A few weeks back I planted five mango trees!
I purchased the saplings for Rs. 50 each which albeit expensive, were apparently from good stock and of good "Mallika" variety. Mallika is native variety to India and is supposed to quite disease-resistant. Of course, the fruit itself I have tasted and like!
When buying the saplings, I was surprised to see that they are grown as graftings rather than from seeds and upon further reading, now understand that the best mango trees are grown as grafts from existing, proven and productive trees. Apparently, trees grown directly from a seed (albeit of a very tasty mango) will not give good fruit, take a long time to fruit and will be very fibrous. Some useful info is here http://www.tropicalrainflorist.com/mango_trees.htm
Mango trees can grow up to 90-100 ft in height and should start yeilding fruit in 3-4 years. They make excellent shade trees and grow a pretty large canopy so should be planted at least 50 feet away from existing structures. Although we have planted them fairly far apart - I didn't check the exact distance at the time - we chose five different spots and dug a hole and have planted them.
I hope to have more actual on-the-ground updates on my mango saplings going forward and hopefully will be eating its fruit in the forseeable future too!
All in all, a really satisfying activity! Much better than spending 250 bucks on a move ticket...
Comments
I have planted a mango tree in my backyard, a few years back. Apparently it is of the same variety. No fruits as yet.
Looks like you have a lot of space available... bhai farm house hai kya?
I think you will find birds like parakeets visiting you a few years down the line.
Got Janet Yegneswaran of Treesforfree.org to plant 30 trees for me on my birthday in May. Have to visit the place again to see how they are coming up - Vysya Bank colony just off Banerghatta Road