100 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



the state, but it is necessary to protect the trees during the 

 winter. They are grown within a large shed whose top is made 

 of thin muslin which can be removed in the summer. 



In southern Florida the weather is normally dry during the 

 flowering season. Sometimes there are light rains in this 

 period, or many cloudy damp days. In such seasons many of 

 the Indian mangos, notably Mulgoba, fail to bear good crops, 

 although the seedling mangos which are found throughout this 

 region fruit abundantly. Mangos differ in their ability to 

 flower and fruit under adverse climatic conditions. Some of 

 the Indian varieties will only flower after a period of three or 

 four weeks of dry sunny weather; certain Cuban seedling 

 races (and those of other countries as well), on the other hand, 

 will insist on flowering even though the spring months are 

 unusually wet ; and if one crop of flowers is destroyed by the 

 anthracnose fungus, as is often the case, they will flower a 

 second and even a third time in an attempt to produce fruit. 

 Methods of encouraging the Indian varieties to flower and fruit 

 are discussed in a later paragraph. 



The soils of the Fort Myers region produce larger trees than 

 those of Miami. The latter, which are mainly light sands under- 

 laid with oolitic limestone, are nevertheless satisfactory when 

 properly fertilized. The mango requires much less fertilizer 

 than the avocado or the citrus fruits, but it only reaches large 

 size when grown upon reasonably deep soil. 



Cuban soils are well suited to the mango. In commercial 

 orchards near Habana, however, the anthracnose fungus has 

 caused great damage and discouraged some of the growers. 

 Methods of combating this pest are discussed under the heading 

 diseases. In Porto Rico at least two orchards of considerable 

 size have been planted with choice Indian varieties. Both of 

 these are on the north side of the island, where the soil is 

 excellent but the climate somewhat too moist for the best crop 

 results. 



