Soil and site selection for Mangoes

Soil and site selection

• Mango requires soil with good internal drainage, but is not particular as to soil type. The tree can tolerate minor flooding but has no tolerance for salts, boron and lawn herbicides.
• The tree must receive full sunshine for optimum growth and fruiting.

Varieties

• The varieties can be divided into two major groups i.e. the Indian type and Indo-Chinese type.
• Fruits of the Indian type turn yellow, orange or reddish on ripening while those of the Indo-Chinese type remain green or lightly colored on ripening and are resistant to anthracnose.
• The local mango has poor commercial quality because it has a fibrous flesh, which us detestable to a consumer and processor.
• To a consumer, fiber in the flesh of the mango remains in the teeth, while to a processor, it blocks the machine sieves.
• Local mangoes have a low flesh to seed ratio i.e. the quantity of the flesh is more or less the size of the seed.
• This is not the case with varieties of high commercial value in which the amount of flesh is 5 or 6 times the size of the seed.
• A few selections have been made from the early introductions because of their commercial value and these include Bire, Ssejjembe, Ssu and
• Among the introductions from Puerto Rico, the best performers under Uganda conditions include Tommy Atkins, Zillate, Keitt, Kent, Parvin, Edward, Florigon and Glenn.
• Other varieties like Boribo and Apple mango, which originated from the East African coast have also proved to be of high commercial value.