people grow almost anything in containers however a vigorous tree will fill the container with roots faster and need to be root pruned. a dwarf condo mango can stay in a 25 gallon almost indefinitely. Dwarf varieties will also look more naturally symmetrical small and bear more fruit when small while a vigorous tree will always grow upright and out.

I would recommended a soil mix thats mostly pine bark so it drains right out, water it everyday. larger nurseries sell it as pine bark fines or soil conditioner.

get a Pickering mango, excellent taste and very productive dwarf.

Mango kush, thank you for the reply. Good advice on the smaller trees. I kind of thought that this would be the case but then, I've also seen people growing trees that would normally get pretty big if planted in the ground.
I would just as soon not have to do any root pruning.
Fortunately, there are several dwarf mangoes that I want.

I bought a Pickering a couple of weeks or so ago and already planted it in the ground. It was covered with about 30 baby mangoes and of course dropped all but one. From everything that I have heard, I think that I'm going to love this tree.

I'll look for a soil mix like you describe.

Kush.. you think the pine bark fine mix is good even in the phoenix desert? I would think a super fast draining mix would dry out even faster here

i used a mix of compost, peat, perlite, pumice, composted granite sand, play sand, and gypsum

Mull, if you go to the Container forum you will see that play sand (way too fine) and compost (way too heavy)for use in containers. Peat in very small amounts might be okay but I avoid using any peat in my mixes...these hold too much water and have a tendency to "compact" or "bog" down and that eventually will clog up your roots and cause root rot. Do some searches on play sand and compost in the container forum and you should find a ton of info why its not a good idea to use. Good luck!

Yes, IMHO Pine Bark Fines will work great even in the desert. As a matter of fact you will see a member on the container forum (her name is Jojo) and she loves the Gritty mix with the Pine Bark fines and she lives in Phoenix. I'm sure she will answer most of your questions...she's very nice and very helpful. Good luck!

@ agility_mom: many people grow large growing specimens in pots as a hobby, however few really successfully grow them to maturity, people who grow bonsai sometimes have 40+ year old large tree species successfully in small containers. someone who grows a large tropical species tree in a 25 gallon container with a greenhouse would have to follow practices similar to this.

@mullenium: the last thing you want is wet mucky container soil in heat, steam cooks the roots. you want to water the ground area when it is cool and have the water drain out. mangos arent very particular about soil, in fact they love the crappy sandy soil we have here.