Characteristics of the Mango Tree, Care and Feeding

With proper care, the mango tree allows us to enjoy its harvest of fruit once or  twice a year.

In order to select the seed, we need to consult the most common in our area. We can’t forget that the mango is a tropical fruit and for that reason needs an abundant amount of direct sunlight for the majority of the year.

Once we obtain a germinated seed and its root coming out (see also how we explain how to grow an avocado tree), the seed will be ready to be planted. Logically the stem of the plant will sprout from the opposite side of the root, so it is important to have the seed’s root pointing toward the ground and the inverse side, where the stem will sprout, must stick out above the soil slightly.

After about 10 days, young, reddish brown leaves will become visible.  Once they reach 50 to 60 cm, we have to proceed to pruning in order to eliminate the ends of the stems.  In this way we can begin to shape the plant, ideally creating two branchings so that the plant grows in an symmetrical way.

After several years and with a sufficiently strong base stem, the plant will be ready to be grafted  and to turned into a mango tree that will provide us with its fruit.

As in any other plant, the grafts must come from the tree whose variety of mango we want to cultivate, because it will be from its branchings where we obtain the fruit.

Once the spike (piece of branch of another tree with fruits with two or three buds) is selected to be grafted on the plant, the selection of the appropriate place to perform the graft will be key. We must select the final part of a branch of our new plant just before the previous section of the new growth. This last growth will cut completely leaving about the last 20 cm of the branching without leaves or branches to later perform the lateral excision where we will insert our barb graft.

In the young trees the corresponding elimination of the fruits should be carried out the first years to obtain an optimal flowering in the future once the plant reaches its adult age.

The passing of the mango flower to the fruit requires high temperatures, otherwise abort of the fruit embryo occurs and therefore will not reach the size that it should.  That is why we must make sure to delay the  fruit  to a time with adequate temperatures the following year in those adult tree crops that do not enjoy very warm temperatures at the time of flowering.  To know if it is the optimal time for the curd (change of flower to fruit) We must check if there is embryo abortion in the branch picking up the fruits at the beginning of their growth, if the fruits are full means that they have curdled and therefore will reach the size suitable Do. On the contrary, with the aborted fruits must prune the flower, and wait for the second flowering that year that should be accompanied by optimal temperatures.

With the elimination of this first flowering we also get a more gradual and later curd in some trees avoiding the appearance of the fruits in all the trees simultaneously.