Related to your question--
What kind of fertilizing can stimulate panicle production? I have a Glenn mango tree that had this problem last year and this year has no panicles or panicle buds.Even though my other mango trees show panicles or have buds waiting to bust out into panicles

Hi Marin, I've cut back on my fertilizing as well since the cold snap, but just today I watered my potted mango tree with a 1/3 the recommended dosage of MG...1 tsp of MG to one gallon water in which I added a 1/2 tsp. of Epsom salts for Magnesium. It is pushing out something (just not positive if its pannicles or new growths?) I usually will resume my normal fertilizing once the mango fruits have completed fruiting.

In spring I sprinkle Vigoro Citrus fertilizer which is also recommended for potted trees...about 3 tablespoons on my 24" pot, less if your pot is smaller and water it in...it is a slow release fertilizer so I never worry about fertilizer burn...I then apply it once more in the middle of summer. Vigoro is one of the few fertilizers out there that is safe for Container growing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vigoro Citrus and Avocado Fertilizer

What kind of fertilizing can stimulate panicle production?

Many commercial Mango growers in Florida add additional Potash fertilizer in the fall in order to stimulate a good productive winter bloom.

phosphorous stimulates blooming. fertilizers marketed towards making plants like azaleas and bougavilleas bloom heavy are phosphorous biased (the middle number in N-P-K)

I wouldnt use it on Mango though, Id just stick with a balanced slow release fertilizer in the spring like Osmocote.

I use fertilizer very sparingly, I throw a handful of Osmocote right before the rainy spring begins around the drip lines of each of my trees.

how old is your tree? Fairchild recommends using potash only to help promote root growth for the first few years then not fertilizing at all

*FROM THE LINK BELOW*
Do not burn a mango tree with fertilizer. We recommend that no nitrogen fertilizers be given to the young tree until fruiting begins. Nitrogen is the first of the three numbers that appear on the fertilizer label. You should use instead a potassium fertilizer. Potassium is the last of the three numbers on the label. We use a 0-0-50 formulation, sprinkled lightly below the drip-line of the canopy three times per year. Take care not to apply the fertilizer to the trunk. The ultimate in green care for your tree is to supply all your nitrogen in the form of an organic plant mulch or properly composted manure.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.fairchildgarden.org/livingcollections/tropicalfruitprogram/jackfruit/growing-a-mango-tree/

Thanks mangoK

When you describe your fertilization are you sprinkling a few handfuls on the grass or do you have mulch at the drip line? Do you tuck a few handfuls under the mulch?

I have read that Fairchild page before and it seems prejudiced towards slow growing condo mangoes and keeping mango trees small in general. Thus-- no nitrogen

I have trees that have been in the ground from 1-3 years

the philosophy behind Fairchilds method is too focus on root development the first few years with potassium (potash) and not divert the trees energy with too much vegetative growth inducing nitrogen or bloom and fruit inducing phosphorous.

Mangos grow readily down here. one could plant one out in a yard during rainy season and forget about it and it will mature and fruit within a few years. as long as it doenst dry out when young or get over fertilized, it will grow.

MK
Good luck finding and using that 100% potash fertilizer Fairchild recommends. Do you mulch around your trees? Some do and some don't

MK -

I think you are right! I'm going to fertize my mangos once or twice a year. My soil is sandy and rich I'm not going to even mulch them any more. I took so bad advice from a famous nursery in San Diego last year and he recommended blooming fertilizer 10-52-10 every three weeks.

The typical recommendation for root development is triple super phosphate (0-45-0). For blooming, use something like muriate of potash (0-0-46) or sulfate of potash (0-0-51).

I wouldn't give up hope on the glenn just yet. There's still a couple of months of bloom season to go :-).

Jeff

Jeff
That Glenn mango bloomed reluctantly (few panicles) and late last year and so far I see a repeat this year

Jeff said: "The typical recommendation for root development is triple super phosphate (0-45-0). For blooming, use something like muriate of potash (0-0-46) or sulfate of potash (0-0-51)."

I thought potassium was for mango root development according to Fairchild. The sulfate of potassium has more gentle action than the chloride

Hi
Nancy I also have that Vigoro Citrus and Avocado and use as you have twice a year. I was doing the half strength MG in a gallon of water 2 - 4 times a month and stopped when the cold snap hit . My trees are covered with blooms but I was concerned whether the MG fertilizer would cause any weird thing to the fruit that are forming. So I wasn't sure when to resume the MG.

I corresponded with someone that was very knowledgeable and experienced about avocado and he suggested the bloom promoter high phosphorus fertilizer like Sunniland along with putting some galvanized steel nails into the trunk to promote blossoms/fruiting on seedling grown trees. That will be my next thing to try. When do avocado normally start to bloom?

Zands, phosphorous and potassium both contribute to root growth in separate ways when combined with nitrogen. Fairchilds method of just potassium will create a deficiency in nitrogen so there will be very little vegatative growth. the opposite, a potassium deficiency from an imbalance nitrogen would result vegetative growth and a less developed root system

zands, that fairchild article doesn't indicate that 0-0-50 is for root development. Realizing that their goal is to produce a dwarf mango bush, we could easily postulate that the reasoning behind recommending 0-0-50 is to induce early blooming (ie, precocity) which would obviously retard growth. Triple superphosphate would have the opposite effect - causing the tree to grow like a race horse after laying down a strong root system.

University of Hawaii recommends 1.5 pounds of triple super phosphate at the time of planting... but then they aren't concerned with producing mango 'bushes' :-).

