Pruning strategies to maximize tropical mango production from the time of planting to restoration of old orchards

Pruning is an unavoidable necessity of virtually all arboreal fruit crops. In the tropics and subtropies, pruning of mango (Mangifera indica L.) is particularly important due to its tendency for frequent flushes, especially in humid tropics. Commercial orchards must maintain control of both tree size and orchard productivity in order to remain productive. Tip, formation, and severe pruning can be used in a variety of circumstances to produce predictable and useful results for a variety of purposes. For example, tip pruning can be used to encourage frequent flushing and branching of young trees to bring them into commercial production years earlier than if left alone. It can also stimulate timely flushes of lateral stems in an annual program to maintain tree size and prepare trees for synchronous flowering. Formation pruning shapes trees in an overgrown orchard to receive the maximum amount of light for high productivity and sets them up for annual pruning in a flowering management program. Severe pruning coupled with subsequent tip pruning of huge, nonproductive trees facilitates rapid restoration of orchard production. Each of these types of pruning can be used to get mango trees into production quickly and thereafter maintain maximum annual production while maintaining their desired size.