Mango Tree Growth

Letting mangoes ripen on the branch produces better quality fruit than plucking them early.


Mango trees (Mangifera indica L.) produce large, refreshing fruits. Their glossy green leaves also make them attractive plants to grow in a garden or orchard. To successfully grow these fruit trees, it's smart to brush up on your knowledge about mango tree size, growth patterns and general care. Understanding mango tree growth is the key to making sure their needs are met in every stage of life, so you can reap the rewards of a luscious fruit crop year after year.


Mango trees are large plants that can grow to towering heights of 100 feet. Their round canopy can spread up to 125 feet wide as they age -- and these trees can survive for 300 years while still producing fruit. If the soil is deep, their roots can descend 20 feet. Giving mango trees plenty of space encourages extensive growth, but if you need smaller trees to fit in your garden or orchard, you can purchase a dwarf variety. In India, double-grafting has dwarfed mango trees and helped them fruit early.


Young mango trees look much different from their mature counterparts. In addition to being smaller, they also have leaves that are yellowish, copper or purple in color. These leaves emerge several times a year. Depending on the variety, mango trees typically begin to produce fruit when they are three to five years old.


Mango trees reproduce via pollination from wasps, bees and flies, but you can grow them from seed, too. The healthiest seeds are those from ripe fruits that are no longer green and firm. It's smart to plant seeds within a few days of plucking them from the fruit, but keeping them in moist earth keeps them safe for a month or two if you need to plant them later.

Blooms and Fruit

Young mango trees less than 10 years old typically produce flowers and fruit every year. After this, branches tend to fruit only every other year, which sometimes means that half of a single mango tree blooms one year while the other half blooms the following year. Some mango trees bloom more than once a year, and the blooming period varies depending on the weather. In a Mediterranean climate, many mango trees bloom with flowers in winter and produce mature fruits within 150 days after flowering, but this varies by variety and location.

Maturity and Harvest

You'll know mango fruits are ready for plucking when the stems snap easily from the branches. Young fruit is green, but the skin turns yellow, orange, red or purple as it matures and is ready for harvest. Though yield depends on the variety of mango trees you have, you can expect up to 200 or 300 fruits once a mango tree is 10 to 20 years old.

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