This may be too much but thought you would want to know http://www.tropicalrainflorist.com/mango_trees.htm How To Grow Mango Trees 1. Read the classic reference: Fruits Of Warm Climates by Julia F. Morton To download or print this costly book for free just say, "Thanks Perdue U." and.... Click Here 2. Here's a short briefing: Mango trees have been cultivated and grafted for hundreds of years. Grafting was a 'secret' in many cultures and tasty mangoes were status symbols for the royalty only. Ancient kings would steal limbs off each others' mango trees and bribe and kidnap the other kings' gardeners. Peasants were punished for possession of mango fruit or unauthorized cultivation of mango fruit trees. Royalty would try to surpass each other with lavish mango parties and huge gifts of perfect, ripe, delicious mango fruits. Some of today's Indochinese awesome varieties existed many, many years ago exactly as we have them now. Mango trees are evergreens. The civilized grafted mango trees we have now are nothing like the ancient, wild trees whose small fruit tasted like turpentine and had the texture of nylon yarn. The old test of a mango fruit was it's stringiness, it's fiber content. You used to judge a mango by how much dental floss it had. The advent of the free exchange of scientific and agricultural data changed all that. Grafting began to be widely practiced. Mango fruit from seeds is never the same as the mother tree's fruit. So the seed out of a great tasting fruit will likely produce a tree yielding horrible tasting fibrous fruit. The only certain way to be sure you'll have tasty fruit is to propagate (by grafting, and in some cases cloning) an existing particular, individual tree (DNA-wise) whose quality is proven. The odds of a seed producing worthwhile fruit are very, very small. Like one in a hundred million. All mango trees grown from any seed are properly called "Wild Mango Trees". These trees, at 2 foot tall no more, are suitable to graft to but are only worth about $.25 each. Don't sprout a mango seed unless you are able to finish the job by grafting onto it! All good tasting mango varieties are grafted. It's easy with younger trees to see the graft...just look near the base of the trunk and you can see a scar that circles all the way around the trunk. Older trees have the scar too if they are grafted, it's just harder to see. Use a whisk broom to clean off the old bark and dirt from the bottom one foot or so. If necessary use a metal tool to scrape bfrom the root joint up to the first limb. If that doesn't find it, kill it. Watch out for grafted trees that have been frozen back to the stump and all the top (good) part of the graft (scion) has died of the freeze and only the rootstock has survived and branched...such trees, if they do live and re-grow, produce very inferior fruit. It is a good citizen's duty to kill these "fruiting wounded" so that people sampling mangoes for the first time will not taste their unpleasant "free" fruits and form an aversion to all mangoes. A chainsaw to the trunk at the ground line followed by a quart of roundup spread over the stump surface and surrounding area should do it. Grafting Is When You Artificially Attach a Tiny Proto-Limb (Bud) of a Desirable Tree to the Lower Trunk of a Similar Tree, Usually a Sapling, Thereby Prolonging the Life and Fruiting Ability of the Desirable Tree. THIS CAN RESULT IN A SINGLE DESIRABLE TREE'S DNA BEING USED FOR AN INDEFINITELY LONG TIME! Like possibly thousands of years! Sometimes young trees sprout limbs from BELOW the graft's scar, always kill these limbs because they will produce bad tasting fruits and weaken the good scion above the graft. Grafting occurs in nature, for example, when two trees growing too close together constantly rub limbs in the wind scraping them both bare at one spot and they both 'bleed' sap and when the windy season ends they are still pressed together and grow 'joined' together over months into one tree. Grafted. There is this type of 'joining' in root systems too. Many huge groves are really one tree. Click Here for a Short Movie on How to Graft Most of the mango varieties you find in the supermarket are not ancient. The best mangoes never make it to a grocery store, that's why people grow their own mangos. the best mangos have really short "shelf life" and they bruise really easy. So shipping them and selling them in stores is impossible! These modern varieties taste great and are resistant to some problems. The newest varieties are often 'designed' to taste like other fruits such as coconuts, lemons, vanilla, ice cream etc. Generally, modern mango tree varieties are superior in every way to the ancient ones. Except the Nam Doc Mai, a treasured survivor from ancient Siam (Thailand), which politely delivers indescribably delicious fruit. Here are some APPROXIMATE dates of recognition: Haden..........1898 Tommy Adkins...........1915 Kent..................1925 Zill.......................1940 Temperature is very important with mango trees. Cold weather is a major health factor. They die or suffer great damage at 32 F. They go temporarily dormant at about 40 F. So you must learn the normal yearly temperature pattern for where the tree will be. The idea that there is a "cold hardy" rootstock or cultivars is ludicrous, absolutely absurd. All mango trees behave exactly the same way as regards 32 F. They die or suffer great damage. Here are some cold weather ideas. In some places the threat of frost or freeze is normal only at night for a few nights each year. You can either keep the tree in a container and drag it inside during the hours of frost or freeze or plant it in the ground where you will have to cover