Jeff

I can never find potash or slow release potassium. I just stick with light sprinkle of osmocote and some compost manure every year

mango_kush, where do you stay at? I know a place in Homestead, Florida where you can get the 0-0-51 potassium fertilizer (in sulfate of potash granular form).

Adiel

I bought a 50 pound bag of Potash 0-0-50 at a farm suupply store in Homestead last summer. Used it in the fall on my mango trees, guess we'll see the results on my trees soon one way or the other.

Don't forget about the minors... Trees need more then just NPK. On my fruit trees that are in large containers, I use a fertilizer with everything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronutrient

You can make your own organic potassium fertilizer at home with bananas peels. . I've try it on my three mango trees that I have. My two glenn ones are full of pinacles and my Keith is getting ready to put out some buds In the spring ,since it's a late season tree..

just some observations for what its worth

nitrogen is very volatile in soils. - so much so, that some places that do soil analysis dont even bother to check for it.

N breaks down, and can be flushed away very rapidly. so, even in an analysis, it can change greatly in just weeks, or even days.

i like using fish emulsion which feeds the soil microbes. it breaks down much slower, and releases N slower. bacteria and fungi actually have to convert it first.

ive had really good success with it on my Florigon which has grown pretty fast, and looks very healthy. it just produced its first flowers this week, but i also jut put it in ground from the container a few weeks ago, so, i will probably remove all the flowers.

Worm castings seem to work well for me also. i first just used the castings, but now actually add red worms to my containers, and sometimes to the plants in ground under the mulch. (this is kind of tricky to do to keep them alive and happy), but i think it is worth it.... or, you can attract native worms with used coffee grounds and fruit peels. (i put under the mulch) these worms aerate the soil and leave pre-fertilized holes the roots can find.

I am a big believer in mulch too. it keeps moisture more constant and level which keep the microbes happy. rain and sun beating on bare soil is never a good thing.

Can any one please advise on how to get rid of anthracnose. Please i m desperate

Anthracnose is everywhere and just needs the right conditions to show itself. It likes warm humid conditions so that's the time you need to take action. Commercial growers here spray fungicides to prevent the anthracnose taking hold. But it's a situation that while you can get rid of it on your plants for a while, spores will be blowing in from surrounding areas. So basically, it's a matter of keeping it under control so that it doesn't become too great a problem.

thank you, any ideas on how to keep it control? I sprayed with mancozeb, I also used the Bayer fungicide for brown spots, but it seems that instead of controlling it, I m feeding it, as the brown spots are larger now

I get the black mold on my mango. I got cheap this year and didn't put any potash. My flower panicle is green instead of red. The little mango are not holding and dropping off. There was another cold front, so I got more flowers coming out now.

Thats how my trees look like and flowers are dying

This is the advice on an Agnote from our Primary
Industries Department:

Regular spraying of
trees from flowering time onwards with mancozeb (at recommended label rates
every 14 days) is useful to reduce the level of infection in the developing
fruit. Do not use mancozeb within 14 days of harvest. If anthracnose becomes
serious in green immature fruit it would be useful to give a couple of
judicious sprays of prochloraz. It is important however not to overuse
prochloraz as this may lead to development of resistant anthracnose strains.
Copper sprays recommended for the control of mango scab will also control
anthracnose with only a one day withholding period.

It's not a big problem on my trees so I don't worry about
it. Flowering occurs during our dry season so the fungus isn't very active. But
for the commercial growers they can't afford to take chances.

thank you so much I will try that

where would I buy prochloraz from

Prochloraz is an ingredient used in commercially
available fungicides so in general you'd need to check different brands of
fungicide to see if it was one of its constituents. I did a bit of a search and
came up with the following brand names but they might not be all available
where you are. You'll easily find others though.

Octave®WP Fungicide

Omega 45 EC

Protak 450 EC Fungicide

Chronos® 450 SC

Mirage® Fungicide

Also check this website for important information about Prochloraz.
www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC36352

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT

have you heard about " ANNUAL TREE AND SHRUB" I was wondering if that could be use on citrus and avocado

does anyone knows why some mango flowers are red and other have green flowers?

All herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals, etc., have to by law
have a Safety Data Sheet provided by the manufacturer. You can search
these on the internet and find out about approved usage, warnings and
other information of any of these products. Just put the trade name
of the product and Safety Data Sheet (sometimes called Material Safety Data Sheet) into a search engine and you'll be able to download it usually as a PDF file. When you buy the produce there should also be a print copy of the Safety Data Sheet attached to it.

I've noticed the different shades of colour in Mango flowers but never really thought about why.

thank you for your reply, really appreciate it. thank you. as a thank you a leave you with a pic of my lychee and how it looks now

It looks really healthy. Do you get any fruit?

last year I got a few. right now it has a lot of flowers . I just don't know what to do

for the tree to keep the fruits and not drop them. the most I have gotten is maybe 20

I m really hoping for this year. don't know if I should feed it with fish emulsion or to just leave it alone to do its thing

Something with potassium is good for fruiting. But less nitrogen as that usually causes fruit drop in favour of better leaf growth.

I got 400lbs of potassium nitrate saved up to use as foliar spray on the mango trees. It does work and gets my mango tree to produce new growth within a few days. Next year I will time it with the weather, when it gets cold. If the new growth forms in the cold weather, then it will probably turn into buds instead of leaves.

I bought 500lbs of potassium nitrate and 300lbs of calcium nitrate from a farmer for $105.

The calcium nitrate doesn't work on my mango trees. The cheaper alternative doesn't work on some type of mango trees.

Don't go wasting your fertilizer spraying it when it is hot. You will get leaves instead of buds.