? Re: My New Mango Tree

14 years ago

Hi,

This is my first post in a long time.

I am brand new to growing fruit trees. I live So. Kissimmee/Davenport area in FL.

I have several questions re: my new Mango tree and hope to get some advise from some of you garden gurus!.

It is about 3Ft tall right now - it is a Haden.

As you can see it is just one up straight shoot.

I wanted to know if I should clip the top off of it now to make it start to branch out (should I start to prune it now for a wide canopy and try to control it's height? although I do have room for it in my back yard.)

I am also thinking about growing it in it's pot for a while because I am concerned about freeze this winter (can just bring it inside for a year or two) and want to have a better established/larger plant when I put it in the ground. What do you think?

I wondered if so, should I should put it in a larger pot now?

Here is a pix of the top of the plant:

I wondered, are the little nodules just more leaves?

Will this branch out on it's own soon if I don't prune it?

And lastly!

does anyone know of a good site with pix that guide you in pruning a mango the correct way to control how huge it gets?

Thank you so much!

I am excited. My very first tree.

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Comments (8)

leah29
14 years ago
I am only slightly ahead of you in my experience with mango trees, but I will share with you what I've learned and everyone else can correct me if I'm wrong. I bought a hayden mango that looked exactly like yours last summer. I repotted mine in a larger clay pot because I was also worried about it surviving freezes. I was very glad I did with the winter we just had! This spring a lot of the lower leaves started falling off and I was worried about it, but then it started branching out at the top. Now it has no leaves on the trunk but is growing more leaves and branching out more with all the rains we've had lately. I think the nodules are just more leaves, but I'm not sure. Good luck!
goldenpond
14 years ago
I can offer no help but I laughed when I read your name! My dog Daisy has the wiriest hair around(she is a wire hair fox terrier.) I am sure your name was meant differently!
good luck.
tanya
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puglvr1
14 years ago
Daisy,

Congrats on your new mango tree! I love mangoes, I have several young trees I planted several months to two years ago. I'm not an expert and I am learning as I go along...but I posted some pictures on how I "hard pruned"
one of my mangoes on the link below that I posted at the Tropical Fruits forum. I am by no means suggesting that you do this to your tree...just showing you that they can take to pruning very well. I would never recommend you do anything this drastic to your tree in fear that it won't turn out the way you want it. But for me, it turned out very well. BTW, I also did this to my Haden Mango tree, as I was told this variety can get big...I wanted to try and keep it manageable from the start. It suffered from the this years freeze, but its recovering.

Also, here's a link to some recommendations on pruning Mango trees... http://www.virtualherbarium.org/TropicalFruit/mangopruning.htmlcolor>;

Below is the link I posted...Scroll down almost to the end to see the pictures I posted

Here is a link that might be useful: Post from the Tropical Fruits Forum on Mango Pruning
happy_fl_gardener; 9a, near DeLand
14 years ago
daisyhair---The mango tree will be wanting to branch out on its own soon, perhaps this new grow bud will have branches. If it doesn't then I would consider cutting off the top few inches to do as puglvr mentioned to try to get it to branch out. You picked a very large tree variety. If you get another one in the future you will have an easier time controlling the size of a dwarf or semi-dwarf variety.

My 2 year old Carrie actually set fruit this year but they all dropped. Perhaps the tree will be mature enough to hold a few fruits next year. Best of luck with yours.

Christine
fishead199
14 years ago
Every year their will be freezes and rumors of freezes. You
mango tree deserves to be in the ground.
If you are really concerned plant it on the south side of
your house. Be brave.
It will never freeze again just ask Al Gore.
His phone # is 555-man made global warming is a hoax !
watermelon7
14 years ago
lol, fishead!

Really, we are, and have been, in a global COOLING trend, for the past 10 years, as a matter of fact! The next big thing: New ice age!

Actually, we are really still in an ice age, but we have gone FAR past it's peak, but that's besides the point.
daisyhair
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you!

Oh and Fishhead that was interesting.
I am GLAD I can count on no more freezing~ Ha!

Puglvr..
I take it you like Pugs? I have a fawn, he is 6 months old this past weekend.. His name is Sukiyaki.. but we just call him crazy train. He is insane!

I am so excited about my tree!
Ya.. I know it's a large variety. I want to prune it to branch out and I am sure I will top it a couple of times a year.

Puglvr,
I LOVED how you got yours to branch quickly like that. You sure cut the heck out of it didn't you. It's good to see how it did. Cool pix.

Thanks everyone!
puglvr1
14 years ago
Daisy, yes I love pugs!! "Max" is my second pug...he is probably very much like yours, I think all pugs are crazy,lol. Wonderful personalities and a face only a mom could love.

Thanks for the nice comments on my tree. I really did prune the heck out of it, which is why I said I would never tell anyone else to do it to their tree, I would feel so guilty if it didn't work out. I'm one of those avid pruners...I love my trees to stay small and compact and I figured I might as well start them right from the start, when they are still young. I figured the smaller it stays, hopefully the easier it will be to protect from the freeze? May not always work out, but its my best plan.

BTW, Sukiyaki is a super cute Pug name! I remember when mine was a puppy, Max just turned four last month.