I don't think it's ever been done outside a greenhouse. A healthy Kensington pride seedling would be a good good mango to start with. I think the only chance would be if you live in an inner suburb and plant it against the North side of you house near a warm wall. It MIGHT be possible then, but it would be a uphill battle : )

Naaaaaaah, Of course it can be done, Jason just hasn't tried hard enough yet:).He will have the first Victorian Mango orchard and a cold resistant variety named after him.

Sure I'd have the first Victorian commercial Mango plantation IF I lived in Mildura I'd have it up and running allready : D

Apart from Frost one other thing Mango will not tolerate is rain during the flowering season
as it will interfere with setting of the fruit. After all it is a Tropical fruit and most Tropical countries
only have two main seasons Wet and Dry that enables the mango to set fruit in the Dry Season.

In Townsville and Bowen the trees flower around August, here in Brisbane it is later
Here my back yard yields are nowhere as good as what I used to grow in Townsville.
probably due to the much colder Winters, you would probably find that the tree
may grow in Victoria but I doubt very much that it would fruit. Hope this Helps.....MM

Some tropical plants like Guava grows and does well in Melbourne. I have one planted two years ago and had about 40 to 50 fruits this year. Only problem is that the fruits mature during winter season and therefore does not ripen properly.

Thank you for your advise mistymorn, you are probably right.

I have only 5 mango trees. The largest of which is 4-5m tall and about 3m wide. It has produced progressively more fruit each year. 30-50 last season. It is a KP seedling. Our climate is exactly the opposite to that which mango trees originate,I have Cool, wet winters and dry, hot summers. I never expect to get commercial crops from my trees but I never cease to be amazed by the adaptability of individual plants in nature.
Nice frog, I can see it now....SMITH mango, not to be confused with the apple:)

Is Kensington Pride the same as Bowen? I have a Bowen mango seedling that I snaffled off fellow forumite Patrina Pepperina which seems to be going pretty well. Wicky whereabouts are you? What is the growing conditions that you have?

Antartic is how I would describe the weather in Adeliade today, though I do have the 'gift' of exaggeration. My little mango has just been belted with hail, though being coastal, I don't have to worry about frost *gloats, in the hope that Spatz is reading this, hee hee*. (snowing in the hills yet, spatz??)

Wicky, any info you can offer on how to look after PP's mango would be most appreciated.

cheers, mudlark

Yeah, yeah, Mudlark. Now you gloat, having escaped the hills just in the nick of time.

We've had very strange weather all day. Plenty of hail and sleet. It's not melting away either, so the paddock is white. Snow is a possibility - it smells like it.

The sheep are huddled up. Poor things. (Pssst.. they had porridge and lupins this morning. But don't tell!)

Wicky, your trees sound great. Plenty of microclimates? A greenhouse?

My biggest mango tree is outside. The only protection provided is a Westerly facing brick wall about 5m away (Which has a shadecloth sail over it). I have 3 other mangoes out in the open (2 KP and 1R2E2). I have 1 in the greenhouse (Nam Doc Mai). The KP's were all grown from supermaket seed as KP's are polyembryonic and grow true to type. I live in Whyalla which is only marginaly warmer than Adelaide and much more arid. The secret to growing Mango in our climate is to plant in deep soil, build it up rather than dig into heavy clay, and protect the tree for the first few years while it is young (From the heat and cold winds), a small frame of shadecloth is sufficient. In my experience a mature mango tree is nearly as hardy as a lemon tree. Fruit production is different. Expect enough fruit to feed the family but don't go into the mango business:). Then again, who knows, Tropical fruit selection in cool climates is in its infancy. (Too many years of listening to "It can't be done").

Many members of the SA "Rare fruit society" in and around Adelaide have had success fruiting mangoes. There is supposed to be a HUGE fruiting specimen in Port Augusta but I haven't seen it:). If you want a grafted variety you can purchase them from Perry's, if they have the time, or you can mail order from Daley's in NSW or Limberlost in QLD., speak to Neil.

Thanks for the great info, Wicky! Very interseting reading.

cheers, mudlark

Erm, I meant interesting, of course.

Thanks, again.

mudlark

Oh.
*quickly puts dictionary back into shelf* *grins*

: ) Hey if you can't grow a Mango in Sydney, Adelaide, Northern Victoria or Perth your doing something crooked, because it's been done plenty of times before, But Melbourne is another story. Still due to the massive amount of concrete and much much higher night time temps that Victoria's "real" non human modified climate you have a real chance. It wont be easy but there is a chance, depending mostly on where about you live in the city. Mango is not a tropical tree by any imagination, but fair smack in the middle of the sub tropical class. Wicky has plenty of trees way more tropical than a Mango. Here on the South coast of Victoria I can grow trees that are on the Temperate/Sub Tropical border like Citrus, Avocado, White Sapote and Cherimoyas but getting past those and into true Sub tropical plants is going to need more shelter than my garden currenty has, but I'll keep trying : ) (or move inland 50-100ks to get the extra heat) : ). The odd night time low under 0c isn't a real big problem for Mangos all you really need is warm nights through Spring/Summer/Autumn

long time ago I had a mango seedling survive for two years in Canberra - so if I could get one to grow 1 1/2 metres high in the ACT, you should be able to grow one in Melbourne. Fruiting may be another problem.

I lost my mango to a very large male kangaroo who thought that patch of soil would make a better bed for him than for a mango.
North wall, no wind and some TLC during winter is all you really need.

good luck.

The big problem is not really the Winter in Southern Victoria, but that we hardly get any nights during Summer that are warm enough to make a mango grow, I have one like 5 years old in the ground but it grows only 1cm per year :p, I'll admit it's in a spot that only lets an apricot grow 2cm per year but hey! it had to be frost free so it also ended up too dry