Mango Archives | The Survival Gardener

Gardening in Shells and Mango Propagation

May 6, 2017 David The Good 4 comments

I’ve got two questions from a reader I’ll answer today today: gardening in shells and mango propagation. Let’s jump in!

Deniz writes:

“Hope you and your family feel much better since the car accident. It has finally rained today after weeks of drought, I hope it rains in the tropics soon too. I had questions about starting my own mango trees. What do you things is the easiest method to start from seed and can mangoes also be grown from cuttings? I am also planning on making a food forest with mango as the main large tree, the only problem is that that soil was infilled with shells to about a depth of two feet, what would be a easier method to grow trees in this substrate then digging it all up and replacing? The sediment that it produces is white and does not retain water and contain any organic matter. In the summer weeds grow all of the garden except for this area, and this area is the only area large enough to make a food forest as I have a small yard.”

Let’s attack mango propagation first:

Mango Propagation

Growing Mangoes from Seed

Mangoes are very easy to grow from seed.

Take seeds right from fresh fruit and don’t allow them to dry out. Plant them an inch or two deep in potting soil or compost and keep them watered. It usually takes about a month from them to germinate. Years ago when I started my first mango from seed, I read that if the pit sends up multiple sprouts, it will produce “true to type.” If it sends up a single shoot, it’s a wildcard.

Some sites recommend cutting open the husk of a mango seed and just planting the embryo. This may increase your germination rates but I haven’t found it necessary. If you do open it up, you can see whether it’s polyembryonic or monoembyronic, i.e. a multiple or single-shoot type. The polyembryonic seeds have multiple sections inside them.

If it’s a single-shoot seedling you get, don’t worry. It will likely give you fruit, but if you want a specific type of fruit, you’ll have to graft to make sure you get that.

Fortunately, mangoes are very easy to graft. My grafting video demonstrates multiple easy methods, and there are more online.

This page has a lot on mango propagation, plus grafting.

Growing Mangoes from Cuttings

Mangoes are not normally grown from cuttings.

Seedlings or grafting would be my recommendation, though from rumors on the ‘net some people have apparently rooted them from cuttings.

I tried air-layering my Grandpa’s mango tree without luck and eventually gave up. That’s a more forgiving method than cuttings and if it didn’t work, well, I just don’t want to bother. Seeds it is!

Gardening on Shells

The shell fill sounds like the problem with many gardens in the Florida Keys. High pH, no water retention, almost zero organic matter.

According to UF:

“On our type of lime rock fill soils, with high pH, minor elements will become insoluble in water. This is of concern since unless something is dissolved in water, it cannot be absorbed by plant roots, even though it may be present in the soil in high levels. With the addition of organic matter such as composted plant materials, mulch or leaf litter, the soil pH can be lowered. Over time, the area with added organic matter can be fertilized with minor elements. The elements will stay soluble and plants will produce healthy vigorous growth and happiness for you.”

I’m a member of Steve Solomon’s Soils and Health Group on Yahoo so I sent your question on gardening in shells by them for more insight.

Russel Lopez wrote back:

“I’m not familiar with mango trees, but I don’t think I would go to all the trouble of digging out substrate, unless you have access to heavy equipment and lots of good fill to replace it with. You would essentially be making a pot in the ground.”

He then linked to this article, which notes:

“Early studies of tree roots from the 1930s, often working in easy-to-dig loess soils, presented an image of trees with deep roots and root architecture that mimicked the structure of the top of the tree. The idea of a deeply-rooted tree became embedded as the typical root system for all trees. Later work on urban trees that were planted in more compacted soils more often found very shallow, horizontal root systems. Urban foresters have successfully spent a lot of energy trying to make people understand that tree roots have a basically horizontal orientation, to the point that even many tree professionals now believe that deep roots in trees are a myth. The truth lies somewhere in between deep roots and shallow roots.”

I have read that gardeners in the Keys will hack holes right into the compacted lime rock and shell mix, fill with some soil, then plant. The trees survive and thrive.

I would make a hole a few times the size of the root ball, put in some local earth, then plant. Mulch, keep it watered, and see what happens. Trees are very resilient. If you don’t have rock beneath, the roots should find what they need. Watch for pH issues, though. If the leaves yellow, I recommend adding some sulfur as well.

You can also foliar feed with compost tea and/or a balanced fertilizer containing micronutrients. Steve Solomon recommended Dyna-Gro to me but I haven’t had the chance to try it yet.

Good luck and send me updates! I would love to hear how your mangoes grow.

Reviving Old Mango Trees

April 21, 2017 David The Good Leave a comment

This is fascinating – look how much you can cut!

