Thanks guys!

Stu, I can't believe I cut it that short either,lol...just so you know I always have "panic" attacks when I prune any of my fruit trees this drastically,lol... But I have never regretted it once its done and have branched out. Now, If I can just move where it hardly freezes I would actually see these trees produce!

Sorry about all the trees you lost Gary, its so sad how many of us lost due this horrible winter. I really hope we don't see another one for 20-30 years! Glad you were able to replace them.

Tony, I had no choice with that tree...that was a Haden. I knew how large/tall that tree would get if it wasn't "nipped" in the bud at a very young age. I bought the tree for 75% off, I normally would have never bought a Haden for the large size...but couldn't pass up the deal! Little did I know the freeze was going to nail it two years in a row!
But, I also did that to my Lancetilla.

I tipped my baby Nam Doc Mai at the ends of her branches. I named her Sylvia. This is my 1st mango. I am not sure if I tipped her in the correct location. Help

It looks GOOD from here...I think you did just fine! You can see on this picture where some of the new growths might appear. It should take several weeks depending on your weather and climate. Good luck!

Here's a picture so you can see what I mean...

Oops the picture didn't show up...Let me try it again,lol...

Extraordinarilly pugaliscious, Ms. Puglver!

GarySniffer

You all sound very knowledgeable so I'm going to post here instead of starting my own thread. As the original poster did, I have a young mango about 5 ft tall just growing straight up so far. I know I need to cut it but I'm wondering if I should wait until after "winter" here in Central Florida. Maybe wait til February? I don't know the variety, it was grown from seed by a coworker and given to me. I'm not getting my hopes up for a great crop because I know they're not always true from seed, nut I'd like to give it its best shot.

I'm also wondering how short I should go. Stu123 asked a question a while back and I think it was misinterpreted and not answered correctly. If I cut it back to 3' and get new branches, those branches will always be 3' off the ground, right? There's no growth from the bottom?

Thanks for your expertise!

hi all, just bought a fairchild mango and need some advice on how i should prune this tree.

its been in the ground for about two weeks. What should i fertilize with? Should i trim the fruit that is came with and just prune now or wait to ripen?

Most people say to not allow a very young/small tree to fruit since it uses up SO much energy and takes away from the growth that should go into the tree instead...having said that I'm not sure I would be able to remove the fruit myself ,lol...but if you can, that is really the best for the tree's health and in the long run the tree will grow and get stronger to hold more fruits in the near future.

As far as trimming the tree should naturally grow new branches but you can always "tip prune" to promote "more" new growths...

Here's a Youtube video that might help .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhF-YphevA

I've got a mango I grew from a seed. It had reached about five feet in height, growing straight up, no branching. After reading some of the entries on here, I cut off about six inches or so of the top. Took about a week before buds started appearing. Almost two weeks now and this is how it's looking. There are about eight shoots altogether.

Looking GREAT!! Nice job :o)

puglvr1

You are in zone 9b ?

I am in New Orleans. (9b)

I have a Florigon i grew from seed.

i plan on putting it in the ground next spring.i had left it out last winter when it hit 28F for a few hours here, and i got very little damage. just minor leaf damage.

It did get to 25 one night, i had it in a greenhouse though.

I am hoping i can get it to fruit.

i really want to buy a couple of grafted trees, but i dont know if i can fruit mango in New Orleans.

Do you have any trouble with frost killing the flowers or small fruits ?

do you have fruiting mango ?

I have several inground Mangoes and a couple of container mangoes...

Yes, I've had frost and freeze "kill" and or almost kill my mango trees before, lost a couple but luckily a few survived but it was definitely a very close call. The freeze has also killed my blooms and small fruits as well.

Here's one of my "freeze" damage trees from years past...

Right after I pruned off all the dead branches/leaves...

Here's my potted tree that fruited this year...I had about 12 this year

Wow, you ha a tent around it and it still died ??

I see the container ones. you take them in ?

have you had one in ground fruit ?

The good news is that tree is ALIVE today!! Here's a picture of taken last year. It had 20+ fruits...this year it only had a few due to the very late pruning I did...

As for the potted trees I used to bring them in the garage during a freeze but it got too big and HEAVY so now I just cover it,lol

This is one of most helpful blogs I have seen - Thanks a lot.

When in the year is it too late to tip a branch? I got a sudden new flush of growth on all but one branch (the lowest with the least sun) starting a week ago. I've had the tree nine months and it's only the second mango tree I've ever even seen so it's all new to me. It came as a 7-gallon size, topped and with two branches; it now has twelve. I've done no pruning. I'm wishing I had tipped the center upright branch but had been thinking it was too late in the season to encourage new growth. The tree seems to have other ideas.

I'm in the San Francisco Bay area. I planted the tree the day before a surprise 24F freeze, with older warm Christmas lights and a frost cover at night well into spring and the tree's doing great. Part of my lack of pruning has been that I want it to stay small and easy to cover as long as possible. I'll be sewing multiple covers together soon, clearly.

