How to prevent early flowering in mango? Practical measures explained

Mango is one of the famous tropical fruits. It consumes large amounts of water and nutrients during growth. If it encounters prolonged drought, combined with improper water and fertilizer management, its flower bud differentiation can be extremely rapid, leading to early flowering. This prevents the flower organs from pollinating normally, resulting in a low fruit-setting rate and reduced yield. So how can early flowering in mango be prevented? Let's take a look at the details below.

1. Timely pruning

After the fruit matures and is harvested, promptly prune away the old, weak, diseased and pest-damaged branches as well as dense branches, and also cut off the remaining fruit stalks, while strengthening orchard cleanup. This can increase the ventilation and light penetration of the plant, reduce unnecessary nutrient consumption, and also reduce the damage from pests and diseases. Most importantly, it can delay flower bud germination and prevent early flowering from occurring.

2. Apply sufficient base fertilizer

After flowering and fruiting, mango consumes a large amount of nutrients, and the plant is relatively weak at this time, making it highly susceptible to invasion and infection by pests and diseases. Therefore, sufficient base fertilizer should be applied after harvest. The amount of base fertilizer applied should account for more than 80% of the annual fertilization amount, so that the plant recovers quickly and its growth needs are met. Fertilization should be based mainly on organic fertilizer and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Dig a ring-shaped trench around the plant, apply 50 kg of organic fertilizer and 10 kg of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium compound fertilizer per plant, then cover it with soil.

3. Drought prevention

Mango prefers a humid environment during growth, is not cold-tolerant and fears waterlogging. If it encounters prolonged drought, its flower bud differentiation will accelerate, causing it to bolt and bloom early, resulting in early flowering. Therefore, to avoid early flowering caused by drought, irrigate promptly during dry periods to maintain soil moisture and keep a certain level of humidity. At the same time, open drainage and irrigation ditches to guard against heavy rain. After watering, loosen the soil to increase permeability, so as to avoid difficulty in root respiration, which would lead to reduced absorption capacity.

4. Top grafting for variety replacement

For varieties that grow relatively quickly under high-temperature and drought conditions and tend to bolt and bloom early, adopt top grafting for variety replacement, changing the variety to a late-maturing one, so that the plant's flowering and pollination period is delayed, avoiding the low-temperature and rainy period, and preventing early flowering from occurring.

5. Regulating the flowering period

For plants that have already shown early flowering, remove the early-emerged inflorescences so that they rebloom, which can also delay the flowering period to a certain extent and stagger that period. Flower removal is generally done when the inflorescence grows to 8-10 cm. At this time, the removed inflorescence is not fully mature and pollination will not occur. Flower removal should also be limited in frequency; removing too many times will cause the flowering vigor to become too weak, thereby losing pollination capacity.

6. Chemical flower control

In modern cultivation, chemicals can be used to delay inflorescence growth. When the plant has already begun flower bud differentiation, spray paclobutrazol solution or ethephon, once every ten days to half a month, for 2-3 consecutive times. The flower control effect is excellent.

The above are preventive measures for early flowering in mango. I hope it can help you. To learn more about mango cultivation, please stay tuned to us.