As a new mango grower I appreciate all the knowledge you share here.
I am curious about your Dot. What cause the infection?
I have a Sugarloaf too, and it grows quite well here in my dry hot yard. It even holds 3 big mangoes now(2.5 years in ground, bought it as a 3 gallon on 2019) and the fruits do not slow the growth.
Sugarloaf is not the most vigorous in my yard, but it has beautiful shape, disease free, and is holding big fruits while still growing, so I am considering to get one more tree if the mango is top tier.

Victoria Ave

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2022, 12:09:46 PM »
Well now I’ve just got to get a rootstock to graft orange essence onto!

CA Hockey

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2022, 01:21:47 AM »
Most likely it was a sap infection of some sort,  gummosis or phomopsis. The leaves on a branch will one day start to look dry - just on one branch. That's the first sign. A day or 2 later the branch will start to shrivel. If you wait, the infection spreads proximally towards the main trunk. Sometimes the affected branch will turn black but not always.

My first year growing mangos and spending $$$$ shipping trees from Florida I lost 1/3 of the trees. It usually hits in late winter and early spring - February,  but especially March and April.

palingkecil

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2022, 01:44:20 AM »
Most likely it was a sap infection of some sort,  gummosis or phomopsis. The leaves on a branch will one day start to look dry - just on one branch. That's the first sign. A day or 2 later the branch will start to shrivel. If you wait, the infection spreads proximally towards the main trunk. Sometimes the affected branch will turn black but not always.

My first year growing mangos and spending $$$$ shipping trees from Florida I lost 1/3 of the trees. It usually hits in late winter and early spring - February,  but especially March and April.

Thanks! Now I know what happened to my Peach Cobbler. It died in May, but it started showing symptoms in April.
How do you treat it? Just spray it with copper?


buddy roo

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2022, 10:18:40 AM »
what do you normally feed your trees?

CA Hockey

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2022, 10:56:23 AM »
Some people treat the die back with antifungal including systemic antifungals,  but I'm not sure if those are reliably effective.

The only cure I know of and that works for me is cutting out the infection. I cut a couple of inches below any shriveling or black areas. If the branch is small enough or if a large part is compromised, then I just cut off the whole section. If the main trunk gets involved,  I try and cut under it. A healthy tree will push out new nodes. If the tree continues to decline,  then the infection has continued to spread internally.

The best protection is prevention. Protect the exposed wood in the summer. Mango leaves can handle the heat but the green wood can get sunburned like an avocado tree. The damaged wood can then be susceptible to infection in winter and spring.

Good pruning to prevent rubbing branches and to promote good airflow also helps. In summer it's not so much of a problem,  but mango trees don't typically shed their leaves so any poor airflow problems that arise in the hot summer when it's hot will be magnified in the relatively warm and damp California Winters and foggy misty spring,  setting you up for infection as well as powdery mildew on your blooms.

Buddy roo -  I used to use grow more 20 20 20 and micros in my fertigation system. Last year I switched to 30 10 10 but spread around various down to earth products to boost sweetness. It was OK. This year I did the 30 10 10 with micros but didn't spread anything else out. I minimized water quite a bit as my mangos last year were watery. So far what I have this year is very very sweet so cutting off water did help,  but many trees didn't bloom or lost all their blooms to powdery mildew. Next year I'll either move back to my spraying regimen and keep the 30 10 10 or swap to 20 20 20 with spraying or change to 10 30 30.

Malhar

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2022, 01:54:50 PM »
Thanks for sharing you experience.  It is very helpful to know what does well and what does not do well in orange county.  I also use fertigation to fertilize my mango tree which are young. I use Peters Professional 20-20-20 Fertilizer thru an EZ flo system. However, even on Slow setting, it has caused fertilizer burn to some of my mango trees. So, I have to figure out how can I get even lower dose of fertilizer to mangoes.  Peters has micros.  So I don't add any micros.  Do you thing I should add micros even to Peters and which one do you use?


CA Hockey

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2022, 07:38:23 PM »
I have Peter's for my spray regimen. For my fertigation (also ez Flo,  5 gal) I add keyplex,  some humic,  and some fulvic acid.

For my spraying regimen,  I use the following recipe from tff

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=4119.25

To promote fruiting,  I spray with potassium nitrate which I learned from behlgarden and jf.

CA Hockey

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2022, 07:39:09 PM »
I live in orange. If you ever want to split the supplies or buy some let me know. I have them but in large quantities.... 😅

Malhar

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2022, 09:45:43 PM »
Great.  Thank you for sharing all your experience.

chemist323

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #11 on: August 29, 2022, 04:25:00 PM »
Thanks for the report.  All the mangos you lost, were they in ground?  Have you had this same experience with potted mangos? 
Last year, i had the exact problem you described, coming out of winter i lost an in ground Orange Sherbet and peach cobbler.  Sweet tart hung on and made it. 
I couldn't dry the wet, soggy soil likely which likely became a nidus for root rot/fungal infection.  I did use sand in the hole but i'm sure the drainage/soil structure is nowhere near that found in tropical regions.  I'm hoarding a bunch of potted trees now, debating if i will place them in ground.  Also grafting onto manila/corriente.  The potted mangos look great right now. 

CA Hockey

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #12 on: August 31, 2022, 01:47:07 AM »
The ones that actually completely died were the ones that were in pots. The ones that were in ground have lasted longer and are larger. Maybe I'm better at recognizing the signs are damaged. My DOT tree and honey kiss tree almost died to the base but I managed to save them about 6 in about the graft union.

chemist323

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Re: SoCal Orange County mango report 2017-2022
« Reply #13 on: September 01, 2022, 05:36:25 PM »
interesting, but i've also lost some in containers.  what soil did you use?  i've used cactus mix with extra sand, pumice, perlite.  ive also lost some with Top Pot soil which didn't think could happen.