Pollarding can also be done with avocado trees.

Additionally, I used the method to keep a sweetgum tree small in order to use it as a living trellis for yams.

It takes some faith to cut back a huge tree, but it seems as if it works well with mangoes. The orchard density on our current property is quite high so I have been researching ways of decreasing the canopy size and making harvests easier. This looks like a good option, plus I get wood I can use for charcoal.

Tropical Gardening in Vero Beach

February 24, 2017 David The Good 8 comments

Don wonders about tropical gardening in Vero Beach:

“Hi David,

I recently moved to Vero Beach, and was delighted to find that we are in a 10a climate zone. I heard that Vero is in a microclimate area. You;d you consider this to be a tropical zone? or one that may be open to setting up a system where we may be able to push toward a 10b or even an 11a depending on how we set up our garden?

I am currently on 5 acres, and I am mulching over about 2 1/2 acres of it. I plan on planting fruit trees in just about 3 weeks.”

You are in a great place, Don. Gardening in Vero Beach is life on the easy setting.

Vero’s climate is close enough to the tropics that you’ll be able to plant an abundance of species that people an hour inland from you would struggle to grow.

2.5 acres is a ton of space, too. With Vero Beach’s mild, year-round growing season you’ll be raking in produce if you plan well. Even if you don’t, it will be hard to fail.

Though zone 10a suffers through occasional freezes, the close proximity of the ocean keeps them rare and brief.

The Power of the Ocean

As I write in Push the Zone: The Good Guide to Growing Tropical Plants Beyond the Tropics:

“If you live near the coast, consider yourself blessed. The climate of Jacksonville (Northeastern Florida) is comparable to that of Groveland, despite the former being located farther north. This is why there are coconut palms growing inside Tampa bay but not in Orlando.

Like the barrels of water in my greenhouse, the ocean functions as a huge repository of warmth on chilly nights. The farther you get away from the ocean, the worse the overnight lows become—and the hotter the summer highs. The center of the state of Florida is a ridge with rolling hills and little to moderate the heat of summer or the cold of winter. In my previous location south of Gainesville, I could drive an hour east or an hour west and see a lot more tropical foliage growing than would survive on my homestead.

More than one person in the Ocala area told me “I could never live in South Florida—it would be way too hot.” I’d just laugh. I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale and I can tell you from experience: it never, ever gets as hot there as it does during the middle of a Central Florida summer. The ocean keeps it both cooler and warmer. Where I currently live in the tropics is even milder. Temperatures normally range between 74 and 87 degrees, even though you’d think its equatorial location would lead to sweltering misery.

If you’re not tied to a particular location, you have a few options in finding a place where you can grow warmer climate plants outside with little or no protection. You can move southwards towards the equator… you can move into a warm, urban area… or you can move towards the coast. Heck, you could combine all three and move to Miami; however, the crime rate down there takes some of the fun out of gardening. There’s nothing that dampens horticultural enthusiasm like having some hoodlums steal all your mangoes or break into your tool shed three times in one week. No fun.

Getting close to the ocean or into the city is more expensive than living in the country, unfortunately, which is part of why we moved into the middle of my home state. Land is abundant and the soil can be pretty decent by Florida standards, depending on where you settle.

If you already live in the city, I recommend trying some trees and plants from farther south. Patios and pool areas are excellent for planting small fruit trees. If you’re in an apartment, try growing some tropical plants in large pots on your deck or garden area.

I’ve seen queen palms growing in North Florida between an apartment wall and a pool. If those palms were planted out in the open, they would be toasted by frost. By the building, in that urban heat sink along with the additional thermal mass of a big swimming pool they looked as happy as if they were in Tahiti.

The way to find out what works is to plant a lot of things and see how they do in your area. I’ll bet there are places in your yard right now that are warmer because of their location.

I once visited a friend about seventy miles east of my old house in Marion County. He lives in Ormond Beach, right near the ocean, which was actually a little north of me. In his neighborhood people were growing royal poinciana trees and sea grapes—both decidedly tropical species. The ocean made all the difference.”

Mangoes: The Tropical Canary

One of the species I look for to determine if an area is tropical enough to grow plenty of tropical fruit is the mango.

So – can mangoes grow in Vero Beach?

Yep!

Though the frosts will remove fruit from mango trees in some years, you will have great success in other years.

If the property you are developing has established trees – no matter what the species – they will help moderate the climate. If it is a wide open space, I recommend planting fast-growing species as quickly as possible to help moderate the climate and protect your tropical trees from the cold.

One of my favorites is the guanacaste tree, AKA enterolobium.

