I wouldn't take that chance unless you create a sturdy wire basket to plant your mango in. My mango is in a pot because I too have lost several plants including banana and figs to gophers.

Probably not. I had a gopher tunnel very close to the Baileys Mango..but it left it alone. I also had a nice Manila dry up one spring . At the time I thought it was root rot or some bacterial rot. It might have been gophers. They arrived as problems about the same time as my planting the Mango.

The Baileys might have been saved by pure luck. I've lost plenty to gophers. Rare palms,Ficus, Ti plants,even all my clump of lemon grass and a Chayote vine.

I had a feral cat that was a great gopher killer. Then,after a few months I never saw him again.

If you plant in a basket,yes it must be heavy duty to not rot. Rebar would work. Nurserys sometimes make rebar crates to grow tree's in ground. When they are sold,just yank them out of the ground with a bobcat.

I couldn't tell you how to make that.

You should also put those tree collars around the trunk above ground. Keep critters from girdling it.

yeah, i got ground issue with gopher, then the air issue with squirrel and rats digging into the pots, destroy the mango roots. I bought a big trap, it went off several times, but caught nothing. So frustrated. In that case, I think i'll leave all my 30 mango tress in the pots until it gets bigger for the ground.

I have a few gopher plants in my yard (volunteers this year, it's been a long time since I actually planted any.) Don't know the scientific name. They're biennials and seed freely the second year, but the point is, their roots give gophers the equivalent of poison ivy and they really do keep them away. I had a serious gopher problem 20 years ago and they disappeared after I planted these.

The plants are also an irritant to some people, so you might or might not want to let the seed pods grow.

amary,

where can I get them?

I just googled, found the right plant and that it also goes by the name of Gopher Purge. I don't know if I'm allowed to link to vendors here, but I did find someone who sells and ships the plants, which surprised me--I'd only ever seen the seeds for sale. They say it's in the poinsettia family and that the roots of the poinsettia have the same effect of making gophers ill so they avoid the area. Curious. So if you have a leftover poinsettia, or the stores are clearing out old ones post-Christmas, you could definitely put them to good use!

yes, I do have 1 poinsettia plant 2-3yr old that I have in a pot by the house. I will try it out into the ground when it gets warmer so it doesn't get kill by the cold. Do you have some extra seeds that I can drop by to pick them up? I'm in redwood city. I'm really interested in this gopher plant. I saw all my 5ft tomato plants disappeared when they were producing flowers and fruit the first year I started gardening. And a nice loquat 1yr old seedling also disappear too. All my plants are in pots now. Totally sucks that I can't plant anything into grow except for cherimoya. They seem to stay away from that.

I last planted them about 20 years ago. I had some volunteers pop up in my yard this year to my great surprise--it's been awhile. It'll be another season before I have seeds to share from them, I'm afraid.

Those seeds are easy to get Kim. I've seen them on HD seed racks.

nice, wish they grow more fruit trees in the parks than just tree. I really don't see the point of growing non-fruit tree.

Kyna- they have dozens of rare (for the bay area) tropical fruit trees here. Many fruiting. I saw Macadamia,many types of tropical guavas- and the cold hardy too. Rio Grand Cherry, Citrus of all types. Most are young tree's still. But old enough to bare. Avocado's!..and they don't mind if you pick them. Just no bags. I get it.

Look at my Jacotiba post.

They have fruits you wont see anywhere else- many Asian and Latin tropical fruit tree's

Quarry Lakes in Fremont. $5 to get in. I would wait until summer. Everything then should be in leaf,flower.

Check it out.

I remember Bill( the guy in the mango video) said he gave some of the guavas tree to the fremont park. I didn't realize Macadamia was there either. I saw a big one at Bill's place when I went to buy ice cream banana from him.

I also saw some large Lychee. They were small tree's- 15'. I want to see them in summer.

I have to do a norcal post with a list of what they planted from a flyer they give out. Just remember its a park. Weather,pests and thieves might make the list not 100% still accurate.

Later!

Kyna- did you look at the Mango in Fremont vid Bill did on Youtube?

So, months after writing my earlier answer, I had gopher holes pop up overnight in a corner of my yard for the first time in twenty years. A lot of them, at least a dozen--right in the dripline of my comice pear tree, with one big scoop-out with the roots exposed. Ouch. Maybe a skunk was trying to get at that gopher?

I know squirrels don't like cinnamon and gophers are rodents, right? Since I needed to do something immediately.

I had some particularly pungent cinnamon sticks. (Someone later told me that the ones sold at Christmas, which these had been, are dipped in cinnamon oil for more flavor. Maybe these were. Dunno.) So: I stuck one into the end of every gopher hole.

The next day there were two new holes, both of them further out from the tree and away from every cinnamon stick. I stuck some in those, too.

Never had another one show up there again. I did, however, have a few tentative ones across the yard by my peach tree. Same treatment, same retreat. The cinnamon sticks didn't dissolve in the rain, they simply stayed standing sentinel. In the six weeks since there has been no further evidence of gopher whatsoever and my fruit trees are all happily blooming away.

I caught a squirrel chewing on my sweet cherry blossoms. Sprinkled cinnamon in the trunk and branch crotches and they've left it alone since.

does the cinnamon stick for rodents too? I got rodents chew the bark of all my citrus tree

Couldn't hurt to try. Or just dust around the tree with powdered cinnamon.

Sounds right. Kids on the internet found out what inhaling cinnamon powder will do.

I once went to take a bite of pizza I had used old red pepper "dust" on. Huge mistake,I inhaled the pepper dust ..and went without a breath of air for...10 minutes?. Worst choking of my life.

Wow! Sorry about that. (I'm afraid to find out what the kids did...)

This is a REAL interesting thread. First where do you folks live that you can have cherimoya, mango AND gophers? Not in Fla I take it? I can tell you why public places do not have more fruit. first up is fighting over fruit, next is liability for when an idiot parent sends a kid in a tree for fruit and the kid falls out or gets poked in the eye and sues. then a sympathetic jury of peers of the idiot parent award huge damages. THEN COMES THE rogue bands of profiteers who strip the tree and SELL the fruit at a swap meet. The fact is municipalaties do not need the risk...why do it when planting ornamentals is NO RISK

People in the USA don't see it as wrong to take plants. Other country's put cycads in public parks. Here they wouldn't last a weekend without being poached. The SF Botanical Garden is well kept...until you see their Tea Camellia...its been picked by the public to the point a Charlie Brown Christmas tree has more green.

I'm in the San Francisco Bay area. Mangoes can be grown here if you're willing to do the work or have a greenhouse. Mine has two strings' worth of old warm Christmas lights, blue (and some green till I get around to replacing those bulbs) rather than white so they don't light up the night (much). Then I put a large frost cover over it at night for all but summertime--two layers' worth if it's actually going to hit freezing so that the leaves don't burn where they touch the fabric. Mangoes need it to stay above 40 to flower and fruit and so far mine has done fine even though we've had it hit 24F several times since I planted it over a year ago.

buy a gopher hawk trap on amazon

Hawks are Federally protected, as well they should be. Gophers, of course, not so much. I'm not sure what you're trying to say. But yes, one can certain set gopher traps.

If you would have taken the time to research the item on amazon you would have seen that its a gopher trap 🤦🏽

Mine have not been attacked when other plants have. Not saying that means they are gopher proof. Mangoes have a fine root system....could be more work with the ( mostly) lack of thick succulent roots for the gopher.