Could it be your mango was grown from a seed? If so, seeds on most mangoes (there are a few exceptions) do not grow true-to-type. So the mango could very well be inferior. Some mangoes from seed never fruit reliably and if they do, fruit may be bad.

Your mango with many 'trunks' might be an ideal candidate to have named varieties grafted to it. This is called 'top working' where the entire tree is changed over to one or more varieties.

>"Some mangoes from seed never fruit reliably" __ Would unreliably mean randomly, i.e. fruits some years, none other years?

>"entire tree is changed over to one or more varieties." __ Such an appealing idea. Ok to do at any time of year? Do it to 25 trunks? Whatever the number, do all of those at same time?

Its been frozen down to the base a few times..or more than few. The problem is,you should not have allowed it to grow so many trunks. All its energy went to leafy growth.

You should trim it to one largest trunk. If that largest has low branching,you could get away with a double or triple trunked Mango tree..but not 25!

Thanks.

>",you should not have allowed it to grow so many trunks" ___ I liked it that way. Still do, appearance-wise. It is only now that the intended purpose changed.

>"not 25!" ___ I was just provoking some clarity; thank you for it ("double or triple"). Should I remove the rest now?

Yes. As long as you kept it multitrunkual it was staying juvenile. Get it to one trunk as best case and then you will get girth. Would help also to fertilize with some Miracle gro flower food. M.G. gets bashed by many for its..commercial appeal. Blue dye ferts,and all that. But that flower boost they sell works. Its still early in the season and possible you might coax it to try flowering this year.

The situation with seed grown Mangos is that the seedling won't grow to be the same as the parent plant. Fruit could be better, or worse. There's a greater chance that it will be worse. Also a seed grown tree takes very much longer to produce fruit.

If your tree's multiple trunks are the result of a freeze and not someone cutting it off then there's probably no point in top working it. Another freeze and you'll lose all the work of doing that and be back to a base sending up multiple shoots.

No,its worth it. 20 trunks is just not good for anything. I did say,double or triple trunks might work also in a area where frosts can get very cold...yet 10 months of the year are tropically hot and humid.

I live where Mangoes can get nipped by frost or worse...that many trunks just has no reason..works against you.

I will reduce it to few trunks after harvest (five fruits).

May 22 :

They are shaded always. I propose to remove now most of the top and side parts that block sunlight from reaching the fruits. That is a very large amount of material. Any reason(s) not to do it?

Only if the sudden sun burns the fruit. Last year we had a 105f day and a hot week- it did burn my exposed Ataulfo fruits. In Florida with much higher humidity that might not be a worry.

It might be better to remove excess trunks after those fruits ripen. Just bite the bullet and get it down to looking like a small tree. Multi trunked is ok...but not the present 20. That many trunks is costing you maximum fruit production.

If those fruit need months more to ripen..you might just do what needs to be done now. You don't want to thin trunks in late summer and then have winter come in.

Good point about sunburn. Probably won't happen, I say based on its not happening to other tree's fruits last year after I exposed them. Amount of branch ends removed was much less than will be necessary to expose this tree's fruits. My concern comes from imagining possible adverse effect on fruit from tree's response to the sun exposure pruning that I propose for now. From what you wrote I gather that you do not expect such effect.

>"You don't want to thin trunks in late summer and then have winter"___ Let's say detrunking in mid-August, and winter effectively in mid-December. Bad?

Ok, I did most of the pruning. Found ten more fruits :

All fifteen are on one or two branches of same trunk.

Sounds good- that's a keeper trunk. What looks lesser trunk wise- small diameter trunk or little foliage- those should be first to go.

Or,go for it. One trunk. The one that has the goodies. You might this winter especially protect it from a freeze..get that one good trunk past next winter and you will be rewarded with a real tree sized Mango tree and not some Oleander looking bush Mango.

Mid-August? (my previous entry)

Its central Florida- you could have 20's one night. I would do what you have to do pruning wise and if there is a freeze- cover it. The bonus of pruning is less to protect and what might not protect 20 trunks protects one,two or three. I'm not in a frost free climate either so I know what a freeze can do to them.

Also- sacrifice a few Mangos now to have a real tree by winter. You know that tree will just make more fruit next year and it will look right.

Got it -- eliminate the poles now.

>"sacrifice a few Mangos now" ____ Meaning that the resources that otherwise would go to these fruits will go instead to other processes of the amputated plant, right?

Exactly..and waste the time of all summer for what you WANT TO GROW,grow. Not water sprouts is what they are in essence. You lose $9 of Mango fruit at most,while getting the tree right for next year and forever.

All the trunks have plently of growth in upper portions. Will retained trunks grow branches in lower portions that will become open by removal of other trunks?

Probably not. Or very minor. Once they get to the size you have,becoming a tree is in their DNA..not shrub.

It was just a guess, because I do not know what "grow" you meant.

Grow as in the dominant trunk. The one most vertical and once you cut the others away,it look like a small tree.

But twin or triple trunk would do. Sort of a hedge against a hard freeze.

Thank you.

For the second and third trunks, what do you think of this: saw them off at 3', repeatedly remove all shoots execpt one from each, these remaining shoots to enlarge eventually into trunk size.

No,you don't want secondary trunks to be that much smaller than the primary trunk. I know its hard when you've waited years for it to get a size and then some guy tells you to remove 70% of the mass!

But really one trunk is best,never more than three.

I was thinking that if you do one main trunk,you could surround it with the three tree stakes per common that would protect from Florida thunderstorms,winds,and be a frame for winter frost cloth. Would look good too.

Timely message, thanks; I was readying to go out and saw.

Given that "main trunk" implies additional trunks, I take it that the "stakes" will be trunks that I do not remove. If that is a correct understanding, then are the growing stakes intended to be foliage productive and fruit productive?

First few fruits bad. One at time, they yellowed and softened, appearing and feeling ripe. SOUR.

Let's assume that the rest likewise will be bad: would that be a predictor of future years' quality?

Doesn't sound good. Did you water it? I mean,my Mangoes here in the bay area are better than market fruit most of the time ( Sometimes ethnic markets get big juicy and sweet Mangoes from Sinaloa that can't be beat)...but the usual market stuff my tree's beat easily and one tree (5') I grew from seed.

So if your sour fruit are like that next year also? Then you have a problem..and either get rid of it or graft on to it.

I've noticed that as the tree's get larger the quality gets better..more roots make more water and nutrients to the fruit all the season. Give it another year at least.

My three stakes idea are to make sure your tree's trunk isnt blown over in a storm after you remove half of it or more.

>"as the tree's get larger the quality gets better" ___ Good to know in general. As for this tree, it is a monster, taller than is ideal / desirable.

>"my Mangoes here in the bay area are better than market fruit" ___ Mine too. (other tree)

>"graft on to it" ___ Is now a suitable time in which to do it?