Cutting should depend on a few things.

Do you need yard space under it to walk past it or mow around it, or would you like a shady spot to sit with a coffee, newspaper and a dog / wife on a weekend morning?

Or, do you want a more compact tree for maintemance and harvesting?

Answer those and you are on track.

I keep mango taller at the first branch to be able to walk around it.

gnappi, thank you so much for your response. I browsed the Internet to get an idea of an ideal sized/shape tree, and I found a YouTube video called "small Rapoza mango tree" posted by a user called "Kaimuki backyard." Would you mind taking a look at the video? It is only a minute long. I think I'd like to manage my tree in a similar way.

Thank you writersblock, I didn't realize that I could include it.

Basically, the choice is yours, just don't cut it down to the graft. You have the options Gnappi listed.

Good vid... I have mine trimmed higher for the reasons above, the height also gives my house shade from the western exposure afternoon sun and southern sun lowering my A/C bills, yet another reason I forgot to mention above to keep my trees taller.

gnappi, yes, it's a good video. My question is- I don't even have three branches from the main trunk so that I can prune it like the tree in the video. Honestly, I still don't know where to make the cut because my little tree has a trunk- which appears to really be the only real branch. All of the leaves are coming from that single branch. Sorry, please excuse my ignorance on this. I'm not a gardner, but I'm willing to learn for a mango tree, especially a Rapoza!

figs, mango can grow like a beanpole without branching. If you cut the top branches will for sure start there.

i was reading this and am similary interested on this as i have 5 1 year old mango trees and one of them doesnt have branches like figsinhawaii's mango. my mango tree has just started shooting new leaves but the leaves are yet tiny. can anyone answer if i should wait for full bloom to prune or should i prune now, or after flower bloom>? when is the best time to prune a mango in simple words?

An update!! I pruned it wwaaaay back a couple of weeks ago. Here's the pic.. you can see tiny growth now. I REALLY hope that I can get a bushier canopy with actual horizontal branches and that those new leaves coming out are not going to grow straight up like my old pic above. *fingers crossed*

Hey there Mango mango, I was actually just responding to your question above since I haven't been on this thread for a couple weeks. To answer your question, pruning should be done after harvest of the fruit. I see it all the time- mango trees are as big as dinosaurs here and many people prune vigorously after the summer is over and after harvest. Here's a link which discusses pruning and answers the question:

http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/AgNatRes/Pubs/Pruning_Mango_Trees.pdf

Also, I'm far from being an expert on soils- or any other gardening topic for the matter- but I took the advice of a neighbor and used a combination more or less of this mix: 40% natural soil from my backyard, 40% specialized Hawaii potting soil, and about 10% gravel and perlite. I know it seems weird to use bagged potting soil instead of bagged garden soil, but my neighbor said that this mix would be beneficial for its added nutrients. I topped it off with some mulch, but the area needs work because so much grass is growing in the area.

The flower panicle is really small and didn't form on the terminal because the terminal branch was damage. There is a very good chance that the fruit would drop off before it matures.

Four flowers have been pollinated. The panicle can barely support one fruit.

The tree is going to drop the rest of the flowers and there is nothing you can do.

I had a Baileys Mango form a fruit or two on the trunk a few years ago. So,that panicle might give you real true fruit.

Thanks stanofh 10a San Francisco bay area. It's strange that this small panicle is the only one in the tree. also the flowers have started to dry more and more. is this normal?

I have 2 mangoe trees that I started from seed. They both stand bout 1mtr tall but are both still a single stem (no branches) they both are in pots at the moment and are approx 1.5 yrs old. How do I make them to start branching out or are they too young? Any advise would be much appreciated

To accelerate your tree to the >1m height, remove the lowest several levels of leaves.