Just got done "Tip Pruning" my Glenn...

Picture after the tip pruning...

This tip pruning really works great...here's what it looked like after 3 weeks 6/25. New Growths were all over. The leaves have all hardened off now.

Hi Nancy

I think tipping is for you guys in Florida since according to the video it has to be done after harvest. Your mango season ends it Aug. right?? In Aug. ours is just begining and it runs to Nov. So if we do tipping we would sacrifice next years harvest since it would flush in March. and skip its bloom.

JF

That's an excellent point JF!! Thanks for mentioning it. You're absolutely right that's its probably mostly for us in Florida ...for me this is the best time to prune my trees (June through early Aug.) this way I have at least close to four months to let them harden off, so by January I should have blooms...just in time for the "freeze" to nail them,lol...

Great point JF - BUT....I think one could do some tipping on non-producing branches, eh?

I'm going around my yard this weekend and tip tip TIP!!!

Pugsy - thanks for the link - the videos from the man himself are great!

mangofurball

It really does work great. I tip pruned all the branches on my Keitt after lateralizing all the branches with tie downs and now the tree is flushing like crazy and the branches have stayed in the position I tied them. I also prune the tips off the new growth on all my mango trees when it gets to 4 or 5 nodes to keep the trees branching out well and the scraggly growth factor down.

Great idea on the tipping working well for young non producing trees, its the best time to shape them "if" you're looking to keep your trees small. Of course that Glenn has never given me fruits in the four years I've had it...every single time it blooms...the freeze kills the blooms and branches. Sometimes I wonder why I bother pruning it,lol...I need to cover it with a greenhouse with a heater!

Marin, glad to tipping and tie down methods worked well for you...I'm definitely not a big fan of the tall and scraggly growth habit either, my Keitt and Lancetilla seems to grow that way...so for me its tip, tip, tip as MG mentioned!

MG, glad you enjoyed the videos.

I did Pugles and went ahead and did some tipping yesterday morning on some trees that had just finished flushing. I liked his idea that the more branches you have the more production you will get - kind of made sense to me..

(Although I did make one tipping error and hacked off a large Keitt mango attached to a branch - so that mango's on the shelf for prayerful ripening)

By the way, is there a good fertilizer to use that is specifically for producing more fruit? IS it the Potassium that Dr. Campbell uses? I've heard that's all he uses - no nitro or phosporous.....just sounds odd....

thanks again - Dr. MD

Hey Mangodog...oops! Sorry about the Keitt accidental pruning!
But I'm sure the tipping will work well for you.

I'm sorry but I've never used any fertilizer w/out nitrogen so I'm no help at all on that subject. I've always used either Dynamite/Osmocote (slow release) along with Fish emulsion and "weak" Miracle Grow during the growing season... and have had good luck with it. Not sure I've ever seen the just phosporous only fertilizer in my stores.