Valencia Pride, Mango

[MattyB]

I have a Valencia Pride mango that all it wants to do is flower. It's just a little thing that can't even stand up without being staked but it insists on trying to flower from every branch at all new growth points. This is it's second growing season in the ground and it's no bigger than when we bought it because the only growth has been flowers that we try to pinch back. We even tried removing the individual flowers and leaving the flower stems just so there were a few pseudo-leaves and green parts on there to help with photosynthesis. It seems like this will be a great mango that fruits vigorously for us in CA once it gets established. Any advice to get this guy to make branches and leaves?

[epicure3]

Just keep doing what you're doing. However, I would wait until small fruit show up on the panicles and then take them off. Also keep in mind that Valencia Pride may be a naturally small, slow growing variety. I don't know that to be true but you could probably search and find.

[Matt in SD]

Hi Matt,

We have a Valencia pride at our old house. Where did you get yours? I want to get at least one more.

We had/have the same problem, but have been successful just breaking the flower spikes off when they start forming. The first season, we didn't do this and the tree didn't grow at all. But we broke flowers off, the next couple seasons and had 3-4 flushes of new growth. It's funny though, no matter how hard we've tried we have never been 100% successful at preventing it from fruiting. Every fall, we notice at least a few fruit despite our best efforts. I was told by a very experienced fruit grower in SoCal, that Valencia pride is the best mango for our climate.

The fruit we've had is the best mango I've ever tasted, SoCal grown or not.

Matt

[MattyB]

That's good news, Matt, about the taste and productivity of this variety. I got Valencia Pride upon your recomendation. I got mine at Ong's in Linda Vista. I wrote a song about Ong's Nursery but I don't think it's appropriate for this forum. Certain things rhyme nicely with Ong if you know what I mean. Ask Paul, maybe he'll sing it to you.

[epicure3]

I've never tried Valencia Pride but have grown Glenn and, currently, Alphonso. Both are great tasting.

[tropicbreeze]

Mangos usually flower under stress. There's a number of methods used commercially to stress the trees to get more prolific and earlier flowering. It suggests your tree is at some sort of limit. I haven't heard of the variety Valencia Pride (I associate Valencia with oranges), most of mine are Kensington Pride. I don't know whether Valencia Pride has any requirements out of the usual.