New kids on the block. Harvest Moon, Juliette, Julie #5 & Spirit of '76 #2.

Today my new mango trees arrived; thanks to Boo Production!

From left to right; Spirit of '76 #2, Harvest Moon, Juliette and Julie #5.

Unfurled. Harvest Moon, Julie #5 & Juliette.

Spirit of '76 #2

So, I decided that Spirit of '76 #2 (S76#2) will be the first one to be repotted. The whole ordeal took over 2.5 hours.

Using a sharpened chopstick, I poked away at the dense soil.

I soaked roots in water and it was still tough to get all the dirt out from the center of the mass of roots. I worried I might have been too rough with the roots.

Eventually I got almost all the dirt off and now placed it into the 5 gallon GroPot. Fits.

Add my soilless medium.

As I fill the pot, I shake it to try to fill all the gaps, while trying to keep the tree straight.

And voilá! All potted up. I bagged it and placed it next to my Coconut Cream. Although, I'll have to move it to a shadier spot when I get back to work tomorrow.

New batch of potting medium

Today I mixed up a new batch of potting medium in a Homedepot 20 gallon container. Coir, FloorDry, perlite, granite, kelp meal, glacial rock dust, growstones, Mykos, Azos, CalMag & humic acid.

I'm preparing for my new mango trees. Harvest Moon, Juliette, another Julie and replacement Spirit of '76.

Irwin

Doing well.

Coconut Cream

Looks like a mop.

My Spirit of '76 is almost dead. I've moved it out of my office and placed it a bright corner. I don't know if it will survive but it looks almost dead.

Update; January 24th, 2013

I figure its gonna die, so I am experimenting with rubbing diluted honey onto the bark in an attempt to feed it sugar. Crazy. 

Coconut Cream is looking like a lion's tail.

Irwin looking good.

ST Maui.

Poor 76

Spirit of 76 is spirit of death.

The bark was spongy and I knew it was dying back. I used my utility knife to score and peel away the dead bark. The bottom is still alive but its only a glimmer of hope that it will pull through at this point.

What I've learned - Okay to prune a young tree if:

1. You leave it at least one leaf.

2. It's starting to pushing growth.

3. Or starting to push flowers.
Never, ever prune a young tree to a leafless stick right after it produces a flush of leaves. It uses up all its energy doing so and can't grow new leaves.

I'm still hoping it will pull an Edward or Pickering and come back from the dead, but even those guys regenerated by two weeks time.

Irwin was a weird one. I had transplanted it and it was pushing flowers so I guess it had enough energy and recovered from transplant pretty quickly. It was a gamble that worked.

I'm going to wait till Maha Chanok and Southern Blush starts pushing growth before pruning them down.

Update, January 20th, 2013.

 Spirit of 76 isn't showing any signs of recovery. A third of it from the top is dead and I can feel the bark become soft. The bottom part is still firm, I wish I knew if it will pull through?

Irwin is producing a lot of growth. Surprised at all the lower shoots. 

 Coconut Cream turning into a lion's tail like Glenn did, way back when.

Maha Chanok and Southern Blush (not pictured) are my next trees to be pruned. I am tempted to cut them down to 12 inches; which is where one of their growth nodes is. I'm not sure if I should go higher and prune at 14 or 16 inches? Hmmm.

Update; Jan 12th, 2013

Spirit of '76

I'm worried about this guy but I am hopeful it will recover like my Edwards did.

Irwin

This guy is doing well. So, my gamble that it had enough reserve to push new growth paid off.

Coconut Cream

I counted 9 shoots.

Maha Chanok

Yea! Still alive!

Et voilá.

Update on my pruned mango trees.

Coconut Cream

I figured that Coconut Cream would be first to recover. Pushing new growth nicely.

 

Irwin

Also showing signs of recovering. So I figure now that if a mango tree is starting to push growth; its a okay time to do some severe pruning.

 

 Spirit of '76

I see a single bud pushing out. I'm still worried for Spirit but it might pull through.

 

Keeping an eye on it.

Pickering healed wound.

In about 7 months Pickering's wound healed up nicely. Cool.

New year 2013 update.

Coconut Cream had a little dead spot. So I carved it out and applied cinnamon to the wound.

I strapped a piece of bamboo to ST Maui to straighten it out.

Maha Chanok is still alive.

Hurray.