Growing mango trees can be a fruitful endeavor

I got the rare gift of being the passenger on an evening drive and so enjoyed the beauty of mango fruits glowing amid the deep green foliage of the trees. We are having a second fruiting this year, and besides how much I love to eat them, they are such a gorgeous, tough and useful tree.

Look at how pretty they are — colorful leaves with the new flush of growth. They have liko, just like ohia lehua do, just different; the new flush can be red, purple or apricot in color. As the leaves mature and toughen up, they change colors, almost appearing like a flower. The fruits of many colors are like jewels growing amid the deep dark green leaves.

Mango trees are so tough and drought-resistant once well established that they can take pruning, even bad pruning, but let’s not do that to them.

They may be alive, but will not fruit well if they are hacked by bad pruning.

Keep your tree short enough for safe picking and retain low branches that are easy to pick from. Aim for a 20-foot mango tree — that’s about the height you can safely reach with a pole picker. Prune every year after fruiting is pau; cut some windows in the tree for air circulation and so the sunlight can penetrate and feed the inner leaves.

Remember not to prune more than 25 percent of the tree. Once you have cut some branches, step back and check your work before you cut too much. You can’t paste it back if you cut too much. Don’t ever prune your tree when you are in a bad mood. You might take it out on the tree and prune too much!

If you are not able to safely prune the tree yourself or lack the proper tools (a sharp pole saw, a hand saw, loppers), hire an arborist who is qualified to trim mango trees.

Mangoes fruit off of mature growth and leaves. A flush of young soft leaves won’t give you fruit; the older growth with last year’s mature leaves is the fruit production part.

Mangoes are tough trees, but they don’t do well in compacted soil, where the tree gets reduced air, water and food. Apply mulch to the root zone of young trees to help your soil have good structure. Keep grass away from the trunk and keep vehicles away from the root zone to nurture a healthier tree.

I just participated in the Seventh Annual Mangoes at the Moana festival with Mark and Candy Suiso of Makaha Mangoes and some friends and ohana. Mark Suiso likes to say, one of our goals is a fruit tree in every yard.

We want people to appreciate and grow more mangoes and not cut down their old wonderful mango trees. We want people to plant new, adapted varieties and care for them. And we want to support our courageous mango farmers.

With so many generous neighbors and friends, I feel I should not be buying mangoes. But then I look at mainland produce for sale — who knows what was sprayed on it — and we pay good money for those; why not buy a Hawaii-grown mango?

We keep learning more about mangoes.

Sometimes the best-tasting fruit is not the sweetest. Using a Brix Meter, which can measure the percentage of sucrose in fruits, we tested and tasted some mangoes. One Pirie mango scored 23 percent sucrose content, but the best-tasting mango of the day was a flavorful new variety of mango grown from a Haden seedling in Makaha that had an 18 percent sweetness rating. I like Mapulehu mangoes, too. Rapozas are always sweet, but I like a little more fiber in my fruit.

Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.