Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[shakaz]

i have a 5 year old mango tree that's survived every winter is los angeles with no real damage...but this year we had a couple weeks of freezing temps rather than a few days here and there. it killed some of the branches...half of the leaves are drying up...im wondering if i should just leave it alone til spring or should i start clipping of dead leaves and branches now even though it might get cold again. ?

thanks

[myamberdog]

DEFinitely leave it alone. I had a couple trees that happened to
a few years ago as well, and waited till I saw new budding life in some of
those damaged branches. When you start to see that, then
you can slowly start the trim job.

Any chance we could see a picture of your tree? Also, where might you
live in L.A.?


myamberdawg

[shakaz]

i'm inland from the beach a bit, near the whittier hills.
its weird how the frost only affected some parts and left others untouched. here's a pic:

[myamberdog]

like you said Shakaz - very weird the way it fried it in sections!
What kind is it? Do you know?

And how many mangoes have you gotten from the last year
or so?


myamberdog

[shakaz]

not sure what kind, i grew it from a seed of one that i ate.
i had never seen any mango trees in california, so, i got interested in trying to grow one...i've now spotted 3 mango trees in my town. They must've been planted 50 or more years ago.

the previous 2 years it's tried to fruit and it gets a lot of them...but then the tree seems to get sickly and a lot of them turn yellow and die...some get 2 or 3 inches but then stop and get spots on them.

sometimes the tree doesnt get full growth flushes...it starts getting new growth but the leaves turn out really small and pale...and sometimes spotted. usually if i chop that off...it'll sprout something normal.

[myamberdog]

assume you are watering it and not
letting them dry out too much in the spring/
summer ...they really can grow in any soil, but
love lots of water when in the growth phase,
but I've seen trees also that simply take time
to start producing fruit.

If it's a seedling it often can take a few years to
produce as opposed to a grafted tree.

I hate to think you planted a Tommy Atkins
which is normally what typical grocery stores
bring in to sell. If you got it at some kind of smaller
market there's a chance it might be a better
variety.

Do you remember if the coloring of the skin
had some red blush on it, and was the fruit
very stringy with fiber when you ate it?
Usually a sure sign it was a Tommy....

But whatever, they can still e tasty...AND....
you can learn to graft other varieties on
your tree that are far better.



MangoDog

[shakaz]

i water it good when its warm out...in the winter only every couple weeks between the rain.

i usually buy my mango's from the little mexican markets...so it's probably one that grows in mexico. early on i read that seedling trees make bad fruit, so my main goal here has really just been to try to grow a full mango tree and keep it alive. i'll definitely sample the fruit when i get some full size stuff though.

the only other things i do for it once in a while are fish emulsion as a fertilizer and spray it with a neem solution.

[myamberdog]

Shaka - sounds like you are doing all the right things!

Keep up the good work, and let us know how things
develop this spring...

mangodawg

[phoenixtropicals]

My seedling took 8 years to start holding fruit, and the fruit turned out being really great. Seedlings aren't guaranteed to have bad fruit, the fruit just isn't guaranteed to be like the parent tree, so its a gamble. The good thing about seedlings is that they are way more vigorous than grafts.

Sounds like you are taking good care of your tree. I think it would be more vigorous if you mulched a good 6 foot (in radius) circle around it about 6 inches deep or so. You can use grass clippings, leaves, old banana peels etc. Just be careful not to pile on a bunch of green mulch all at once because it can be physically hot while decaying. So, for example, if you want to mulch with fresh grass clippings then you can just sprinkle an inch or less around the tree, let that turn brown and do the same two weeks later.

Of course you would probably want to remove the bricks as part of that change. It won't look so manicured with mulch around it but the tree will shade out the grass eventually anyways.

I agree with amberdog. Leave the frozen branches there for a while so that when the tree starts growing you can see if they are truly dead. I have found that the freezing of the branches looks spotty like that because the size of the branches is very influential in whether the branch will freeze or not. I'm guessing that the branches that froze were just a little bit thinner.

[phoenixtropicals]

Oh by the way. Amber dog. You probably don't want to post your email in the forum like that. There are computer programs called "spam spiders" that walk the internet looking for email address patterns. They will take your email and start to send all kinds of advertisements to your address. Next time it would be better to send a private message. You should go back and edit out your email address in that post, unless you want all of those ads. ha ha.

[myamberdog]

thanks PT - I actually did send Shakaz a PM and you are right.
Wasn't thinking, and that's dangerous in this unethical
computer age....

appreciate it - no BRING SOME WARM WEATHER!!!

(for some reason I'm DYING for fresh mangos this year...)



MDog

[mariolo]

Now what can u tell me with this , is there hope? Where should I prune when Itd time

[mariolo]

Now what can u tell me with this , is there hope? Where should I prune when Itd time

[myamberdog]

Ouch!

Painful to look at....well the angle I would take is
wait till you see green swellings at any nodes,
indicating new growth, and snip the branch down
to that point. Hope it survived. At the very least I wouldn't
pull it out in case you get some sprouts from the base
of the tree, in which case if it's a seedling you're in great
shape to just let it grow. If it's a grafted tree, then anything
above the graft line is fine, anything below, you can take
the opportunity to practice some grafting of scions of varieties you
like and create a cocktail tree...

Any signs of life inside the canopy that you've seen yet,
Mariolo????



I do feel your pain......myambermutt

[mariolo]

Nothing at all. All the branches except the trunk are black... Its too much fore me to handle