just bought 6 mango

11 years ago

I recently bought 6 mango trees:
From Mimosa in east Los Angeles: 7 gal Lancetilla and Valencia-Pride, $90 each
From TT: 3 gal Alphonsol, Maha-chanok, Nam doc mai, and Carrie, $50 each except Maha $70.

The lancetilla and VP bought on Feb-7 with some little buds, and now they have full open flowers. I think they are good price for their size compare to the trees from TT plus shipping.

Trees from TT were shipped on Monday 3/4 and arrived on 3/6/13. They were repotted to 5 gal with Kellogg Patio Plus. I was trying to find the best potting soil for the mango, and ended up using Kellogg after check its texture with an opened bag. I do think Kellogg is a little water retentive to my liking, and I was concerned a bit after reported the trees with the air temperature still mid 50F in March. I took them indoor at night. After a couple days the trees seemed to hold on ok, I started exposing them to half sun/shade. As you can see from photos, none have shed any leaves after one week since repotted. Beside using the standard planting technique, I also mix a tiny Miracle Grow in a cup water and used paint bush to paint the leaves. I thought this might help boost the plants during this difficult time when the root try to heal from root-ball trauma.

Mango leaves characterization from my observation:
Alphonsol: deep groove at the midrib as a rain gutter
Maha-chanok: narrow long leaves, pointed end Ã¯Â¿Â½Ã¯Â¿Â½" resemble the Australian Eucalyptus leaves in shape
Carrie: flat normal looking leaves, pointed end
Nam doc mai: big broad leaves with rounded end.

I will plant the bigger VP and Lancetilla in gound (paver courtyard) as it warm up in the next few weeks, and keep all TTÃ¢ÂÂs mango in pot for one year before planting them in ground.

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Comments (30)

sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
leaves were packed
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
shipping boxes
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Thanks Sapote, actually I used these 300-500 watts work lights and if I hadn't I probably wouldn't have any mango trees left at all...it generated enough heat to at least keep the roots from freezing :o( The fact that we had 23 degrees was what was the biggest factor. Normally, we see around 28 degrees but it was much, much colder...a very rare (thank goodness). The lights I used would have been sufficient enough had we not had the 23-25 degrees for days and hours on end... The heater fan to be perfectly honest scares me, lol...I have this OCD that it might cause "fire" and burn the frost cloth and the trees,lol...I thought the lights were the lesser of two evils... I do appreciate your suggestions though...thanks! Here's the lights I used...I also used the old fashioned C-7/C-9... a couple strings of those and you can have appx. 250-350 watts. I also wrapped the trunks with Carpet Foam and this helped save the graft as well...
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You absolutely do NOT NEED TO GRAFT THE TREE TO PRODUCE FRUIT! That is the most uneducated thing I’ve read all morning so far. Grafting will keep it much smaller than a tree that is allowed to grow naturally. Grafting will make it push out fruit during its 3rd to 4th year of life resulting in it not growing to the possible 110 feet and yielding about half as much fruit As a naturally grown ungrafted tree. A fruit tree will start to produce on its own in 5 to 8 years average. Mango trees have make and female flowers which allow to them to produce fruits without the need for grafting. A full grown naturally grown mango tree can put out as much as 330 pounds of mangoes but a grafted tree will only put out about half of that. Mango trees grow in spurts. hope this helps. Also they need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day and you do not need to water excessively . When you stick your finger into the soil and it’s dry then it’s time to water. Your soil should remain moist and damp but not saturated.
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
root-ball
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
left to right: Carrie, nam doc mai, Maha, Alphonsol one day after arried

This post was edited by sapote on Thu, Mar 14, 13 at 21:11
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
just after brushing the leaves with fertilizer water
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
all of them after 1 week
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
Lancetilla bought on 2013-2-7 from Mimosa; leave or flower buds?

