Mango trees are beautiful, shady plants that produce delicious fruit. Sometimes, though, you may want a mango tree that is smaller than what you can buy. If you have only a small space in your garden or yard, you may be wondering how to keep your mango tree small. Luckily, there are some simple things you can do at home to help your mango tree stay below 10 feet tall.

Mango trees have a tendency to grow very large, making them more difficult to manage. Fortunately, there are ways to keep a mango tree small and under control. Mango trees are prolific growers, but they can be kept small with pruning. If you want to keep your mango tree small, you should prune it 2-3 times per year during the summer.
A mango tree can grow up to 100 feet tall, but it’s possible to keep the tree at a manageable size. Pruning isn’t necessary for healthy trees, but pruning can help you control the height and shape of the tree. Although it depends on the variety, the trees can grow up to 50 feet wide, so it’s important to prune when they’re young to encourage good branch structure and airflow.
Quick Notes on Maintaining a Mango Size
The mango tree is a beautiful, tropical plant that can grow to be very large. If you’d prefer your mango tree to be small, there are a few things you can do to stunt its growth.
-Plant your mango tree in a pot or container. Mango trees are tropical and need to stay warm all year long, so they are best kept indoors or in a greenhouse if you live in an area with a cold winter. If you’re planting your mango tree in the ground, be sure to wrap the base of the tree in burlap during the colder months.
-Prune away any new growth or leaves that are turning yellow or brown. Mango trees can get out of control pretty quickly if not maintained, but luckily they have very few problems with pests and diseases if their conditions are right. Keep the branches trimmed so that light can reach all areas of the tree.
-Water your mango tree regularly, but don’t overwater it. Make sure that the soil stays moist, but not drenched. Let the soil dry out almost completely between waterings. You’ll want to water more frequently during the summer when mango trees tend to grow faster.
If you’re trying to grow a mango tree in your garden, you may be wondering how to keep it small. This article will teach you how to keep your mango tree small, even if it has a huge potential. By following the tips and tricks below, you can keep your mango tree small and full of delicious fruit. The tips in this article are designed for dwarf mango trees. In addition, they include soil requirements and pruning techniques.
Benefits of Keeping Mango Trees Small
-For one, it is much easier to maintain a small tree than a large one. You will spend less time watering, pruning, and fertilizing your tree if it is smaller. If you want to grow your own mangoes, but you don’t want to spend all of your time caring for it, then growing a smaller tree is certainly an option.
-Keeping your mango trees small means that they will be easier to harvest. You will be able to reach all the fruit on your tree without needing any ladders or climbing equipment. This will save you time and money, as well as making it easier for you to harvest more than one tree at once.
-Keeping your mango trees small means that they will only take up a small amount of space in your yard. This makes them easy to keep under control, and helps them fit into smaller spaces where other types of fruit trees might not be able to grow. It also means that if you have limited space available for growing food, mango trees are an excellent option for filling it.
-Another benefit is that smaller trees will produce fruit more quickly than larger ones. This is because they have fewer leaves and branches, which means they require less energy from the plant itself to produce fruit. So if you want to get the most bang for your buck when growing mangoes, consider planting a smaller variety.
Strategies For Reducing Mango Size
Thinning
One of the most challenging tasks for homeowners is thinning. Fruit size increases with thinning. Thinning reduces crop size and prevents the fruit from becoming overbearing. If you don’t thin your fruit tree, you may have an overbearing tree, with virtually no crop the following year. Fruit thinning also reduces the number of ripening insects. This way, your mango tree will not experience these issues.
There are many benefits of thinning your mango tree. The fruit size is directly proportional to its revenue, so thinning it early will yield higher-quality fruits and will save you both time and money. After thinning the mango tree, you should consider the crop load. Fruits will mature faster if the load is low, and it is better for the tree to bear smaller fruit. However, if your mango tree is too heavy, it may delay ripening. Thinners are more efficient in thinning mango trees at an earlier stage in their growth cycle, as they do not produce as many fruits as those with less load.
Pruning a mango tree
Pruning a mango tree is largely a matter of common sense. The main goal of pruning is to promote good structure in the tree so that it can be harvested without causing damage. A tree with three or four main trunks, a broad canopy, and a low-set base is ideal. Avoid pruning too far or too soon, or you will leave your tree in poor shape.
