"...Hello my name is Gary, I bought your Ugly Betty Mango tree a little over a year ago. When I saw your photo I
thought to myself why are they calling this mango ugly Betty? It doesn't
look ugly at all to me. It was a deep yellowish orange with a little red to it
round so what is so ugly about it? Once the fruit started developing on my
tree I thought - now I understand, it's such an odd shape! However, it looks
nothing like your photo and personally I thought this mango should be called
Awesome Mango! I did not find it ugly at all. Here's a photo of what you call an
ugly
mango Betty..."
Sunshine Mango Tango.
Plant Food for every Mango to be Awesome
Date: 25 Feb 2021
Container mango - Condo varieties
Q: What are the good varieties of mango trees available for container grow? Can you please share the
details?
A: There are some great varieties of Mango selected specifically
for container culture, they even have a nick-name - "condo mangoes". They
have compact growth habit and respond well to pruning to keep them in small
size. Here are a few of our favorites that we currently have in stock:
Glenn Ice
Cream Cotton
Candy
Mallika
Manilita Pram
Kai Mai Mun
Kun Si Maha
Chinook
You can see more condo mangoes on this page.
Q: My mature mango tree is fully grown 15 yrs old and each year
it fully blooms, sometimes twice. Shortly thereafter, all the baby mangos and
flowers fall off providing no mangos for the season. I have tried
fertilizing, spraying the tree for fungus or other insects, to no avail. I give up, any
suggestions?
A: Dropping fruit in pretty common issue with mango trees. There
may be several reasons, or a combination of reasons. 1. Fungal disease (anthracnose), and/or powdery mildew. To avoid
fungal disease problems, spray your tree when it just begins to form the flower
spikes. Treat foliage with Copper fungicide. There is also another
one, very effective for anthracnose: Thiophanate methyl. 2. Inadequate nutrition. Feed your tree with a combination of
granulated fertilizer Mango-Food, liquid booster SUNSHINE Mango Tango and micro-elements Sunshine Honey and Sunshine Superfood
Check out pictures of our mango tree problems that were fixed within a month by
using Sunshine Boosters. 3. Too much rain or heavy dew during blooming and fruit set (see 1 -
use preventive treatment for fungus) 4. Cold. Sometimes the cause of premature fruit drop is from the
cold weather during bloom and fruit set. Usually the most affected varieties are
the early bloomers including Glenn, Haden. The cold damages the developing
embryo in the seed. The fruit starts to develop but because of ethylene gas
given off by the damaged embryo, the fruit is triggered to drop before
maturity. To see if cold temperature was the cause for your fruit dropping, cut open
the fallen fruit. Even if there is a small speck of brown in the seed,
that's enough damage to stop fruit development.
To learn more how to care for your mango, please read this publication.
Date: 24 Jun 2018
URBAN TROPICAL GARDENING:
10 secrets of successful Container Mango growing on a
balcony.
Q:
I live in Miami in apartment on a second floor, and I have
a balcony with SE exposure. I wonder if I can grow a mango tree in a pot? Will it
fruit for me? I recently moved to South Florida and I
don't know much about tropical plants; but I tasted real
fiberless mangos from someone's garden - it was so
delicious and different from those in the grocery store. I
wonder if I can have a fruiting tree on my balcony? And if
yes, how do I plant and take care of it?
A:
Yes, you can! Here is what you need to do:
1) Temperature. You are lucky to live in Tropics,
keep it on a balcony year round.
2) Light. Position the pot in a spot with the most
sun exposure. Mango trees can take filtered light too, but
the less sun, the less fruit you will get.
3) Soil and Container. Use only
well drained potting mix. Step up the purchased
plant into next size container (3 gal into 7 gal, 7 gal
into 15 gal). When transplanting, make sure to keep growth
point (where roots meet the trunk) just at the top of the
soil. Covering base of the trunk with soil may kill the
plant.
4) Water. Water daily during hot season, but only
if top of soil gets dry. If it still moist, skip that day.
Mangoes (unlike
Avocados!) prefer to stay on a dry side.
5) Fertilizer. Use
balanced fertilizer once a month, 1 tsp per 1 gal of
soil. Do not fertilize during fruiting - this may cause
fruit cracks.
6) Microelements. Apply
SUNSHINE-Superfood once a month. This will help your
mango healthy, vigorous, and resistant to diseases. Use SUNSHINE-Honey to make your
fruit sweeter.
7) Insect control. Watch for scales and mealybugs,
clean with solution of soapy water + vegetable oil (may
need to repeat 2-3 times with 10 days interval), or with
systemic insecticide like imidacloprid only as needed (if
non-harsh treatment didn't help). Most Flea shampoo for
dogs contain that chemical, you may try that shampoo
solution.
8) Trimming. Once potted, do not remove leaves
that are discolored or have spots until new growth
appears. Dark dots on mango leaves, especially in humid
climate like Florida, may be signs of fungus. Treat with
fungicide according to label, and remove only badly
damaged leaves. Trim crown as needed after flowering and
fruiting (by Fall). Train into a small tree, and you may
remove some lower branches eventually.
9) Flower and fruit. Mangoes are winter bloomers
with bunches of tiny flowers coming in thousands. Many of
them set fruit (if pollinating insects present). Keep in
mind that young trees can only bare a few fruit. Normally
a tree will drop excessive fruit and keep only a few that
it can manage. To save the young tree some energy, remove
fruit if too many and leave only 2-3 for the first year.
It will pay you next year with more abundant crop.
10) Variety. Last but not least: Choose the right
variety for container culture! Pick from "condo" dwarf
varieties such as Icecream, Nam Doc Mai, Carrie, Cogshall, Julie, Fairchild, Pickering, Graham, Mallika, and a few others -
check out Mango Chart pdf
and full list of our Mango varieties