This post was edited by sapote on Thu, Mar 14, 13 at 21:18
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
VP bought on 13-2-7; flower or leave buds?
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
Lancetilla on 13-3-14 with flower
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
closeup lancetilla flower
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
VP on 13-3-14 with flower
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
closeup vp flower
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
Maha after one week
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
NDM one week later
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
alphonsol 1 week later
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
carrie 1 week later
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
Homedepot Manila planted last June. The big tree trunk in the background is the 15 yrs old white sapote (grower said McDill but I think its exellent tast yellow fruit is Suebell (spell?)

This post was edited by sapote on Thu, Mar 14, 13 at 21:43
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puglvr1
11 years ago
Wow...Congrats on your new 6 different types of mango! I wish you the best with all of them...I hope they grow well for you and you get fruits in a year or two.

That manila should give you fruits probably next year...I love mangoes!!

Please keep up posted on their progress!
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mangodog
11 years ago
Excellent plants, Mr. Sapote - everything looks well maintained.....

myamberD
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
So itÃ¢ÂÂs almost 3 weeks after I potted the four mango trees I bought from TT, and they are holding their leaves Ã¯Â¿Â½Ã¯Â¿Â½" no single leave had fallen. All of them show new buds and the Carrie has new flower. They all have been out in full sun since last week.

I think by painting the leaves with fertilizer water might had minimized the shock to my mango trees.

For the two bigger Valencia and Lancetilla, there are tiny fruits formed now. Yesterday I took some photos of the honey bees eating the mango flowerÃ¢ÂÂs nectar. I had read articles saying Honey bees are not attracted to mango flower, but in my case I see a few bees on the flowers every day over the weekend.

I watered my mango trees with fish emulsion. Have anyone tried it and what was the result?
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bananafan
11 years ago
Sapote,

Wow, so many beautiful and healthy looking mango trees! I think they're going to do very well for you. Also, I see you have a mango planted in the middle of your patio. I've been wanting to do the same for one of my mangos as it looks neater, but I've also heard that the roots like to have more open space to grow better, so I'm not so sure now ... Do you know anything about it, or if anybody else has more info, I'd greatly appreciate it. By the way, your patio looks gorgeous. Did you DIY it?

Thanks for sharing all the nice mix of your mangoes.
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
bananafan,

Paver or brick court yard allows water and air to get to ground and so it should be ok for mango which does not have much horizontal root as ovocado or citric trees. In cooler climate, courtyard is good for mango which requires warm soil.

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mango.html
In the link, under Location it says the mango surrounded by paving. I had seen very healthy mango grew in the middle of concrete yard. Thank you for your kind words of the patio; I and a helper laid all the pavers last year. We also did the long driveway. I think we had handled more than 5000 pieces of pavers.

Sapote
I
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bananafan
11 years ago
Thank you, Sapote, for the info about planting mango in the courtyard. I'm glad to hear that it is ok to do so. The spot where I'm planning to plant is also the spot where I'd like to have patio blocks on.

You did a good job at your DIY courtyard and I love your small patio blocks. Did you special order them? We did ours with the 18x18 concrete blocks. They're heavy to work with. I'm glad to hear you also have your driveway done. Paved area looks so neat and nice and most of all keep those weeds out. Before we did ours, it was a humongous jungle and we were just busy chasing weeds all summer long.
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sapote
Original Author
11 years ago
No special order -- just a standard concrete pavers from Angelus:
http://www.angeluspavingstones.com/collections/paving-stones/antique-cobble-i-ii/

They have dimension: 5.5" x 8.26" and 5.5"x5.5", which my courtyard used both in a mixed pattern.
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sapote
Original Author
10 years ago
My beautiful carrie -- she was the one sent out the flower first -- had died. NMD's single elongate 4" long fruit exploded one day, just too young for edible. VP and Lancetilla each has one big fruit, and they are doing fine. Both Alphonsol and Maha did not have flower -- a good thing -- and so they are growing fast and strong. I must say this: all the trees that had spent the energy on flowering and fruiting had suffered a bit.

