Keeping Mango Trees Under Control

Where I live in the tropics, there are tons of mango trees which drop fruit from insane heights, wasting most of it.

In my latest post, I share some of what I've learned on keeping big trees under control:

The Survival Gardener - Keeping Mango Trees Small

I've got a Julie mango that needs the remedial treatment. Just waiting for the fruiting to finish so I can start cutting. The new trees I plant will be trained right from the beginning.

I have had luck with plum trees that were shooting for the sky. I cut partially through the branch and then laid it over as you would when laying a hedge. Most branches survived and this put the fruit within reach. A temporary fix, but effective. Probably most trees would not tolerate this treatment.

I read the article and it all makes perfect sense. Still, I am very keen on having at least one mango tree in the 300-foot range. :-) I love the shape and the great shade that they cast. But I can totally see why you would want to keep commercial crops or even just most household crops within reach.

Do you do anything with the wood from mango trees? Growing them big is probably more justifiable if big branches or tops have value.

Wondering how long the harvest season is for any given tree. I'm also wondering if there's a way to have different trees fruit at different times of the year, instead of all coming at once. Temperatures are pretty close to the same all year, but there is a definite rainy season and dry season in the southern Philippines. Mangos were cheap when I was there but still one of my highest food expenses, since it seems like I was always cutting them up and feeding them to neighborhood children and everyone who dropped by. They were roughly $0.80 American per pound.

Mango wood is beautiful. Luthier Jeffrey Yong uses the wood for some of his amazing guitars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcOFsIfx6NM

They do make for amazing trees, great for shade, except during the fruiting season when they drop hundreds of pounds of fruit, only some of which survives the fall.

I love the way they look large, and I would love to get some mango lumber to do woodworking with at some point. My slice of the tropics is only a half-acre, though, so I'm sticking with heavy pruning for now.

I think it would be possible to get a wide range of tropical fruit year round if you have irrigation. The dry season shuts a lot of things down.

David Good wrote:The dry season shuts a lot of things down.

Can you sequester moisture by using buried wood beds? (Tons of work, but totally worth it) . https://permies.com/t/52077/Buried-Wood-Beds

Yes, I could bury wood. Seems like too much work to me, though. I'm more likely to hold in water via chop-and-drop while just dragging the hose around like a suburbanite.

David Good wrote:Yes, I could bury wood. Seems like too much work to me, though.

Especially when you're trying to build your own house...

Yeah, that's really the biggest thing. I am in full-on MUST BUILD HOUSE mode.

Though I have been thinking a lot about capturing water on my land. It will be interesting to see what happens when the monsoons start.

I'm hoping you can end up with a pond at the bottom of the land, and raise fish and edible water plants there.

Great minds and all that.

I have an excavator coming this week to re-dig an old drain through the land. I was thinking of having him make a pond at the bottom while he's there.