Pruning occurs when the fruit has reached pea size when it is still too small to keep. If the fruitlet is not pollinated by bees, it may turn yellow, shrivel, or even disappear. If the fruit has not yet matured, thinning will prevent this. However, thinning can be detrimental to the tree. It is not always possible to determine the exact thinning rate, and you must carefully monitor the thinning rate to avoid destroying fruit.
Several factors need to be considered before you prune a mango tree. For example, if your mango tree is too tall for the space you have available, it may put the trees of your neighbors at risk. If you decide to cut the branches, make sure to make a heading cut of about 3 inches (7.5 cm). This cut will encourage the tree to branch out. Leaving a scaffold branch may result in a low-hanging tree with a low canopy, but it will provide the tree with more height and better fruit production.
Once the tree has reached about two to four feet tall, you can begin pruning the inner branches. This will help the canopy to open, allowing air and sunlight to circulate. It will also make it easier for the tree to be treated. Pruning the outer branches is not necessary. However, it will affect the quality of the fruit. If you are not sure about pruning a mango tree, consult a professional.
When should you prune a mango tree? The best time is immediately after harvest when the tree has reached about one meter. This is usually in December or January. Two to three years after planting, you should do pre-flowering pruning between two and four weeks before the flowering process begins in May. If the fruiting cycle starts early, you can start harvesting the fruits right away. This is also a good time to prune a mango tree.
For a Better Understanding of the pruning of mango trees, I recommend you watch the video below:
Watering a mango tree
The amount of water a mango tree needs depends on the season and rainfall, temperature, and moisture retention in the soil. If you live in a tropical region, fall watering may be less frequent. But if your mango tree is still young, you’ll want to give it plenty of water, so be sure to check the soil moisture every few weeks. The top 3 inches of soil should be moist; if it’s dry, you may need to add water. If you live in an area with dry, sandy soil, consider mulching around the tree.
Apart from fertilizing, watering a mango tree is crucial for a healthy crop. Make sure to water your mango tree regularly throughout the growing season, and give it moderate water when you’re not harvesting the fruit. You can also feed it with a balanced fertilizer, which contains low nitrogen during the flowering period and high potassium and phosphorus when it is actively growing. You can use citrus fertilizers for this purpose.
To ensure the health of your mango tree, remember to water it frequently throughout the year. Summer months require deeper watering. During spring and summer, give it liquid fertilizer every two to three weeks. Make sure to prune your mango tree every year to remove any diseased branches. You can also use mulch to help protect the fruit from wind and predators. If you’re not sure whether you’ll have a fruity tree, be sure to use a mulch to protect it.
Other helpful strategies include planting in a pot and pinching off leaves as they emerge. These strategies are not as effective as the others, but they can help in some situations.
Would You Consider Dwarf Mango Tree?
Dwarf mango trees need a specific type of soil with lots of organic matter and proper drainage. The pH level of the soil should be neutral to slightly acidic. Aged manure and compost can be mixed with the potting mixture for a dwarf mango tree. If you do not have any of these materials, you can make your own. A well-drained potting mix will be best for this type of tree.
It is important to plant a dwarf mango tree in a container at least two sizes larger than the root ball. Once the tree is fully grown, it can fit in a 30 to 40-gallon pot. Dwarf mango trees should be planted in early spring before the Monsoon. In their native habitat, they are planted before and after the Monsoon. When planting dwarf mango trees, it is essential to choose well-drained, light soil with a pH level of 5.5-7.5. Usually, regular garden soil is too dense for the trees to grow properly, so you will want to use a high-quality potting mix.
There are several varieties of dwarf mango trees available, including Ice cream, Cogshall, Keit, Nam Doc Mai, and Sensation. You can grow them indoors or outside in a container that will provide plenty of air circulation. The ‘Cogshall’ variety can reach eight feet when grown properly. The ‘Cogshall’ variety is a good choice for container gardening or container culture. A ‘Cogshall’ dwarf mango is ideal for container gardening.