You don’t have to let them get huge, you just want to get some canopy edges that will help hold in warmth on a frosty night. Slowing the movement of cold air helps as well, so hedges, fences, buildings – think about where they are or where they could be. South-facing walls will create fully tropical microclimates along their sides.

But… as mangoes already grow in Vero Beach, your work is much easier than mine was in North/Central Florida.

Tropical Fruit for Vero Beach

Here are some species I would definitely hunt down and plant:

Chocolate Pudding Fruit / Black Sapote

Starfruit

Lychee

Papaya (easy to grow from seed)

Mulberry

Loquat

Cashew

Cattley Guava

Tropical Guava

Cherry of the Rio Grande

Jaboticaba

Canistel

Bananas (many types!)

Barbados Cherry

Pineapples

Tamarind

Fig

Olive (Arbequina)

There are many more options as well. More “tender” trees could be planted after these somewhat frost-tolerant trees get established. The collective canopies will create a warmer microclimate in your yard over time.

Covering the Area

One mistake I made at the beginning of my food forest process was not planting enough nitrogen fixers and plants to keep the ground covered.

Most of Florida wants to be forest. If you put down that mulch – plant more species in it that will keep life in the soil and provide you with new mulch material. If you have pain-in-the-neck invasive species, like Brazilian pepper, I would chop and drop it, but not kill it right away. If you keep it cut it won’t seed and you can use the limbs and leaves as mulch around other trees.

For quick ground-covering species I like cassava, Tithonia diversifolia, pigeon peas, black-eyed peas and big crazy seed mixes.

The more life you get going on the sand, the better.

Perennial peanut is also a very nice ground cover for orchards and food forests.

Frost Protection

Little trees are very susceptible to overnight lows. Go to the local thrift store and buy cheap blankets and sheets and be prepared to cover those trees for at least the first few winters. If you keep them fed and watered well during their first few years, they’ll soon get big enough to live through a cold night, usually with minor damage. I have a lot more ideas in Push the Zone, but the bare bones of it is: baby young tropicals and they’ll take care of themselves in adulthood.

Vegetable Gardening in Vero Beach

My recommendations for top crops as shared in Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening hold firm for Vero Beach. Start with tough stuff that handles the humidity and the sand and move out from there.

African Yams

Sweet Potatoes

Cassava

Pigeon Peas

Yard-long Beans

Black-eye Peas

Seminole Pumpkin

Mexican Tree Spinach

Longevity Spinach

Malanga

Those will get you started and will do great – and there are many more options as well. Beefsteak tomatoes are tough, but Everglades tomatoes are easy. Get the forgiving plants growing first and making you food, then branch out.

I also encourage you to hunt down tropical fruit growers and enthusiasts in your area. Visit the local agricultural extension. Drive around town and any time you spot a tropical fruit tree, see if you can meet the owner and talk to him about how it has done over the years.

Good luck, Don, and if you have any more questions – shoot them my way and I’ll help as best as I can.

*Map image via Google Maps

Updates from The Great South Florida Food Forest Project: Fall 2016

November 14, 2016 David The Good 2 comments

It’s been too long since the last update on The Great South Florida Food Forest Project.

Mom sent me photos from just before Hurricane Matthew limped past the coast. There was no damage after the storm but the clouds in the pictures look amazing.

First, take a look at the tropical almond (background) and the black sapote (foreground, right):

See that little Senna alata (AKA candlestick cassia) growing to the left of the chocolate pudding fruit tree? We planted some of those when establishing the food forest and they seem to have naturalized… all over the place.

Now take a look at the avocado seedling:

It’s over 6′ tall now and is a Thai type which makes huge avocados the size of honeydew melons. It just needs to get big so it can start bearing!

Here’s another look at the chocolate pudding fruit tree:

Definitely getting taller and it looks very happy. Those are passionfruit and yam vines growing in the fence behind it.

Now check out the starfruit tree:

Mom reports that this tree produces gallons and gallons of fruit twice a year with long harvest seasons. The fruit are very good and sweet. Quite refreshing. Note the cassava on the right side of the image. The fallen sticks all over the ground are chopped-and-dropped Tithonia diversifolia stems. Great food for the soil.

Here’s a good looking chaya growing in front of the neighbor’s fence:

That’s the deeply lobed variety as opposed to the maple leaf type. I have both growing in The Great South Florida Food Forest.

Out in the front yard, Dad prepared for Hurricane Matthew by cutting back the acerola cherry:

That tree bears year-round and has sweet fruit. It’s been a huge blessing to my nieces and nephews, not to mention the children of the many friends who visit my parents’ place. They all love fresh-picked cherries!

