Stable mango yields: timing is everything

Achieving yield stability over many years is the golden standard in mango farming. But this is easier said than done: success requires a keen understanding of the demands of mango trees and excellent management. Award-winning mango producer Johann du Preez spoke to Lindi Botha about the science of tree manipulation

-  Lindi Botha

“Any crop can be seen as ‘easy’ or ‘difficult’ to cultivate, depending on how you manage it and your yield expectations. This is especially true of mangoes,” says Johann du Preez, general manager of Bavaria Fruit Estates in Hoedspruit, Limpopo.

“You can leave mangoes to follow their own natural cycle with minimal interference, and still get a crop. But with profit margins being so narrow, it’s crucial to get the best crop and a consistent yield. This is why I constantly try to improve the crop.”

Du Preez, who has over 30 years’ experience as a mango farmer, emphasises the need to produce a consistent harvest, rather than a bumper harvest one year, but with inevitably smaller fruit, and a small harvest with larger fruit the following season. This is a particular problem with the mango, which is an alternate-bearing tree.

“Inconsistency makes marketing fruit more difficult. Markets want to know what they’re getting and where it fits into their marketing plan. So it’s better to get a similar yield and the same-sized fruit year after year.”

Du Preez walks the talk: in an industry where yields have fluctuated dramatically from one year to the next, he has achieved approximately 27t/ ha consistently over the past four years. He is also the winner of the South African Mango Growers’ Association’s coveted Golden Mango Award in 2018 for his contribution to mango research.

CAREFUL MANIPULATION

The key to managing mangoes, explains Du Preez, lies in understanding them. “We’re farming a tropical crop in a subtropical environment, so tree and environmental manipulation is necessary.”

Because mangoes are terminal-bearing, the fruit is borne only on new growth.