Actually, in checking back, my first mango blooms last year were posted on 10/17. I was calling the trees that bloomed Martinez.....but have now determined that they are Rosigold. The size of the tree is important as to whether it is going to be allowed to carry any fruit or not. How large is your tree? I need to check my Rosigold trees to see if anything is stirring.

Harry

Here is a link that might be useful: First Mango Blooms of the 2009-2010 Season

I pruned all my mangoes a couple weeks ago and noticed last week that my Carrie mango is sending out 3 bloom spikes. My plants are all still very small and I'm going to pinch any fruit once they get to about thumb size.

The weather in San Diego has been very strange this year and we have been having very cold rainy weeks followed by very hot weeks. I think the crazy weather is throwing all my plants off. My sweetheart lychee is sending out new vegetative growth after the last small flush barely hardened.

Very interesting that this is actually normal then for this variety - thanks Harry. My tree is very small - it has about 2 feet of trunk and 3 branches, each about 10 inches in length. It was the smallest of the 3 that I bought at the mango festival. The branches are slightly larger than pencil sized, so doesn't seem to me like they could support the weight of any fruit. Plus, being newly planted, I want it to grow a good root structure. How big do you recommend letting a tree get before allowing it to set fruit?

The conventional "rule of thumb" is to allow three years growth (in Florida, at least) before allowing fruit set. I must admit that I am far to impatient to wait that long with new plantings. As I want to keep trees small to the extent that that is possible, I will occasionally allow a fruit or two even on a one year old tree. Just don't over do it. The tree will drop fruits when it can't handle them more times than not, but some will hold fruit to its detriment if you let it.

Thanks for the suggestion on how long to wait before allowing fruit Harry. Not sure I'll hold out 3 years, but will remove the blooms/fruit this year anyhow=)

simon_grow - Why do you wait until the fruit reaches thumb sized before pinching it off? Is that size significant? I'm still interested in understanding the advantages/disadvantages of pinching off fruit vs. blooms.

pinching of fruit while a tree is in bloom will just force more blooms. when the tree is past its blooming cycle it starts to feed whatever fruit is developing, usually more then the tree can handle and some fall off.

so in order to cull the crop you have to wait until a tree is past its blooming cycle (when fruits are pea size) and into its fruiting cycle

Thanks mango_kush - that was exactly what I was looking to know about how to properly cull a crop. Thanks a lot for being so descriptive!

I just went and checked on my Rosigold tree and it looks like it is starting to put out blooms as well. The tree is about four or five feet tall now with about twenty plus branches up top and is a few inches thick at the trunk. If it fruits I'm going to let it.

That's awesome swrancher! Can't wait until my tree gets that big!

Confirmation of Rosigold bloom begiining to push at my house as well. They are about two weeks behind last last year's, but pretty much on schedule.

Harry