From the Manual Of Tropical And Subtropical Fruits
by Wilson Popenoe
The Mango
Cultivation
The best site for the mango orchard is one which has good drainage
together with soil of such nature that it will dry out thoroughly when
no rain falls for a few weeks. In regions where the soil is deep and
the trees consequently grow to large size, they should not be set
closer than 35 by 35 feet. There are a few dwarf varieties, such as
D'Or, which can be set much closer than this, but most of the Indian
kinds ultimately make trees of good size. G. Marshall Woodrow
recommends planting 20 by 20 feet, but in America this has not been
found a good practice. Closer planting than 30 by 30 feet is
undesirable except with dwarf varieties. Seedlings grow to larger size
than budded or grafted trees, and need proportionately more space. On
deep soils they will usually come to crowd each other in time if
planted less than 40 or 45 feet apart.
April and May are
considered the best months for planting in Florida. Midsummer planting
is, however, much more successful than with the avocado. The principal
point to be observed is the condition of the young tree at the time of
planting. If it is not in active growth, it can be set at almost any
season of the year, provided the weather is warm. In India it is
recommended to plant at the beginning of the rainy season.
Holes
2 to 3 feet broad and deep should be prepared in advance of planting.
Woodrow recommends that 20 pounds of fresh bones be placed in the
bottom of each hole before filling in the soil. In Florida a small
amount of commercial fertilizer is commonly used. The object in
preparing the holes is the same as in planting other fruits, viz., to
loosen the subsoil so that the roots can develop readily in all
directions, and to place in the ground a supply of food for the young
tree. It is sometimes recommended that stable manure be incorporated
with the soil; this is a desirable practice, but it should be kept in
mind that stable manure is not, generally speaking, suitable for
bearing mango trees.
Well-grown budded or grafted trees, when
shipped from the nursery, are eighteen inches to three feet in height,
with stems one-half inch in thickness. They should be stocky and
straight, with foliage of rich green color. Inarched trees are
sometimes weak, crooked, and may have poor unions. While many inarched
trees are produced and planted in certain parts of the world, notably
in India, they seem much less desirable than the sturdy budded trees
grown in the nurseries of Florida.
As soon as the young trees
have been planted in the field, they should be shaded with a light
framework covered with burlap or other cheap material. Palm leaves and
pine boughs may be used for this purpose. The trees should, of course,
be watered liberally as soon as they are planted, and in most regions
the ground around the base of each should be mulched with straw or
other loose material.
During the first four or five years, the
trees should be encouraged to make vigorous rapid growth. After that
the aim of the orchardist is to make them produce good crops of fruit.
The object of early culture is, therefore, distinct from that of later
years and somewhat different methods are required. The young growing
tree can be given both water and fertilizer in liberal quantities; the
mature tree, on the other hand, must be encouraged to flower and fruit
by withholding water and fertilizer during certain portions of the year.
It
must be admitted that the cultural requirements of the mango are not
yet thoroughly understood. Varieties differ greatly in their reaction
to the stimulus of tillage, irrigation, and manuring. A thorough study
has not yet been made of the requirements even of a single variety.
Horticulturists in India have devoted a limited amount of attention to
the subject; but the mango seems to differ so markedly from other
fruits which have been subjected to systematic cultivation that much
further study will be needed before its habits are thoroughly
understood.
The amount and character of tillage given to the
orchard varies in different regions. In most parts of the tropics
little attention is given to the mature tree. The soil beneath its
spreading branches is often firmly packed down by the hoofs of domestic
animals; or weeds may be allowed to grow unchecked. Needless to say,
such treatment has little to recommend it. In Florida the land is
sometimes given shallow cultivation during part of the year, and at
other seasons leguminous cover-crops may be grown upon it, particularly
if the orchard is not yet of bearing age. It is evident that the amount
of nitrogenous fertilizer required by bearing groves is small.
Over-stimulation results in vigorous development of foliage but no
fruit.
Growers of grafted mangos in India resort to various
expedients to check the vegetative activity of the tree and encourage
the development of fruit. Thomas Firminger1 says:
"The mango, like all other fruit trees, is much benefited by having the
earth around it removed, and the roots left exposed for a space of two
or three weeks. This should be done in November, and in December the
roots should be well supplied with manure, and then covered in again
with entirely fresh earth, and not that which had been previously
removed." Woodrow notes that "the mango growers near Mazagon, Bombay,
who produced such famous fruit before the land was occupied with cotton
mills, applied ten pounds of salt to each tree at the end of September;
this would arrest growth in October and November, and encourage the
formation of flower buds. In a moist climate, and the intervening
ground occupied with irrigated crops, this system is highly
commendable, but with a dry climate it is unnecessary."
The
failure of many varieties to fruit abundantly is often attributed to
imperfect pollination, attacks of insect pests, and other causes which
are discussed in a later paragraph. It seems probable that too much
emphasis has in the past been placed on these factors, and that the
problem is largely a physiological one, connected with the nutrition of
the tree. It is for this reason that the two quotations above are
illuminative. They show that the nutritional problem has been
recognized by early students of mango culture; yet no one has taken up
the subject in sufficient detail to master it.
1 Manual of Gardening for India.
The
mango requires less water than the avocado, although young trees are
benefited by frequent irrigations. In Florida, old mango trees will be
found growing and fruiting in fence corners and abandoned gardens where
they have to depend entirely on rainfall. They are much more successful
under such conditions than the avocado. Orchards of budded or grafted
trees are rarely irrigated after the trees have attained a few years'
growth. In other regions treatment must be different. In California,
for example, irrigation should be practiced as with citrus fruits. J.
