How to Grow Bonsai Mangoes

Bonsai trees are simply standard-size trees kept in small pots to stunt their growth. For this reason, any variety of tree, including a mango, can be grown into a bonsai -- as long as you start when the tree is still a seedling. Mango bonsais produce edible fruit the same size as a normal mango. However, there are far fewer fruits because a bonsai tree does not have as many branches.

Bonsai pot

Potting soil

Sand

Water

12-5-9 and 4-4-8 granular fertilizers

Fill a bonsai-size plant pot 1/3 full of a 50-50 mix of potting soil and course sand. Remove the mango seedling from the nursery pot and place it into the soil. Add additional soil until the roots are covered, but do not cover the graft line, which is a raised circle at the base of the trunk.

Water the bonsai until it runs out of the bottom of the pot. Then add additional water in the same manner every three days for the first month. Then reduce watering to once per week for two more months. After this, water only when the soil is dry. When you see fruit develop, stop watering until all fruit development is over.

Place the bonsai in an area that has full sunlight for four to six hours each day. You can set them in a window or outdoors during the warm months.

Wait until the fall after all fruiting has stopped, then mix 1 tsp. of a granular 12-5-9 fertilizer into 1 gallon of warm water. Pour 1/4 of the mixture over the soil. Water the soil daily for four days until all the fertilizer water is gone. Repeat this process for the first three years, and them switch to using 1/4 cup of a 4-4-8 fertilizer diluted in 1 gallon of water.

Move outdoor mango bonsais indoors in winter when temperatures drop near 32 degrees F.

Mango trees are toxic, so keep the bonsai away from small children and pets to prevent poisoning.