Mango Bloom Season in the Desert

starch · Joined: 14 Mar 2015 Posts: 49

I wanted to take a poll from all mango growers out here. When do you find your mango trees to bloom? I did a quick search on the forum and did not find a specific topic on this, but apologies if it was already addressed somewhere.

My mango trees are pretty young. My Manila was planted last summer and did fine through the winter (I had frost cloth and Christmas lights) but it is only now pushing out new growth. It was one of the last trees in my yard to 'wake up' from winter this year. So I have no idea if I should expect a bloom or if its time has passed for this year.

I have a Glenn mango that I bought in Feb of this year and it has been putting on tons of growth ever since I planted it. But it is very small, too small to flower I think.

I did have a Mallika mango (which died) a couple of years ago. I got it from Florida and it was always sickly. But it did flower last year and it seemed to me that it flowered early (mid-Feb if I recall).

So in your experience, what are your Mango varieties and when have they typically flowered?

myamberdog · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:40 pm Post subject:

hi starch - I'm guessing your Manila is a seedling, not that that matters except it will probably be a 3-5 year minimum before you get fruit. Did you know that the grafted trees seem to produce fruit usually in 1/2 that time?

Anyway, the flowers are the first to emerge 95% of the time in our late
winter, so the fact that some of the trees are pushing growth would mean, to me, that those will not flower this year, nor the one that hasn't done anything yet....

And for me out here in palm Springs in CA, the flowering started on some trees in January, like with My Edward. The Kent, Glenn, and Keiit flowers came on in Feb. some time. I had some hard frost hit in early Jan. and noticed that those trees that got hit worst are not flowering at all this year but either have already pushed new growth or are still dormant like the one tree you mention....I would say that's about half my trees

hope that helps......

starch · Joined: 14 Mar 2015 Posts: 49

myamberdog, Thanks for the info! Yeah, my Manila is a seedling (LaVerne) but based on the size I would guess it was a 3 year old tree, so I was hoping that I might get some fruit out of it anyways this year (hoping it was mature enough). No worries, I will be patient and wait for next year. Yep, I know when mature fruiting wood is grafted on to a seedling rootstock it can produce fruit as early as the next season, getting around the whole juvenile period. Yeah, my (old) Mallika followed the same behavior. It flowered first before pushing out growth.

So you would say Edward is an early-bloomer (Jan)
and Kent, Glenn and Keitt are mid-bloomers (Feb)
Do you have a Manila? Do you know when they would typically bloom?

Thanks!

darkcoolboo · Joined: 17 Nov 2014 Posts: 129

My okrung started to flower in late February, but I questioned its ability to flower since it looks so weak. It's progress has stalled. If nothing happens in a week, then I'll snip them. Next year right? Very Happy

starch · Joined: 14 Mar 2015 Posts: 49

darkcoolboo · Joined: 17 Nov 2014 Posts: 129

little mangolets!

starch · Joined: 14 Mar 2015 Posts: 49

right on! I hope you get a sweet crop out of them!

darkcoolboo · Joined: 17 Nov 2014 Posts: 129

hopefully they don't drop!

myamberdog · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 3:03 pm Post subject:

starch - I would say the Manila would be a Feb. Bloomer. They bloom right in the pack of many mid-season mangoes. Don't know if you've heard but since they are seedlings the size, quality and taste of the fruit can vary widely! That's why I've chopped mine back to regraft with Lemon Zest. I mean, it was an average tasting mango with average fiber - a good sized mango though, I will say.....and used to give me bragging rights that I got 100 fruit each year from this tree.....

maddy Very Happy

starch · Joined: 14 Mar 2015 Posts: 49

mad - Feb bloomer, gotcha. And yeah, I have heard about the seedling variability. They are polyembrionic and so the ones that LaVerne selects should be clones, but over on Tropical Fruit Forum there have been a lot of comments about the inconsistencies across the "Manila" spectrum. So I will see what the fruit looks like when the tree matures. Hopefully it will produce good mango. And if not, it will be a nice rootstock Smile

I have heard nothing but good things about Lemon Zest. Do you like it?

Speaking of grafting, I wonder if I did a couple of grafts on my Manila if I could get it to fruit earlier? (It is probably too late in the season now, I will probably need to wait until the fall/winter when it starts cooling down again). Several people on TFF have speculated that grafting mature budwood onto a young rootstock will cause a hormonal change in the tree and cause the rootstock to producing fruit earlier. My own limited observations seem to confirm. I have a Mexican Lime seedling that had been in the ground for a couple of years and did not produce fruit. I grafted on (bud and veneer grafts) a Persian Lime and Lisbon Lemon last fall. And this spring the rootstock Mexican Lime has flowered for the first time. I left several rootstock branches intact, I didn't do a true top work.

fruitlovers made a similar point here on my post: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=14686.msg186711#msg186711

Do you think you might have some scion wood available from your Lemon Zest grafts this fall or winter for me to experiment with? If you have any to spare, I would of course pay for shipping and for any trouble. Thanks!

phoenixtropicals · Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 7:52 pm Post subject:

I have 3 mangoes, a Keller, a Keitt, and a Manila. They are all blooming like crazy right now. They started blooming at the beginning of this month (March) and are starting to set little fruits now. My Manila is from Home Depot and is a very good tree. It's vigorous and I think it started producing after about 2-3 years. I believe it is a polyembryonic seedling because I don't see any graft line. The fruit is very good, yellow orangish and super sweet and not very fiberous. I live in Mesa AZ, btw. We had a very mild winter this year with only one night down to 31 degrees Fahrenheit which didn't damage the mangoes.

starch · Joined: 14 Mar 2015 Posts: 49

Thanks PT!

Your Manila started blooming in March, very good to know. Yeah, this winter was very strange I know the night you were talking about, we actually got down to 26 F in my yard that night (I have a temp sensor) but after that the winter left early and it has been warm ever since!

I have frost protection for my bananas and mangoes (C9 Christmas lights and frost cloths) so it was protected. I guess my Manila is still just too immature to bloom.

But speaking of a strange winter: We did get that really cold night (for me) but with the warm spell right after we got almost no chill this winter. I went to getchill.net and found my local station and I only got 250 hours. It was not enough to reset my Santa Rosa plum (no blooms) Sad

. However my Florida Prince and Bonanza peaches are doing great. Already set so much fruit that I had to do a major thinning already.

myamberdog · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 7:39 am Post subject:

PT - yeah, those Manila are all seedlings - I've been up to the LaVerne
nursery and seen there operation. HUGE - and they have lots of grafted
mangoes, too, of course.

Good luck everyone with the mangoes setting!

MD

darkcoolboo · Joined: 17 Nov 2014 Posts: 129

I ended up cutting off the bloom because it needed to grow instead. I get really surprised when plants just grow very quickly at once, out of the blue. It makes me wonder if I'm doing things wrong :0.

darkcoolboo · Joined: 17 Nov 2014 Posts: 129

I ended up cutting off the bloom because it needed to grow instead. I get really surprised when plants just grow very quickly at once, out of the blue. It makes me wonder if I'm doing things wrong :0.