it up for only the duration of the frost or freeze. If you cover it be sure to fasten the 'skirt' to the ground all around with sod staples or weights so as to trap the ground warmth radiating upward, you can add a light bulb for added warmth or even in extreme cases a little electric space heater...just watch out for rain. Also where the covering tarp/plastic touches the tree the freeze will 'burn' it, no big deal usually, but you can get elaborate and build a skeleton frame to stretch the cover over, just remember the wind. Remember to open a vent hole or uncover the mango tree in the morning after temperatures get back above 40 F. You will 'cook' it if you forget. In Northern Florida they used to plant mango trees right up against the South side of the house where the hot water heater was, so the tree kept warm at night. During cold weather, even if there was a killer freeze and some limbs died, the trunk above the graft was still warm and would sprout new limbs and yield delicious fruit in the Spring. In an emergency, you can heat just the trunk, (it will save the graft and the tree), you will be sacrificing all but one of the scion's branches. But it will save the life of a grafted tree. There are several ways to heat it: put hot wet towels, electric heating pads, an electric blanket, or hot water bottles, etc. wrapped around the trunk clear up to a few inches ABOVE the first branch. And put some warm water on the ground near the base of the trunk. Remember you must save at least one limb (small is OK) ABOVE the graft or else the tree is worthless. It is possible to use sprinklers to spray water onto a tree to save it. BUT you must not stop spraying until the temperature is up to 36 F. Don't just stop the water at dawn. You can try to divert the flowing water away from the base of the tree and the roots with plastic sheeting, (mango trees like dry winters). In places where it freezes all night and all day you must keep the tree inside the house near a big South facing window (for light) until the frost threat is over. Lots of light is the main concern. You can phone your local NOAA weather station and they will read you the historically earliest and latest freeze dates in your area so you know about what date to drag it inside. Of course a sunny, heated greenhouse or pool house is nice! Mango trees like a dry spell for a couple months in the winter. Water the tree every 3 days for the first month if you plant it in the earth. Then every week for the next 2 months. Then don't water it any more except for dry spells. When it's mature, don't water very much or fertilize at all during the time when fruit are forming or ripening, you'll burst the fruit or dilute the flavor. As for pruning, you can really mess up the life of a tree fast with just a few uneducated cuts. Any needed cuts to the tree should be made with sharp clean tools. Some growers use a hand held one quart propane torch (hardware store) to quickly sterilize the knife or scissors after each cut so as to not spread virus disease. Mango Leaves Are DEADLY POISONOUS. Don't burn mango leaves or cuttings, the smoke is toxic. Also don't allow animals to eat the leaves. For the first 3 years apply about one level tablespoon of 12-5-9 (scattered) per foot of tree height in fall after all the fruit have been picked. After the tree is three years old start using 4-4-8 with trace elements, apply about 1/4 cup once yearly after all fruit are picked. Fertilizer is mixed with a gallon of warm water and applied to the DAMP soil, not dry, not wet. Apply about a quart daily for four days. Mango trees need less fertilizer than the same area of lawn grass! A 'citrus' type all purpose spray (lots of different brands, but we recommend Exxon 435 soluble oil) is good to spray once yearly in June. And get yourself a decent sprayer that makes a fine mist. And get some 'Kocide' (brand name for copper sulfate) from a garden shop and spray the trees thoroughly in humid/warm conditions once or twice a week! Follow the directions on the bag. Add a teaspoonful of dish detergent in each sprayer load to make it stick. Anthracnose is the condition that spoils the fruit. Look for black dots on the fruit and leaves and the growing tips die curling black. Spray Kocide. Spray twice a week. In Florida or other humid places spray twice a week all year. Don't let the copper sulfate drip on to the roots, use plastic and rags or paper towels to keep it off the soil over the roots. It is good for the above ground parts only. Death to all squirrels! And rats! ...Get some dogs. Mango trees come from poor, sandy soil with alternating monsoons and droughts. Lots of hot sun. Few nutrients. Since it survives under very harsh conditions you need only keep it from freezing. It's close cousin is the cashew nut tree. If your mango tree's in a pot, check the moisture every week. Stick your finger into the soil, is it damp? Stick your finger into one of the holes around the bottom of the pot, is there moisture at all? Water thoroughly only if dry. The soil should go from very wet to very dry, then back to very wet. And so forth. DO NOT TRY TO KEEP THE SOIL IN ANY POTTED PLANT OR TREE SLIGHTLY DAMP ALL THE TIME. Go back and forth from real wet to real dry. REASON: BECAUSE THE VARIOUS PATHOGENS CANNOT ADAPT TO THE EXTREME CHANGES IN MOISTURE AND IT KILLS LOTS OF THEM. And with no chemicals and no labor! Roots need air just like they need water. It's always good to "spin" a potted plant halfway around every month so as to give it sunlight equally all around and help it grow straight. FOR PLANTS, SUNLIGHT IS FOOD. Not enough means less growth, less flowering and less fruiting. The more hours of daily direct