Dwarf mango trees require moderate watering during their pre-flowering period. You should fertilize the soil regularly with a balanced mixture of potassium and phosphorus. It is important to remember not to overwater the dwarf mango tree because this can lead to disappointing results. If you are concerned about pests, use organic pesticides to get rid of the problem. You can also purchase a plant caddy that has casters for mobility.
Diseases that affect mango trees
Fungus can cause cracks and distorted fruits on mango trees. It spreads via water droplets and may infect other branches and entire orchards. Fungicide treatments for mango rust include pruning infected limbs and applying copper fungicide to the susceptible parts of the tree. The fungicides should be applied at intervals of 15 days between bud break and fruit set. The treatments must be repeated several times to reduce the chance of fungal infection.
Symptoms of mango malformation disease are unusual growth of flowers, leaves, shoots, and flowers. Fruit yield is reduced and the tree may not bear fruit. Although it isn’t harmful to humans, it can cause significant crop losses. The disease is spread via grafting with infected budwood and by the movement of infected plant material. As a result, movement restrictions are in place in Queensland to prevent the disease from spreading beyond the region.
Verticillium wilt is a fungal disease that attacks the vascular system and roots of mango trees. Infected trees may display brown patches on the vascular tissues. In severe cases, this disease can even cause the tree to die. Mango scab is another disease that can affect mango trees. This disease causes leaves, flowers, and fruit to turn brown. The disease can also cause stem thickening and bark cankers.
Scale insect infestations are also a common problem on mango trees. These insects feed on the sap of mango trees and spread their spores to other plants. While you cannot completely eliminate them, it is important to control their population. For home gardens, it is essential to spray the trees with insecticide at least three times a year. For serious cases, apply three applications of insecticide. You may also need to use a combination of insecticides.
In conclusion,
Pruning and thining are the two most important things you can do to keep your mango tree small. Pruning is important for several reasons: it helps to remove excess branches that shade the center of the tree, creating a better environment for fruiting; it helps to prevent breakage from windstorms or overburdened branches, and it helps to reduce the size of the tree overall.
Good afternoon. Im in Cape Town South Africa and have a beautiful healthy mango tree but sadly after 20yrs I had no success in having this tree bear fruit. Any advice ?
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Plant trees whenever and wherever possible to save our children future. pure oxygen fruit and wood supply for our generation s
Very useful, information. Thank you.
Very useful article.
Very informative.
Breifly it requires less water ,less nitrogen,no foliage at the center of canopy.Pruning diseased ,dead branches,crossing branches,these looking down ward.
Can you add a video of rhe pruning process, it would be very useful.
Thanks and regards.
The content has been updated. Thanks
How to make a healthy mango tree flower and Baer fruit which is 8 years old
What fertilizer will help
Regards
Use Organic Fertilizer, it lasts longer and will be there to serve your mango for a longer period. I hope this helps.
I am in Zambia. This is the first time I’ve ever come across useful information about Mango pruning, watering, fertilizer application and disease control. Here in Zambia we have lots of Mango, but we never prune. Most of the mango trees grow on their own from seed thrown about.
How will somebody get this idea of growing small tree mangoes.
Your Article is very educative and interesting
Douglas from Kenya.
That’s very informative. I have an archard of young grafted mango trees on a small space. This will help me check there spreading.bI will also apply the same knowledge on my avocado farm.
Very informative, i will use it to take care of my mango trees. I don’t understand thinning and mulch, is there a way it can be shown in a video?
The article is very educative,,, thanks so much
Trev from Perth Australia I have one mango tree Kingston pride, know I have read your information I can prune my tree to get more fruit the information is interesting and helpfull . Thanks
I have a huge healthy mango tree in my rice farm about 30 years old but never bear fruit at all i am contemplating of cutting it all for wasting space in the farm shall i leave say 3 meter so that it will branch and hope that the new branch will give fruit.
Good article indeed and an eye opener. My 5 year mango tree bear flowers and these flowers all dry up without making fruits. Why is that ? Will this tree produce fruits one day?
Perhaps the mango tree is diseased. Give it this year, if it doesn’t fruit. You may consider replanting.
I have an already growing mango tree but hasn’t started fruiting. How I reduce the growth