Yes, it was time. The trees were just on the edge of being out of control, so we decided to get the job done.
Monday, February 17, was the day.
The previous afternoon, I took a few photos. This one shows the trees in all their fullness. Our back deck is in there somewhere in the shadows, if you look closely.
These are old trees. The larger one was planted when I was born. The smaller one at the birth of my late sister, Bonnie, who was four years older. Both have been around for a while. The funny thing is that I remember them being large trees when I was growing up. But looking at old photos, I realize that they really weren’t too big. Now they are big trees, and bigger if we don’t intervene.
Here are a few points in the history of the trees.
I think this is Kiki, my mom’s dog, sitting next to Bonnie’s tree soon after it was planted somewhere in early 1943 in the back yard of the home on Kahala that my parents had purchased the previous year. Not much to look at yet. But don’t you worry, it would grow.
I’m guessing this next snapshot was taken somewhere around 1954 or so, as I climbed into “my” tree to pick some fruit. As you can see, it’s a far cry from today’s tree.
And then, perhaps 15 years later, I had graduated from college, gotten married, and Meda and I had come back to Hawaii to start graduate school. We celebrated New Year’s Eve in 1969 at my parents’ home. At this time of year, the trees served to hang some strings of fire crackers. In this photo, Meda is standing in front of “my” tree. It’s gotten a lot bigger in the intervening years.
Okay. Back to the present and this week’s tree care.
Here’s the “Before” photo.
And then the arborist and his crew did their magic, and the trees were cut back and cleaned out.
One result–the cats have much more sun when they get to their afternoon naps. They are very pleased with the situation.
Here’s the “After” photo.
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Nice history of your mango trees.
Is the best time to prune mango trees immediately after the last fruit is picked?
Amazing. I have an out-of-control mango tree as well; time to get out the saw! Thanks for the photos.
Ever since I’ve lived in my house for the past 20 or so years, my piree mango tree has flowered in January and by February I have baby mangos on all the stems. In June/July they are ripe. My tree hasn’t even started flowering yet this year. Instead it is dropping leaves, which it usually does in August, after the season is pau. Interesting you trimmed your tree at this time of year. I guess you don’t have flowers either. When does your tree usually flower?
No flowers yet this year on our trees. Usually it will flower beginning in January, but flowers have appeared as late as April-May or so. I’m hoping trimming now will allow a good crop next year.
Same issue here on Maui (Kihei). No flowers yet on our White Pirie or our Rapoza trees. Unlike the Haden which has an unfortunate alternate year bearing habit, both have been very consistent producers over their 30+ year life spans, even occasionally producing out of season. This year nothing (so far).
Not too bolohead. Nice!
Funny 🙂
Would you mind sharing which arborist you used? We
need some old milo trees trimmed.
In my neighborhood one by one the mango, ulu, jabong, lychee, lauhala and plumeria were chopped down. The new owners build giant 2.5 story homes to rent out with privacy hedges and areca palms. I really miss the fruit trees! Especially sharing fruit and home made desserts each season with my neighbors. We need a way to encourage landowners to keep fruit trees that have been growing for decades, instead of tearing them out.
When the end apparent and food is scarce, people in big houses will wish they had mango trees.
As an example of the general nuttiness of our times, here (Maui) some of the newer neighborhoods have covenants against planting fruit trees!