Anyone with experience growing Mango Trees?

[lunarae]

Just going to make a note here....when I switched to it getting full sun and the like. Yeah. the new growth leaves fell off. Sooooooooo I'm going to go back to what I was doing and wing it lol. It was doing better with me doing that I think then trying to suddenly change what I was doing. Thought maybe some advice would help it have better growth but.....well just out here in montana mountains I may have to settle for just winging it and listening to the plants or some such.

 

[schmiggle]

Two unconnected responses to this posting:
lunarae--you should definitely not do anything that will kill your plant. I agree that if full sun isn't working, winging it might be the best option. However, I think you should also consider switching daylight hours more slowly, like perhaps an hour more of direct sun every week or two (although if that doesn't work, again, don't kill your plant).
Snark--I think this quote is the most appropriate in this situation:
I have seen slower people than I am -- and more deliberate people than I am -- and even quieter, and more listless, and lazier people than I am. But they were dead. (Mark Twain)

 

[lunarae]

Thanks for the input, and yes, just the way this house gets lighting and how hard the sun bears down. We are in higher altitudes and I think that makes a big difference as well. It gets plenty of light where I put it now, but it doesn't get that full brunt of it now. We will see. It's not dying, just lost it's new growth. I can see it building up already for another growth spurt so we will see.

 

[The Snark]

I've collected some additional and probably useless contradictory information which isn't likely to help.
Three growers:
1. You want to wait until they are 6 months old before planting them out. (Putting them in the sun). Or maybe a year.
2. Just stick them in the ground. They lie down and look dead for a while but that's normal. (Pointing out an orchard just down the road that did just that and 2 years later they are hardy 5 footers)
3. Give them little sun hats. (Literally, make little shade umbrellas for each one. This school of thought is probably also the people that carefully wrap each individual fruit with newspaper as they ripen.)
4. They will probably die. Just shove some new ones in.
5. If you keep them in the shade too long they grow thin and spindly. (With a mango that could be a problem as it is a very hard heavy wood but brittle. Branches could break off during the monsoons.)

These people remind me of my reservation. We never agree on anything. But the orchard down the street looked like 50 dead trees for about a year, full sun, and is now thriving. I think part of the rules of them come from wanting to avoid the tree growing gigantic. Long thin branches, can't easily reach the fruit and branches do break off in high winds.
I'm also pretty sure they cycle different parts of the tree. Root growth phase where the top is all limp looking. They do need massive root structures as that is one VERY heavy wood. It's almost unheard of to see the entire tree knocked over from the wind. A two foot long chunk of branch or trunk about 8 inches thick weighs around 50 lbs. Not exaggerating.

PS They make lousy firewood. Even seasoned for a year or two they exude sap goo that will put your fire out. But they make fantastically beautiful turned wood products like bowls. Deep dark red loaded with swirls of grain and often little spiky voids.