Hello Magnificent:

I asked Jeff Hagen (one of our resident mango experts) a similar question. Here was his response, via email to me:

Jeff Hagen to me
Aug 25 (6 days ago)

You probably saw my posting where I lopped mine off to 18". I'm going to prune it to favor horizontal growth, following the pruning principles that Dr Campbell talks about:

http://www.virtualherbarium.org/tropicalfruit/mangopruning.html

It will be interesting to see how you and I do with our little vigorous growers!

Brad
Port Charlotte,FL

Let's try that again:

Jeff said to me: "I'd imagine you could keep a VP at around 10 feet tall with annual pruning. A vigorous mango tree will always want to be a big tree, so if you stop pruning a vigorous mango tree it will quickly bolt out of the ground and get huge. But, if you prune it once a year, you should be able to keep a vigorous mango tree to a reasonable size."

-Brad

Believe me, Jeff knows his $hit but I feel a Val Pride kept at 10 feet is wishful thinking if you want it to be productive...but this is just my opinion.

Thanks all - I agree, 10 ft sounds wishful but it sounds like it can at least be done. After seeing some photos of huge uncontrolled VPs I was starting to freak a bit. Will definitely be working this one to keep it smaller. I also was one of the nieve ones that bought into the hype around Tebow and now have a tebow tree growing as well. It is supposed to be a large tree, so Ill need to do the same there.

Harry - you & Jeff Hagen are living the dream. Im 29 yrs old and have the fruit tree bug bad. I only wish I had the land and time to create something like youve done for the future.

Anyway, thanks all.

The Tebow is actually a Young.

As far as yard size, with the proper plant selection (varieties and types of fruit) and handy pruning, you can fit a good sufficient share or trees in a postage stamp yard. Yes, you will have to keep them on the smaller side but you can definitely set up a nice tropical fruit jungle.

Dave Wilson Orchards has lots of information on creating backyard mini-orchards with lots of small trees that extend the peach, apple, cherry season etc. Northern fruit trees obviously but inspirational. Dave does the same as we do where we try to plant early, middle and late season mangoes, avocados etc

http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOCpix/compact_orch.html

Dave Wilson videos on youtube are instructive

Here is a link that might be useful: Dave Wilson on YouTube

thats about the same distance i have my mangos spaced around my property, annual pruning can make them into a hedge, i will probably start topping them around 12 foot too so they can grow a stout trunk and avoid major wind damage

:-) Depends on how you prune it and care for it. The trick in terms of production is making sure if keeps plenty of leaves. If you follow Dr Campbell's advice and: tip the new growth to form a complex branching structure, remove a large limb per year, and withhold nitrogen, there's no reason you can't keep it productive at 10 feet tall. Dr Campbell mentioned that he gets something like 100+ pounds of fruit per tree while keeping them to a manageable size.

Jeff

Some of my mangoes are planted in a straight line (like a hedge) close enough to where the leaves will be touching in a few years. Does not bother me. I know a shaded tree will produce less fruit. I figure that if I like the mangoes of tree A better than tree B then I let tree A grow larger to where it shades out tree B a bit

Anyone growing Oro Blanco? It is a grapefruit/pomelo cross.

Thanks all - I'm sold, that's my plan. I have been tipping, but using a nitrogen rich fertilizer so that will need to change to all potassium at some point. I will also need to get strategic about what limbs to keep over time. If I can ever get the budwood and master grafting I may change out my VP and tebow/young at some point anyway. I really want an Angie, lemon zest or coconut cream, and maha chanook based on everyone's reviews (Esp Jeff & Harry). I have about 6 rootstocks growing but haven't found a source for budwood yet (house is on the gulf side) and am still a little confused about when it is available. Right now I have lancetilla, Glenn, pickering, nam doc, valencia pride, and tebow. With those last 3 or 4 I would feel like I had a great collection.

- Brett

I just moved into our house and we have a Valencia Pride mango tree at least 20ft tall . How can i get this down to a manageable size without overpruning ?