Growing a mango in SA

Flatland

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When I first bought my place down Milang I wanted to grow a mango as mangoes are my all time favourite fruit. The lady at the nursery was adamant that I would have no show of growing a mango even though she had mango trees to sell, so I didn't buy one. Sometime later the Mitre 10 in the next town over had avocado trees and the guy there told me they were raised locally so I had a reasonable chance of growing one. Not making any promises but thought if I looked after it, it should grow. Well my avocado has seen two summers and is well into its second winter and is looking very healthy. It lives in a wind shelter that I plan to remove in a couple of years. So my thinking is if I can grow an avocado surely a mango could grow here too. Does that sound fair?
If I do get a mango do they need the same sort of soil prep as an avocado? My avocado was planted into a mound of soil built up with clay and horse poo into the sand. Do mangoes need a mound? I was told that drainage was super important to avocadoes.
My thinking is if I decide to go ahead with a mango it would be a good time to start preparing the soil for it now so that come summer I will have a good home for it.
If it makes any difference I plan to buy a Kennington Pride as they as the best in my option.
 

ClissAT

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No harm in giving it a try Flatland.

The better the soil the better chance you will have.
Also best to try to get a dwarf root stock mango if possible so it doesn't grow too tall in that sandy soil.
Yes they like a lot of water & don't like humidity or rain during flowering. That is the main reason for fruit set failure.
I don't think a Bowen/Kensington would be best. There are heaps of types that you will have better luck with down there.
Try Daleys nursery in Melbourne & one in Adelaide for other varieties.
Young mango fruit is susceptible to being blown off & get fruit fly blown if damaged.

Young avos hold on very well but the leaved hate being wind blown & if the tree gets a lot of wind damage, it will be set back quite badly.
That's often all it takes to let phytophora into the bark or roots.
They grow avos commercially in SW WA in sheltered parts as they could grow at your place for sure. Here is an article:-
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/spring/growing-avocados-flowering-pollination-and-fruit-set?page=0,1


In this same WA DPI website there is stuff on mangoes too.

Here's Colin Campbell talking about avos:-
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1939805.htm

And a good page from SGA:-
http://www.sgaonline.org.au/avocados/

PLEASE NOTE THAT AVOCADO TREES ARE HIGHLY TOXIC TO HORSES, CATTLE, GOATS, SHEEP & DOGS.

It is only now, 10yrs later, that I am in a position to safely plant avos at my place again. Unbeknownst to me, my horses found the 2 trees growing in the overgrown chook pen when I first same here & ate them to the stump on the first night. I was mortified when I saw what had happened the next day & sat up with the horses for 3days/nights to be sure of no bad affects. Luckily none showed any signs or symptoms so they must have shared equally!
But I have seen a lovely arab horse take 9mths to die from eating one serving of fresh green avo leaves that had just been pruned off a tree. The owner pruned the tree away from the electric fence then went in for lunch & upon return to her pruning task could not find the branches anywhere. Then within hours her horse got sick. She called the vet & the rest, as they say, is history.:(
 
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Flatland

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Didn't know about avocado leaves being poisonous. I will have to make sure the horse & sheep don't get access. Thanks for that important info.

As far as mangoes go I have only ever seen ungrafted trees for sale in SA never grafted ones. I'll have to look around to see if I can find a grafted tree. At least we don't have a fruit fly problem here. Well not usually.
 
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