Stable mango yields: timing is everything

“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