Mango season hasn’t arrived yet, but a burst of blossoms statewide has mango lovers dreaming of a fruitful summer.
“There’s been a huge amount of flowering that has been more pronounced than normal. And it’s a more profuse and synchronized flowering, which we don’t always see,” said Alyssa Cho, a Hilo-based assistant researcher for tropical fruit and nuts at the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
Sweet-tasting mangoes are prized here as a dessert fruit peeled and eaten fresh, and are also used in juices and baking, and made into chutney, pickles and preserves.
Mango trees grow best in hot, dry leeward areas, putting out branching clusters bearing hundreds of pale pink flowers. Cho said flowering is usually triggered by spells of dry weather. Months of drought conditions, coupled with cooler temperatures, set off this year’s massive bloom, she said.
It’s too early, of course, to promise that all those flowers will yield an abundance of fat, juicy mangoes in two or three months, but the early signs are promising, according to Cho. Still, the usual threats to any mango crop loom, especially with any increase in rainfall. Wet conditions invite anthracnose, a common fungal disease that attacks mango flowers and developing fruit. Strong wind also can damage the flowers before they are pollinated.
“Lots of things can happen,” she said. “You never really know until you see the fruit on your tree.”
To protect mangoes from the fungus, Cho recommends bagging them on the tree with “breathable” fruit-maturing bags (not brown paper bags) or spraying them with an appropriate fungicide (read the label).
And it might be hard to fathom, but too many mangoes could be a bad thing.
“Trees can only produce so much sugars to give to their fruit, so with too many fruit, the smaller fruit can abort or drop off before maturity,” she said.
For advice on mangoes and other home gardening topics, contact UH’s Master Gardeners: Visit www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/uhmg or call 453-6055 on Oahu, 244-3242, ext. 228, on Maui, 981-5199 in East Hawaii, 322-4892 in West Hawaii or 274-3471 on Kauai.
