His garden has almost 100 mango trees, 10 coconut trees, a couple of Guava trees, a bunch of pomegranate trees. I am talking about the garden expert, Mr. Arumugam and his mango farm. Recently, I went to his farm. I was amazed by the super tranquil ambiance. I covered a brief walk around his garden in the last blog post. If you not yet watched the mango farm tour, here is the link, click to watch – Garden tour.
It was such an exhilarating moment to see a 100 mango trees on a farm. (I never been to a mango farm before!). I talked to him about gardening and asked him to share his tips to maintain such a big garden aka farm. He also shared his knowledge on how to grow mango trees. Here, I have written this blog post in the interview format, which will be easy for you to go through.
The secret to the Tastiest mangoes!
Q: Tell something about yourself.
A: I am Arumugam. Kunathoor, Arni.
Q: How long you are into this gardening field?
A: For almost 20 years.
Q: What are the types of trees, fruits you are growing in your garden?
A: Here is the list –
- Mango tree
- Coconut tree
- Sapota / Chikoo tree
- Guava tree
- Pomegranate
- Indian gooseberries/amla trees
- Sugarcane
- Paddy field.
Q: How are you maintaining this garden?
A: With the help of some employees, I am maintaining this garden. We work together.
Q: What kind of manures/compost you prefer to use in your garden?
A: Depending on the trees, the composition, and the type of manures varies. For coconut trees, garden soil and some lake sand. Just natural, organic compost for mango trees. For Paddy, urea, Potash, Zinc sulfate, ammonium chloride.
Q: What are the natural challenges you are facing?
A: There are no problems with the animals like monkeys. We can see rats and squirrels often, which cannot be controlled. And it is a common thing on a farm. Apart from that, this particular year, there is not enough rainfall. So it affects the harvest of mangoes.
Q: On an average year, what are the fruits you are harvesting from your garden? Can you say in terms of measurement?
A: Harvests depend on how much the garden is doing well with the natural hindrance like not enough rainfall, hot summers. So this year, we did not gain as we do regularly. Roughly we used to harvest 5 – 6 tons of mangoes, Guava for 2 tons.
Q: How is the harvest this year?
A: Due to the lack of rain, we did not gain fruits as we expected. Yes, there is a drop down in the harvest, when we compared to last year.
Q: You are selling mangoes to people living far away from your places. We usually receive all fruits with no damage at all. How do you pack them?
A: All the mangoes we sell are handpicked. They are safely packed in a baskets/boxes with enough straw in the bottom for support and shipped carefully.
How to grow mango trees properly?
Q: Your tips to a gardener who is planting mango trees for the first time Or How to grow a mango tree properly?
- Plant the trees, 3ft deep in the soil.
- Leave a gap of 20ft between the trees.
- Water the tree regularly. You can use drip irrigation, as I feel it is the best.
- Always prefer using natural compost/manures.
Q: What are the types of mangoes you have got in your garden?
- Banganapalli
- Neelam
- Ottu
Q: What is the secret to your tastiest mangoes?
A: The main reason for the unique taste of our mangoes is the nature of the soil. Apart from that, we prefer to use only organic compost to the mango trees. We never use the chemical fertilizers. Maybe that is the reason for the tastiest mangoes we harvest.
So that is a wrap for this interview. If you wanna see his interview along with his garden, just play the video below.
Do let me know in the comment section if you guys have any questions about gardening and do write us the feedback about this series. Is it useful to you? Follow us in your favorite social media or subscribe to this blog to get notification or alerts when the next episode goes live.
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