I accidentally knocked Carrie's baby off, and few week later she sent out a big cluster of flower. But by then she didn't have enough leaves to support, and I finally cut off the flower to save her. She never could recover from this. A month later the top leaves wilt, and by feel I could tell the bark above the graft was soft and watery. I cut off below the graft to save the root stock. few week later the tiny green bud near the soil line also wilt. So I thought it died, and pull it out thinking root rot. My surprise the roots were fine and only the truck bark had problem. I cut off the soft watery bark section to the healthy wood and replanted it back, hoping it could regrow. I would like to know what was the reason to her death (hope not).

Advice: don't do what I did -- don't let the young trees have flower and fruits.

Sapote
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puglvr1
10 years ago
Yes, unfortunately letting a very small tree bloom and fruit takes so much energy from the plant that its always recommended to remove the blooms and or fruits till the tree is bigger stronger and a little more mature. Its a very hard lesson to learn plus human nature makes it difficult to remove and pick them off...its always exciting to "see" if you can get one to maturity at this young age :o(

Its good advise...but a hard one to follow,lol...

So sorry to hear about your Carrie, but glad to hear the rest of your mango trees are doing well...
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Baby G (USDA:10a, Sunset:21&23 SoCal-NE. Mt Washington, Lo-Chill: 200-400 Hrs, So
9 years ago
Please update us on your mangos' progress, Mr Sapote!

My neighbor and I are each on the hunt for Mangos that will do well - we are near the top of Mt Washington in Los Angeles. South facing yards.

Gold Nugget, Keitt, Glenn, Haden, Valencia Pride, Manila or something else?
If I were going to plant only two, what would be the best choices?
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puglvr1
9 years ago
From your list I would pick Glenn and Keitt ( Keitt is a very late variety Sept-Nov) in CA...I have both of these are are both excellent.

I would also recommended Pickering and Maha...but there are SO many great mango varieties to choose from and since mango taste is subjective everyone has their preference...these 4 I've recommended are very good IMHO...

Good luck on your quest...
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sapote
Original Author
9 years ago
Dear Babyg,

Sorry I wasnÃ¢ÂÂt checking the forum latterly. Puglvr gave good advices and she has much more experience in mango than me. Your location sounds much better than mine. IÃ¢ÂÂm in Burbank 91501 and I think itÃ¢ÂÂs little colder than yours in the winter. Believe me I have been experimenting with growing mangoes every year for the last 10 years, and I think I have learned greatly in the last couple years of how to keep the little young trees survive in the winters. Do not let fruits on young trees at least the first 2 years. In cold wet winter, cover from top to toe when itÃ¢ÂÂs below 50F every night with plastic bags. Cover the soil around the root when rain. Root rot is the #1 killer.

I vote for Maha too. ItÃ¢ÂÂs has little disease and itÃ¢ÂÂs strong. I like the taste of Valencia Pride, but these are the only two fruits that I had tasted. Last year I lost the Alphosol. This winter so far so good with 10 mangoes on ground: Mun Kun Si (leaves all damaged by the New Year freezing); Nam Doc Mai; 6 ft Kent seedling; Neelum; HD Manila (most leaves damaged by freezing). In flowering: Alampur Baneshan; Cac Hoa-Loc; Edward; Lancetilla; Mahachinook. All of the trees were protected by the same method. IÃ¢ÂÂm surprised that the HD Manila was damaged by the cold, and Manila was listed as one of the cold hardy variety.

Sapote
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greenman62
9 years ago
i am Jealous Sapote.
all i have now is a Florigon i grew from seed, abot 3ft tall.

i am in New Orleans (9a /9b border)
and the last 2 winters we had 27F
twice this year, 4 times last winter.

i grow papaya which i think is just a tad bit more sensitive ?
i always put another plant next to them, and,
if i can pant them close to my house on a South wall.
lots of mulch...

i plan on buying 3 mango this spring.
im looking for input,
but, i will start another thread.

looks good...

Brad
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