sunlight...the more tree growth, flowering and fruiting. Also if you reposition the potted tree suddenly, sunburn and leaf dropping can occur because of any change in the amount of light. Sometimes a little leaf dropping isn't too bad. Acclimation to lighting changes takes weeks and months. If you want to keep a non-dwarf mango tree small, don't up-pot it. Make it pot bound. Just like Bonsai? Yes, Mango trees are perfect for Bonsai. They were some of the first subjects for the art form. Imagine a six inch tall mango tree that's 30 years old and has a ripe 3 lb. fruit on it! ("Julie" is the true dwarf and will get only 8 ft. high. "Cogshall" is the semi-dwarf mango tree and can reach 12 ft. Also there is a new "Hawaiian Dwarf Mango" to try!) If you are serious about mangoes, then you'll want to know about proper spacing in a grove. Plant "Keitt" variety, space them about 35 ft. apart in long rows running North and South. Space the rows about 45 ft. apart so as to leave space to drive a tractor pulling a big grove sprayer. "Keitt" fruits get to 5 lbs., ship well, taste terrific, have no fiber at all, are resistant to anthracnose, it's a huge tall tree, rave, rave. Paul

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. My winter-protection of the seedling trees isn't always perfect, and there is quite often freeze damage on the ends of the branches that are close to the tarps and frost blankets encircling the cages. This system works well for my grafted mangos, because branch length is relatively short, and they can bloom because the branch tips aren't so close to the cage. But on seedling mangos, as you probably know, branches need to be...I don't know...at least six feet in length or more before they bloom. That just isn't possible for me to protect them at this size. Hence, my question about the self-grafting. If you take a branch tip, and move it to the trunk -- I thought that was part of the principle involved in getting a dwarfed tree, and also to get it to fruit sooner? With so much pruning and die-back, my three trees are essentially topped. Main trunks are perhaps three feet tall, and the branches radiate outwards. I know picturing this is difficult for those who have never had to winter-protect and heat a tropical tree! -Bruce

Update - warning long read. I performed quite a bit of research and the process for California residents is as follows: 1. Fill out form USDA/APHIS form PPQ-546, Post Entry Quarantine Permit. There is no cost to this form. It must be submitted to the CDFA (California Dept. of Food & Ag). The CDFA then contacts your local county agricultural dept. to perform a site inspection. There is no charge for this site inspection. The local county inspector signs off on the form and the CDFA then sends it to the USDA/APHIS. 2. CDFA has to perform 2 inspections of the plant material, once it arrives and at the end of the quarantine period of 2 years for mangos. I'm still not quite clear on this. There is a cost associated with these inspections that are performed by a CDFA pathologist. Furthermore, if anything unusual happens to the imported plant material, you have to report it and they have to come out for inspection again. Due to budget issues, the CDFA only has three service locations throughout CA. The closest one to us is Sacramento. Since I live in San Jose, the travel fee is $150 and the inspection cost is billed at $60hr. I'm attempting to get a more precise cost estimate but have been told it should take no more than a half hour to perform the site inspection since it is residential. So the cost for two inspections comes out to $420. If a plant dies or gets diseased, the cost will increase. Another issue is that all imported plant material has to be federally inspected also at PIS (plant inspection sites). There is one close to SFO, yet I cannot transport the plant material from the airport to the PIS. It has to be done by a customs bonded carrier. I do not know if there is a charge for the PIS inspections but most likely there is. And also do not understand why the CDFA has to inspect the material once the Feds have already initially done it. They suggested mailing the plant material directly to the PIS station in SFO as this is the typical course of action. So as you can see, this process is quite elaborate and I'm sure there are a few more details I have not come across yet. I don't mind all these little steps as I wasn't expecting any less being a current govt. employee, but feel the cost associated is a bit high. I was hoping it would be around $300 max. I have a friend at work who is an entomologist and heads the pest management department, he expained some of the barriers and overlap between the CDFA and USDA. I was hoping my local county could perform the inspections as they do have a working pathologist on site and he is going to see if he can help. I might have given him mango fever because he said he would split the cost with me but his total cost estimate was around $750. I don't mind paying the hourly cost, it's the travel distance cost that is quite high. Moreover, if I bring back 12 plants and have two die at separate times, that will prompt two additional inspections at an estimated $210 each. the PEQ program is meant for commercial nurseries/farm use and not us residents but will accomodate us crazed citizens. I'll continue to research more and will eventually decide if I want to go through with it. Cheers, Desimango

Ah, thanks! That makes sense, as vigourous species can affect small scions in the reverse by 'speeding them up' in some instances. So if I chose a grafted large plant - usually the 'Glauca' or 'Aurea' of most species - then I should be ok. That's great.