Timatayo mango

[Peter]

Last year I planted out a 5g 'timatayo' mango. It grew reasonably well and sailed thru winter with no problem. And this is how it looks now-sure looks like flowers to me. I've been told to cut the flowers the first time it blooms as it will encourage better root growth and eventually ensure better fruit in coming years. Before I bite the bullet and clip away, is this the right plan of action?

[QUINNPALMS]

Looks great, I haven't heard the flower cutting thing, however, it does make sense, my mangoes typically don't set good fruit till they get to be 4 or five yrs in the ground, I haven't heard of a timatayo , found some cool info on it though...

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0114251914807.html?17

By the way where did you find it? And where in SoCal are you located?

[MattyB]

Lookin' good Peter! Someone very knowledgeable in the CA Rare Fruit Growers told me to wait until the flowers have aborted or started to set tiny fruits before cutting them off because cutting them off at the stage you've pictured will only encourage the plant to re-flower and not put on vegetative growth. I can confim that this is true because I had a 'Valencia Pride' Mango that flowered (no new leaves) for 3 years straight, before I learned about this.

Maybe Timotayo is different. Maybe it can be done without triggering the reflowering. Maybe another, more experienced mango grower than me can help.

I guess you can cut the flowers off and if it reflowers again, now that you're aware of the phenomenon, you can just let them go at that point. I too hate to see those flowers sitting there, sucking life out of the plant. I just want to cut them off and tell the plant to grow thicker and put on more branches!

[MattyB]

Here's my Timotayo Mango. Doing very well considering that just last year it was a 3 foot tall little sapling with only one growing point. This mango was grafted onto the rootstock at about 2 foot up on the stalk; something I'd never seen before. Usually the graft line is at about the soil level. So at first I had to combat the rootstocks branches that wanted to grow below the graft line and choke out the Timotayo above. After much pinching back of the root stocks branches, they seem to have given up for the time being and now that I have several Timotayo branches I can probably just cut the rootstocks branches off entirely.

[MattyB]

Here's my Valencia Pride Mango, flowering again! This thing is a flowering maniac! At least it grew some leaves last year. We'll wait for these flowers to run their course before attempting to cut them off this time.

[MattyB]

How's your Timotayo mango doing Peter? We got fruit on ours. They are all small, but the taste is superb! And no fiber whatsoever.

[MattyB]

2015 update. This year the entire tree is loaded with full size fruit.

[raimeiken]

how big is the tree now?

[Josh-O]

mango smoothies anyone?

Thanks rad Matt that they are loaded.

[Palms1984]

2015 update. This year the entire tree is loaded with full size fruit.

They look terrific! I noticed the mango trees here in San Diego and other parts Southern California have mangoes which are ready to be harvested, already. I don't remember seeing so many mangoes ready to pick so early in the year. I guess it has to do with the exceptionally hot temps this past winter. Typically, I see the earliest mangoes ripen around late July or early August.