Mango Trees

[bubba]

[bubba]

I have posted these two ancient trees before but just found out that the Florida Champion is only 47 feet tall.

[rprimbs]

Wow! Does it get good fruit?

[bubba]

The interesting thing is that these very old trees, although they bear some fruit, the quality of the fruit, is not nearly as good as younger trees.

[Really full garden]

The problem with very tall mango trees is that it is impossible to harvest the fruit. Sunlight does not penetrate the canopy and that also reduces fruit production drastically.

[PhilippineExpat]

11 hours ago, Really full garden said:

The problem with very tall mango trees is that it is impossible to harvest the fruit. Sunlight does not penetrate the canopy and that also reduces fruit production drastically.

There are a ton of massive mango trees all over where I live and when in season I see kids throwing sticks at the mangoes to get them down lol. There are also always a lot of broken mangoes on the ground. Definitely not ideal. I've seen some pretty productive dwarf mangoes in videos, though.

[Silas_Sancona]

21 minutes ago, PhilippineExpat said:

There are a ton of massive mango trees all over where I live and when in season I see kids throwing sticks at the mangoes to get them down lol. There are also always a lot of broken mangoes on the ground. Definitely not ideal. I've seen some pretty productive dwarf mangoes in videos, though.

Agree, ..and i'd extend this thought to most fruit larger trees. There comes an size when such a tree becomes more of a mess maker / rodent buffet, than a good investment.  There's only so many Oranges, Lemons, Guava, or Mangoes any one person can ( or will, lol ) eat, and only so many friends and neighbors to share fruit with. If anyone you know has.. or knows someone else w/ the same kind(s) of fruit trees, you're kind of stuck w/ a whole 'lotta extras.. and there's only so much room in the freezer for all those extras lol.. Like PhilippineExpat said, these days, plenty of dwarf or semi dwarf varieties to choose from that will produce plenty of fruit.

I was amazed when a pair of Lemons in my grandparents yard produced a total of 55lbs of fruit one year. Keep in mind both trees are kept no taller than 6ft and no wider than roughly 6 or 7ft.  We had frozen lemon juice for about a year.

[greysrigging]

There is a very valuable mango industry in the Top End of the Northern Territory, with extensive orchards and plantations extending 400klm inland from the north coast. The advantage Darwin rural area growers have is that our fruit is generally the first onto the southern Australian markets. Tropical Queensland supplies the largest number, but these come onto the market a bit later in the season. The first fruit picked in Darwin is in September with the peak harvest being in Oct and then November/December further south towards Katherine. Fruit production seems highly variable, with dry season  minimum temperatures, previous wet season rainfall, the alignment of the planets ( seemingly lol  ? ) all having something to do with the onset of flowering. Mango whisperers are highly regarded sorcerers in the Territory.....haha.
For us local residents of the Top End, 'mango madness' is a real thing, with the harvest coinciding with the 'silly season' of increasing heat, humidity, and the tantalising prospect of rain coming after a looong dry season. 
The older shady mango trees in the some of the older suburbs ( Cyclone Tracy survivors ) were often 'turpentine mangos'....inedible basically.  Post Tracy all sorts of delicious edible varieties from Queensland appeared in suburban gardens, Bowen, Kensington, Peach and in the last 20 odd years all sorts of south east Asian cultivars are common in our region.
From Sept through to just after Xmas, road side vendors sell an amazing selection of locally grow mangos.... all shapes, sizes and flavours.
Born and bred kids up this way ( mine... I called 'em fruit bats due to their love of eating the fruit lol ) are big fans, as are the local wildlife, bats, possums, parrots and magpie geese. Magpie geese are a field game species that develop a particular flavour after feasting on fallen mangos.... very popular bush tucker among us locals.
BTW, the best way to eat a mango is whilst in the bath.....'çause if you haven't got the juices running down your chin, onto your chest and clothes.... well, ya not doin' it right....
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-10-03/northern-territory-mango-season-heating-up/11568336
 

[sandgroper]

Mangoes are fantastic fruit, I love em! They grow well in Perth and are reasonably common in Perth gardens. There are commercial plantations just outside of Perth around Gingin but most of W.A.'s supplies come from the Gascoyne region near Carnarvon and from the Ord River area.

[greysrigging]

12 hours ago, sandgroper said:

Mangoes are fantastic fruit, I love em! They grow well in Perth and are reasonably common in Perth gardens. There are commercial plantations just outside of Perth around Gingin but most of W.A.'s supplies come from the Gascoyne region near Carnarvon and from the Ord River area.

When do the ones in Perth ripen ? About now , Feb-March ?. I used to do a bit of contract work for a company called Sydney Engineering based out in the Western Suburbs. There was one poor straggly looking tree planted on their nature strip that intermittently produced yummy sweet fruit in February. 'Twas a battle between me and our two Vietnamese welders as to who was getting the harvest....lol

[sandgroper]

They've been fruiting since December, I've got a few mates with trees absolutely laden with fruit at the moment which is great for me! Lol

[NOT A TA]

On 3/8/2020 at 3:55 AM, greysrigging said:

BTW, the best way to eat a mango is whilst in the bath.....'çause if you haven't got the juices running down your chin, onto your chest and clothes.... well, ya not doin' it right

I don't even try to eat them indoor. Only eat them outside and make sure the juices don't land on the concrete or black mold spots occur shortly after mango season goes by. I used to have 4-5 different varieties  but tornado took out the nicest one in the front yard and the others out back were getting too big. I wanted to start fresh on the yard anyway so I just took them all down. I'm surrounded by neighbors who have many different types so I can get all I want without having to grow them anyway and I get less unwanted wildlife in my yard scavenging at night.

[Tracy]

On 3/7/2020 at 8:45 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

these days, plenty of dwarf or semi dwarf varieties to choose from that will produce plenty of fruit.

That and pruning the tree.  Someone posted a link to a video on pruning mango trees a while back which I found very useful.  I have a small Alfonso mango which is just now in March pushing out flower buds again.  We keep it shrub size as you can see.

[Silas_Sancona]

3 minutes ago, Tracy said:

That and pruning the tree.  Someone posted a link to a video on pruning mango trees a while back which I found very useful.  I have a small Alfonso mango which is just now in March pushing out flower buds again.  We keep it shrub size as you can see.

My neighbor w/ the fruit forest does something similar though i think his goal is to keep his trees capped at about 10-12ft. He's also got two Strawberry/ Jamaican Cherry Trees ( Muntingia calabura ) that are also kept around the 10ft mark..