E. Higgins remarks concerning Hawaii: "Liberal moisture must be
supplied to the roots, from 50 to 70 inches per year being required,
according to the retentive power of the soil and the rate of
evaporation. In the case of bearing trees the heaviest irrigation
should be given from the time when the flower buds are about to open
until several weeks after the fruiting is over, withholding large
amounts of water during two or three months preceding the flowering
season." Regarding India, Woodrow says: "When fruiting age is attained
there need be no necessity for irrigation from the time the rain ceases
in September till after the flowers have 'set,' that is, till the young
fruit appears; thereafter, irrigation over the area covered by the
branches once in fifteen days or so is desirable while the fruit is
increasing in size, but may be discontinued when ripening approaches."
All
writers point out the necessity of applying a check to vegetative
growth previous to the flowering season. Ringing and hacking the trunk
are two of the commonest practices, while root-pruning is occasionally
performed in India. Recent experiments indicate that a liberal
application of potash is extremely beneficial. Mulgoba trees at Miami,
Florida, and Guanajay, Cuba, which were heavily fertilized with potash,
produced much larger crops than those fertilized in the ordinary way. A
standard commercial fertilizer especially prepared in Florida for use
on mango trees contains:
| Ammonia | 5 to 6 % | | Phosphoric acid | 7 to 9 % | | Potash | 9 to 11% |
These elements are derived from ground bone, nitrate of soda, dried blood, dissolved bone black, and high-grade potash salts.
Woodrow
recommends for India that young trees be fertilized liberally with
barnyard manure; but he adds that as soon as they come into bearing the
application of manure must be stopped, and leguminous cover-crops
planted between the rows. These crops can be plowed under, thereby
enriching the soil in the necessary degree and at the same time keeping
down weeds. The best legumes for this purpose, according to Wood-row,
are Crotalaria juncea, Cicer arietinum, Phaseolus aconiti-folius, and
Phaseolus Mungo. P. J. Wester says, "The velvet bean (Stizolobium
Deeringianum), Lyon bean (Mucuna Lyoni), the cowpea (Vigna Catjang) and
related species may be used with good success in the Philippines. Of
these the Lyon bean is preferable in the Philippines, since here it
produces a greater amount of growth per acre than any other legume." In
Florida velvet beans, cowpeas, and the bonavist bean (Dolichos Lablab)
have been used. Growers should plant a number of different legumes
experimentally to determine which are the best for their particular
localities.
Numerous experiments to test the effectiveness of
girdling and root-pruning have been made at the Porto Rico Agricultural
Experiment Station. C. F. Kinman reports of them:
"Girdling,
branch pruning, and root pruning are common practices, but they should
be used with caution and moderation, as a tree may easily be so
severely injured as to prevent its bearing for one or more seasons.
Pruning back the ends of the branches to induce blossoming has been
practiced with good results at the station. In the operation, from a
few inches to a foot of the end of the branch was removed, depending
upon the stage of maturity of the wood, leaving a few nodes from which
the leaves had not fallen. From these nodes blossoms developed
profusely, no blossoms appearing on untreated branches. To secure best
results, the pruning should be done in the late summer or fall, several
months before the blossoming time. This method should be employed on
branches which are too low or too crowded or on those which would have
to be removed later to improve the shape of the tree, as after a branch
is pruned it makes little growth for several weeks or months or even
for a year or more after the fruit ripens, and by this time it may be
well overgrown by surrounding branches.
"As good results have
been obtained from girdling as from other methods. A branch one to
three inches in diameter was selected on each of a number of trees and
a band of bark removed in September. These branches produced good crops
the following spring, even when no fruits at all were borne on the
remainder of the tree. Such favorable results, however, were obtained
on varieties which are inclined to bear well and where the band of bark
removed was wide enough to prevent the new bark from growing over the
area too rapidly. Bands one-eighth and even one-quarter of an inch in
diameter were overgrown so quickly that no effect was seen on the
branch. Bands from one-half to three-quarters of an inch produce the
best results, as they do not heal over until after the blossoming
season, the callus growing downward over the wound at the rate of one
inch a year. ... As removing enough bark to induce fruiting is very
injurious to the branch, this practice is most profitably employed on
undesirable branches which are to be removed later.
"Root
pruning has been recommended, although no definite results have been
noted from the experiments with it. It is best accomplished by cutting
into the soil with a sharp spade about two feet inside the tips of the
branches. In extreme cases the cutting may encircle the tree to a depth
of eight or ten inches in heavy soil and even deeper in light soil
where the root system is considerably below the surface. Cutting at
such intervals as to sever the roots for one-half to two-thirds of the
distance around the tree will induce blossoming under normal conditions
without seriously checking the growth or thrift of the tree."
Experience
in Florida has shown that girdling, to be effective, must be done in
late summer. No one yet has had sufficient experience to recommend it
as an orchard practice. Like root-pruning, the use of salt, and several
other unusual practices, it may prove of decided value when its proper
method of use has been determined. Every grower should conduct a few
carefully arranged experiments along such lines as these, even though
on a limited scale.
In India, the only pruning usually given the
mango consists in cutting out dead wood. Since the fruit is produced at
the ends of the branchlets, general pruning of the top cannot be
practiced as with northern fruits. In Florida, however, several growers
have found it desirable to prune out a certain number of branches from
the center of the tree, so as to keep the crown open and admit light
and air.
The Mango
Botanical
Description
History and
Distribution
Composition
And Uses Of The Fruit
Climate And Soil
Cultivation
Propagation
The Mango Flower
And Its Pollination
The
Crop
Pests And
Diseases
Races and
Varieties
Back to
The Mango Page
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