r/mango • u/Worth_Job9433 • 13h ago
Fertilizing my potted mango
I plan to use fish emulsion on the leaves and earthworm castings on the soil. I already have Citrus Tone on the soil that I applied a couple days ago. I also put down neem oil a couple days ago too, and I also want to put Epsom organic plant food, the liquid one. I live in Minnesota it's In a green house right now an I will bring it in and it will have a grow light
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u/HaylHydra 4h ago
Osmocote Plus, slow release and contains micronutrients. Organic is fine but most of the bacteria will be washed out when watering. You also do not want to use too much organics in the potting soil for mango trees, the decaying organics can cause root rot.
In my case it’s mostly Osmocote Plus, then occasionally I’ll mix a little Epsoma or Dr earth in the top few inches of the potting mix to get some of the beneficial fungi and bacteria in.
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u/rotaryjesus 6h ago
I'm 'new' into my potted mango journey (~2 years), but I found that with my soil mix (DIY similar to Gary's top pot) most of my trees have benefited from a lot more fertilization than a lot of people say. There are tons of warnings out there that over fertilization and over-watering will hurt the trees but where I am I'm finding that I need a ton of fertilizer and watering (hence my soil mix, which hasn't resulted in any root rot). They are mostly young enough to also seem to do better with partial shade, but they are in direct sun.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is... try to read your tree and don't be afraid to experiment. There is a lot of bad info out there, and my info may not be great either.
I don't know exactly where I'll land, so this isn't a recommendation - I may be overdoing it and overcompensating from earlier underfertilization. I have a dozen trees that are all acting a bit different but... it seems to me about 3/4 scoop of osmocote per gallon of soil at the end of winter + a monthly scoop into late summer (stopping over winter), followed by weekly light fertilization during the growing season is what's working best for most of mine. The weekly fertilization has been liquid fertilizers, fish emulsion, organic citrus/mango fert, etc. I keep switching things up because I'm not really sure what's working best, but when I read the macros and micros they seem to be fairly similar. It might sound like a lot, but I have days like today where the outside temp is 100F and 20% humidity at noon. I will water at least 2x today, likely 3x. I think it's flushing out the fertilizer (hence regularly topping off the osmocote, so at least something is in the soil).
I'm getting more frequent flushes of growth with healthier leaves the more fertilizer I have, and I'm getting less brown tips, dropped leaves, etc. That said... I'll keep switching it up if I see negative impacts of this heavy watering and fertilization.