A very precocious little tree I must say Sylvia, hopefully you'll have a decent harvest. What kind is it ?

I have three trees with the same size fruit, and surprisingly, the youngest ( my Kent ) has the largest fruits, even tho it's only been in the ground a year and is only 8 ft tall ! This will be the Kent's first showing of fruit, a few months ago I didn't think it would have any - now looks like I may get to pick 5 - 8 full sized fruits. Such a nice surprise !

I'll attach a pic or two as these guys get to baseball size ! :0)

I don't understand why the wildlife doesn't take all your Mangos. I have one tree for 7 years. Just had it topped over the summer. Its a monster grower, makes loads of fruit but we've never had one taste of them.

Every year, just when they are ready to be picked, every single one is eaten chewed on or found on the ground eaten.

We have never tasted one single mango! I've tried bird netting (I know its not birds) thinking racoon or squirrels would not like getting tangled in the netting...nope! They just chew through it, rip it.

We live near a conservation park in Sarasota. The park is huge and filled with various wildlife. But we also have lots of raccoons and squirrels.

My tree is full of fruit now and my husband and I laugh at the thought that we'd ever get to eat just one.

Jane

Hope you get some mangoes this year Jane.

Jofus, my Rosigold mangoes are already turning color and soon will be ready to eat. It is an early variety and I got it at Fairchild.

My other mangoes are just beginning to get fruit...

Sylvia, sounds like you are on the right track !

That is such a sad tale Jane, can only relate my personal experiences,...but here goes anyway.

IMHO it is all about location, location, location ! When I first started planting my 1st two trees in Islamorada, in the Upper Keys,...I was mainly clueless,..hoping to learn as I went along. However, after my first 2 yrs of sharing most of my small harvests with the raccoons, squirrels and even a 2 legged critter ( eliminated him later on by planting all trees in backyard ), I decided to look much closer,..pick each fruit just as it was ripening,...still working with only 2 small trees, that was all I could do till I sold the home in 2004, moved here and then, being retired, I could afford to get tough with these critters. Like Gary Cooper, I dropped the single gunbelt and strapped on a double gunbelt one !

So the first year with my 4 tree plantation over here, I was inundated with squirrels, rabbits & even a couple of raccoons ! I then ordered a couple of Havahart traps, studied what baits to use, and set them out after May 1st, every yr. The first two years were bad one's,..many, many critters pouncing on the fruit,..but at least, after I got my act together, the few raccoons I saw initially, soon took off for good. After two years, I noticed the squirrels and rabbits also shying away !

The next couple years things got better,...the traps were out there and the few critters that were trapped ea year, were immediately disposed of !

Then two yrs ago,..YIKES, we began to see an invasion of spiny-tailed iguanas hereabouts,..who loved mango's laying on the lawn ! What I did then was to add one more Havahart and get outside as early in the AM as I could to save the few that might have fallen in the early AM.

So now,..I am convinced that the critters are aware of a combative homeowner, - they get maybe a half dozen of my juicy mango's ea year,..but that is it. It is what it is,..I do my best to salvage my mango crop,..but the critters do get a few.

Bottom line, I am happy,..but must say,..if you don't put up a strong resistance to the critters, you will lose the confrontation,..big time,..IMHO !

Once you get in the groove,..it's really not that much of a hassle,..believe me !

Hope you have better luck this mango season !

Jofus, very funny story. You have a lot of energy!!!

The houses here are too close together to safely try to shoot anything. My luck it would be my neighbor or their dog.

Because we live so close to a large preserve we have so many critters roaming about. There must be hundreds of raccoons.

We have a neighbor who lives next door. He does a lot of hunting in Georgia and has had a variety of bird dogs over the years. He only has one now, a female pointer who is a good hunter. We watch her while he travels which is often.

She goes after the raccoons and rabbits, squirrels, but it makes me nervous she will get hurt. But I know when she's with us, the wildlife goes away. She does a good job policing the property. However, she comes in for the night and they know it. She will growl, bark, etc at night at the windows. Sometimes I let her out.

This year, I'm going to speak to my neighbor and see if I can borrow her during Mango season. At least on and off to keep them from coming over the fence.

We tried picking a few which were unripe but they never really ripened and began to rot before ripening.

I'm giving this tree one more year and sadly might cut it down if I can't keep the beasts away. Its a huge tree and very healthy. Too big to move.

Thanks for giving me a good laugh tonight!

Jane