But do I cut off that new growth at the center top and encourage it to send out even more new growth when it's almost October?

I recently learned something and do not know whether it is at all applicable here. Fruit trees that are shaded by other plants often tend to grow a little lengthy and "leggy" rather than branching horizontally out. This has to do with a higher ratio of 730nm infrared light activating phytochrome receptors in the plant. Leaves of other plants may shade out regular light, but they are still very transparent to 730nm.

So the question, is your mango heavily shaded by other plants?

If this is the case, one potential solution is to use a red LED grow light to help provide a more favorable ratio. As long as the plant is getting more ~660nm energy than 730nm energy, the plant will not try so hard to grow straight upwards.

(by the way, as long as it is an all-red grow light, the plant will not try to grow towards the source of the light, so the grow light can be at the base of the plant shining upwards)

It's got full sun all day. It's branched out to the sides pretty well. Interesting information, though, thank you!

I'm a new mango plant grower, I had heard that the mango plant needed to be tipped in the first yr , for the purpose I snipped the terminal bud, however it was only 1.5 ft in height and is now a bit more than 1 ft , after reading all these comments about plants being 5-6 ft before they tipped it I'm a bit scared .... will my mango plant grow?

I think you'll be okay. It's not the height that matters; it's having nodes for new branches to grow from.

I have several Carabao mango trees from the Philippines. They are currently about 5’ tall with the straight trunk, bark bottom and green top with no branches yet. Carabao Mango trees grow to 80’ tall with a 50’ crown and they supposedly cannot tolerate temps below 60 degrees. I live in the Texas Hill Country where temps can drop into the mid teens in the winter overnight. A mango farmer friend near Manila told me they can be top in about half and survive and fruit. Problem is, my living room ceiling is only 14’ high and topped in half equals 40’ tall. I am wondering if the method of topping mentioned above involved the really tall species of mango trees or short species, like the Pico.

You can top them just about any height. Survival depends more on the growing conditions than on the pruning. I've cut many Mangos back to a stump and they just resprout with lots of branches. If you want smaller you should get something that's grafted. They stay shorter than non-grafted trees,, but not down to room size so still would need topping from time to time. To get fruit you have to make sure you get the tree into the sun as much as possible.

My mango tree is almost 10 feet height with no branches what was the problem can I cut the top to stop it groing more higher

Gday folks, i live in outback Australia and I pruned the top of my Bowen mango last year to about 120cm (4ft) but it wont produce any branches/leaves at all. It appears to be a healthy 'stick' and there are several little buds but they dont seem to want to emerge. Any ideas please. (I was wondering if lack of sunshine could do this as I have it under another tree to keep safe in winter)

So whereabouts are you?

I'm at Angledool NSW upper western NSW and close to south western QLD

How old is the tree and was it a grafted plant or seed grown? Seed grown usually takes a lot longer to flower than grafted plants. They do need full sun, so that would definitely be a factor. Also the roots of the larger tree might be strangling its roots. Mangos growing near other trees can end up quite stunted. Your first post was 4 months ago. Your tree has just been through summer, how did it go?

I have two mango trees about nine feet tall which never bloom. What can i do?

Hi, I planted 2 mango trees in the ground about 12 days ago. I’ve cut the main upright stem just below a ring of buds. This is to start the process of having a short manageable tree eventually. It’s been 12 days and no sign yet of new shoots emerging. The couple of leaves below the cut are still hanging on so I’m assuming the tree is not going downhill. This is in the Bay Area zone 9a. Weather was cooler but had just stating to warm up to 80 deg peak daytime last 1-2 days here. Any idea how long it may take for the new shoots to appear from the nodes below the cut? It’s a taxing waiting game!

I'm in the Bay Area, too. Mangoes sit there and sit there and sit there, especially when our nights are in the 40s like they've been, and then suddenly there's a big flush of growth all at once. If the weather's hot and the nights are warm it's like you can almost watch the growth happening in real time. Yours are probably quietly stretching out their roots in their new environment right now.

If you prune it above a single leaf you'll get a single branch. If you prune it just above where there's a ring of leaves you'll get multiple branches.

On a side note, when the nights threaten to get too cold, it's important to use not one frost cover layer but multiple so that the one touching the tree isn't touching the outside air. But that's another subject.

Here's my six year old Alphonso. And yeah, I ought to prune that branch on the lower left even if it'll only get me a single branch.

Thx for sharing the latest pictures. I read a lot (Internet knowledge :) and found several YouTube and written recommendations that initial pruning should be done below the ring of buds to encourage branching at different heights instead of all coming from the single ring of buds height. https://dpir.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/232920/598.pdf.

So I’ve done that! We’ll see how that goes. Yes, hoping as you mentioned that roots are developing and shoots / branches from the nodes could take a while.

It took 4 weeks but the buds finally appeared! 😊
I had painted the stump white after hard pruning the tree to 22” to avoid any sunburn.

