How To Make a Dwarf Mango Tree

Mango, the countrys national fruit is considered as one of the finest in

the world. It is the third most important fruit crop of the country based on export volume and
value next to banana and pineapple. It has an established domestic market and has bright
opportunities for the international market both in fresh or processed form. The countrys export
variety, The Carabao Mango is one of the best varieties in the world.
But in order to harvest enough quantities for commercial purposes, you need to have a large land
area to plant the trees. And as we are all aware of, mango trees are big and tall so the the
harvesting will require labor cost that might not be feasible or might reduce our profit. And in
addition to those disadvantages, harvesting is also time consuming and if we will use pesticides
bigger trees will cost you more. So what is the solution then? we have to make trees smaller to
reduce the overhead expenses. The following is how you create a dwarf mango tree by the
technique of LOW BARK GRAFTING AND PRUNING OF MANGO TREE.
Mango like other tropical fruit trees is propagated by several methods:

Sexual through seeds

Asexual- vegetative methods

Propagation by seeds results to enormous variability in the progenies. Therefore, asexual or

vegetative methods are adopted to get true to type plants.
The technique of cleft grafting of mango in the Philippines is very common using tall and
overgrown rootstock ( 1 meter high). Now, a new method of grafting is being
introduce called LOW BARK GRAFTING AND PRUNING MAKES MANGO DWARF
ADVANTAGES OF DWARF MANGO
1. High number of trees per hectare
India-3m x 2.5 m(1,333 plants/ha)
Israel-3m x 5 m, 5 m x 8 m(200-600 plants/ ha)
Thailand-200-600 plants/ha
Australia-200-1000 plants/ha
3rd Mango Marketing Congress, August 15-16, 2006, Davao City
2. Easier management of trees:
- Pruning

- Pests and Disease Monitoring

- Minimal losses of fruits
- Minimal damage and bruises
- Easier bagging and harvesting
- Efficiency in spraying
So if you wanted to learn how to graft the mango tree, here are steps in Low Bark Grafting:

Prepare a mango root stock, its a mango seedling having a stem big enough to be grafted
as shown in the picture below.

Decapitate or cut the stem leaving about 2 to 20 cm from the ground. Make a thin side cut
in the bark so that you can insert the scion to graft it in. Take note that this is different
from cleft grafting which is the most simplest kind of grafting where the cut is on the
center of the stem. In bark grafting, only the bark should be cut to insert the scion. For
more info with regards to grafting, follow this link => Grafting and Budding Nursery
Crop Plants

Prepare the scion and cut the leaves. Only the stem should be left.

Make a V-shape cut on the end of the scion stem. Insert the scion into the side cut of the
rootstock.

Wrap the joint of the rootstock and the scion tightly using a plastic strip.

Decapitate the apex to induce branching. Pinch-off the growing point to induce
branching.

After 30 days expose the plants to little sunlight for hardening.

There you have it. It looks simple enough but I think the waiting is the hardest part. But after the
many months of waiting it to grow, it will look like the picture below. Maybe after six years it
will bear fruit and ready for mango fruit production.