Another big blessing has been the mango tree. It bears large crops of fine-fleshed wonderfully sweet orange-fleshed mangoes.

The ferns on the ground beneath it planted themselves. I love those “accidents” of nature.

Here you can see the mango to the left, coconut palms in foreground left, moringa tree in center and the Thai avocado to the right. Yam vines (Dioscorea alata) are draping across the trees through the center.

Now here’s a nice tree to see: the 6th Street Mulberry is flying!

That is going to be a lovely, multi-branched tree. It’s already been bearing fruit. Hard to believe it looked like this not long ago:

Here’s a view of the profusion from the other side. Isn’t this MUCH more interesting than a lawn?

Moringa, cassava, mango, yams, sunflowers, mother-in-law tongues, ferns, orchids, starfruit, bananas… it’s a lovely mess of great plants!

Here’s another view of the starfruit with the moringa on its right:

And back around to the front yard again, on the other side, to see the tamarind and the canistel:

That canistel is now my height (tree in foreground) and the tamarind is almost 4 times my height. I love to see them both growing happily.

If you’re interested in starting your own Florida food forest, you’ll find inspiration and lots of ideas for plant species in my little book Create Your Own Florida Food Forest.

It’s also available in audiobook form, read by me.

This is a great way to use your property. As the trees mature, you get more and more fruit… for less and less work. My parents aren’t even “plant people” and they greatly enjoy seeing the trees grow and having all the extra fruit to share with friends and family.

Go for it – you have nothing to lose but your boring grass!

Topworking Mango Trees – From Seedling to Delicious!

June 7, 2016 David The Good 2 comments

There are quite a few mango trees growing on our new homestead. I recently featured one huge specimen in a neighboring lot on my YouTube channel:

I’ve written quite a bit on the value of growing trees from seed. Though the power of grafting, you can take almost any seedling tree that turns out “so-so” in flavor and transform it later into something better. It’s one of the principles I cover in my Get Grafting! film as it’s such a powerful piece of knowledge.

Plant seeds, let them grow into trees with amazing taproots, then graft on top if you don’t like what you get.

You can do this with mango trees easily – even adult trees.

Check this out:

…one day in one of our personal weekend expeditions intended to educate ourselves, we happened upon Pabon’s farm in Polo, Polomolok, South Cotabato close to the foot of Mount Matutum, with vast plantation of Dole pineapple to the west. The farm was planted to hundreds of mango trees which, aged about 5 years old with trunk diameter of about 10-15 cm (4-6 in), have already started producing fruits.

When the farm owner bought the grafted seedlings, he was assured by the vendor that the seedlings were those of the “Luzon” variety, supposedly one of the best of the Philippine Carabao variety. But, to his dismay, he discovered that the fruits were entirely different from that of the Carabao variety, now also called Manila Supersweet mango or simply Philippine mango and others.

It’s twelve years since this mango tree was top-grafted and the wounds had completely healed.

Totally convinced then of the viability of mango farming, the farm owner had no choice but to replace the mango trees by replanting new seedlings. Luckily, he did not right away cut the trees. He started planting grafted seedlings from a reliable source in between the existing rows. That was when we passed by, noticed the new plantings, and became curious why he did it.

To cut it short, we advised him that he could still proceed with his plan of going into mango farming without replanting which would mean another expenditure and waiting years for the seedlings to mature…

(Click here to read the rest)

Turn Trees Into Better Trees

Topworking mango trees is easy but it’s also possible with most fruit trees. Some, like apple, are REALLY easy to graft. Others are a bit more touchy. However, if you screw up your grafting, you won’t kill the tree. You can try, try again.

On our new property there are some mangoes that are loaded with strings. The flavor is good, but the flesh is so filled with threads that you spend the next few hours picking bits out of your teeth. Another tree, however, has fat orange-fleshed mangoes without any threads at all.

Like your neighbor’s mangos? Ask for a little wood and graft ’em onto your own tree!

All over the place there are mango seedlings of varied parentage. If I wanted to transform any of them into whatever variety I like, I could cut them back and graft the resulting shoots and be getting mangoes in much shorter period of time than if I replaced those little trees with purchased specimens from a nursery. Think of all the roots on an established tree – that’s a resource you want to use!

If you’ve got a sour orange in your yard, don’t yank it up and plant a Navel – find a friend with a Navel and graft it on top. It will be stronger and fruit faster. Same thing with any fruit tree that doesn’t quite strike your fancy. Learn to graft and everything will fall into place.

One of these days I’ll do a video on topworking mango trees… I just need to choose a good victim!