Thank you sonaseth. You photo is very encouraging and thank you for the link. I planted my tree 5 days ago. It is 7 feet long. I will have to tip it off. I am in South Florida. I’ll wait maybe another week before cutting it( just let the roots get better after replanting).

I have a small mango tree in northern californis which survived the winter. it started off with two terminal bunch of buds in february/march which i cut off to encourage new growth. a month later i saw a five new sprouts on both. in the mean time another third branch from the bottom has been growing superfasr. Should I prune that? The picture below shows the left branch with brown leaves as the more healthy branch, but I am not sure if I should prune it so there is only one main trunk from the bottom.

With picture

Here is an update which I also posted in another Alphonso thread. My tree has been growing well so far - planted in Mar 2021, hard pruned to 22”, grew out 4 strong branches and pruned those and some more sub branches are growing. See pics from each stage. Last one is from this month.

@Venkat, not so clear from your pic which the fast growing branch is - if it’s from close to the ground, it is likely a sucker from the graft root stock.

If so, you should remove the “sucker” completely 😅. All the way pruned to its end even if it starts under the soil. Otherwise it could take over your tree. You probably don’t want the rootstock variety as your tree since it is likely not the mango type you intended.

Hi all...This is a wonderful site. I'm learning so much here. Will be posting about my Mango Trees soon.

Hi all - lots of great info here, thank you! This is an ancient thread, but I hope some of the veterans are still seeing questions.

I just planted a 4.5 foot Glenn Mango that lost most of it's leaves in transit to me (thanks FedEx Delay!). While I held it in a pot for a couple weeks, it sprouted several limbs right at the top (like a flower). I don't want this tree growing much higher than 10 feet - preferably branching pretty low and being compact like a tree/bush. Should I prune below this new explosion of growth? How low is a cut is safe?

Thank you for any help!

~John S

I don't know about that variety but my Alphonso arrived Dec 2014 with a few leaves like that and it is not yet to the top of my 6' fence, though I have lightly pruned just one or two branches at the top, twice--but it has spread sideways a fair bit. But then I live in a ridiculously cold climate to be growing mangoes and I'm sure I get far fewer growth flushes than in their native climate.

Seems to me you've got a good start there. One thing to know: you'll get a single limb growing from a single leaf node, but when you have a circle of leaves you get a cluster of new branches starting and they grow outward from there. They start out reddish on rubbery stems (not for more than a day or so on those stems, get to it fast if you're trying to redirect any direction of growth there), then light green leaves, then dark green leaves on solid wood.

Mine just started pushing out a growth flush after last week's 100F+ heat wave here in northern California.

Here, let me show you a few pictures of mine. Jan. 10, 2015, with a first circular spray of branches starting to sprout like yours did, (with Christmas lights for warmth with nothing but that one straight-up whip to wrap them around)

and just now.

Birdnetting at the bottom is to try to discourage the cottontails that show up. Seems to work. The squirrels still think the latex in the sap smells bad and they haven't gone near the tree once. My pomegranates, apples, peaches, cherries, plums, figs, they're all over those, but not the mango.

Thanks for the reply! Do you think I will get branches emerging from that lower area of the main stem? The tree arrived already tipped, I think - and this new growth started for the same reason as yours (I live in the East Bay Area - and we got that terrible heat last week too! ;\ The main stem is pretty tall - I just want to start this guy off right!

Good to know about pests - I have a ton of ground squirrels that burrow on the hill below my yard. Glad the Mango might be safe from them! :)

I would recommend pruning off the top in the location I have indicated. if you leave it unpruned, that flower like growth (often called feather duster growth) will turn into 4-5 branches from the same area of the trunk. From what i’ve read, that could lead to weaker scaffold branches.

If you prune below that growth, you will force branches to grow from the nodes at the leaves spaced further apart on the main stem.

if you see my pictures from earlier, I did the same and got 3 main branches.

I’m still experimenting too. I had planted a second mango tree in April but the heatwave last week killed it 😥. I should have covered it but was out of town.

But the last year’s tree is still growing well and now has many sub-branches which I continue to prune to keep the tree short and bushier.

Good luck with your pruning if you choose to do!

if you want to be brave, you can prune even lower down, just above a previous node (where single leaves were). In any case, expect 4-5 weeks before you see the new growth / branches emerge.

Here is a pic I just took of my mango tree which I had originally pruned down to 20 inches from the ground. Now it is about 3 feet high. I intend to keep it at 6-7 feet long term.

BTW I’ve painted the tree with a 50% diluted white latex paint to avoid sun burn.

Thank you for the feedback on this! I think I might prune this one pretty aggressively to see what happens. I've been adding so many fruit trees to the yard - each one is its own project. ;)

I let my first flush grow and I have a strong tree with a beautiful form to it. For whatever that's worth.

>"when you have a circle of leaves you get a cluster of new branches" ___ Only if you are lucky.