Thank you so much! youre a saviour ❤️

I will go buy some pine bark mix and repot the plant again. Should I also add big rocks in the bottom for even beter drainage? Gladly this pot has hole in botton 😁! This is whats currently in the bottom of the pot.

no rocks but you might want to get a wider pot. That sharp taper really limits the available space for a pot that tall.

Hi there,

Thank you so much for all help and tips, almost lost hope of my mangos survival. I checked all shops in my country and theres only one kind of mix of cactus soil available in whole land, it looks very thick with lots sand and not airy. So I also checked the pine bark mixes, theres pure pine bark (image 1) and then theres mix of Bark mixture, peat, chippings available (image 2).

Which one you think work better? You think I should also add perlite In the mix?

Thank you for help!

Yes, most cactus mix I found is too much sand and too fine to drain well.

Your bark in #1 pic looks a little coarse. Pieces about 1/2" diameter are best but I've used some pretty coarse bark before. You just don't want too big of air spaces.

I used to put my bark through a 1/2" screen and pick out as much of the wood as I could.

The mix in pic #2 looks good except it appears to have quite a bit of wood pieces in it, but it's hard to tell just looking at a picture. The less wood the better.

There's a popular DIY potting mix recommended by many here. It's called 5-1-1 mix. It's a mixture of 5 parts screened bark, 1 part perlite and 1 part milled sphagnum peat moss. 1 Tbsp. of dolomite lime is added for every gallon of finished mix to adjust the ph.

Mixed wet and allowed to set for a week so the lime can dissolve.

If you can come close to making something along the lines of 5-1-1, you should be fine.

I suspect that one of the many different potting mixes listed here and available in your country will do the job. I'll let others here make recommendations...

https://www.etsy.com/fi-en/market/potting_soil

Thank you so much! Will try find ingredient for the mix! So grateful for all the help, wouldnt ever figured any of this without ❤️ Thank you!

YW,

Also, allowing the 511 mix to soak wet for a week ensures that the bark is thoroughly moist.

Don't use water from a water softener, at least I don't.

Here's what I screened the bark with. Pieces of board and a piece of hardware cloth stapled to it. I just laid a piece of plastic on the floor, so it was easy to clean up.

This is what my pine bark looked like before making the 5-1-1. That's an American quarter on top for size reference. (I sifted out the real fine, dusty stuff with a fine (1/8"?) screen but could've left it in there and used less peat).

I'm sure there are other recipes used by serious mango growers, 511 is a general-purpose mix used for all kinds of potted plants. 8^)

DO NOT MISS BILLS MOST IMPORTANT POINT ....

===>>> allowing the 511 mix to soak wet for a week ensures that the bark is thoroughly moist.

YOU WILL never WET THE MATERIAL PROPERLY .... oops ... with a water can after you plant in it.. and the dry media will wick all moisture out of the roots of the plant killing it ...

put it in a plastic grocery bag.. of gallon baggie [or whatever your equivalent is] ... and add water over a few days.. until you see some actual water on the bottom that can not be absorbed by the product ...

trees want full and total drainage.. with just what the peat in the media can hold ... to aid in all the excess water going out the bottom of the pot.. you use comparatively large chunks of bark.. to create air pockets.. for the water to move thru ... i would like something like in the 2nd and 8th pix

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=bark+mini+chunks&iax=images&ia=images

trees are not good long term potted plants.. unless you bonsai them.. so do understand.. they are not lifetime friends ...

and lastly... since stuff happened after the move to a new apartment.. do make sure there is significant light levels at the new place ... NEVER think any problem is related to a single variable.. though i completely agree the media is your main problem.. there could be other problems.. like how you water.. light.. temps.. humidity.. etc ...

ken

zupzap,

Listen to ken. Container gardening trees is an art and a science. It involves procedures like repotting every few years, root pruning and adding new pot media and possibly a larger pot during that time.

You might want to read up on that over in the container garden forum I linked you to earlier in this thread.

Thank you so much for all the tips! yes will follow precicely the guide, dont want mango get more hurt after what it has gone trough! 🫂❤️ yes totally agree, the lack of light could have been one reason why mango started feel ill as previous house it got sun from morning to evening so pot soil got time to dry, now theres less light even if I added light top of plant.

Oh also as a side question, does the soil mix work well also with lemons? They have been total champs even after the move (in basic soil mix I planted them couple years back) So think its time to give them some more boost too ❤️🍋

I would imagine any tree would do good in 5-1-1. Just remember, using soilless potting media like 511, means that you need to occasionally add some fertilizer to the watering schedule. It doesn't take much.

Also, you can do specific searches over in 'Fruit & Orchards' and 'Container Gardening' forums for a plethora of answers from people who previously asked the same questions. Or you can post a new question there to get replies if you can't find an answer. :)

And as an aside: To make moving large pots easier, you can put them on a 'cart', either purchased or homemade. Once the pot is filled, it can be a bear to move around.

Here's one I just made for a pot I'm giving to my DIL for their new house. :-)

:-)

Got cha, will be going trough the forum with eager now, so glad found this forum ☺️ Thank you so much for all help! ❤️

I've not read everything posted. But Mangoes love good aerated soil. Ideally in winter, they like to be kept on the dry side, but with ample humidity. Mine winter over in my cool garage (average temp 55-65ºF and 60-80% humidity.) I'm using 1/3 potting soil: 1/3 pine bark : 1/3 coarse Perlite mix. Seems to be OK. I'm also collecting rain water to water them. Go real easy on watering and fertilizing until summer time when they are actively growing and light and temps are high.