One mangosteen tree will give you up to thousand fruits per season

Mangosteen is a delicious fruit produced by the mangosteen tree (Garcinia mangostana), which comes from south and east Asia. It grows in tropical areas and it has been cultivated for its delicious and highly prized fruit, which juicy and offers fine texture and a bit of astringent taste. It is usually eaten fresh, preserved or dried. The tree is also used in an alternative medicine to support cancer treatment, but as of today, there are not human clinical studies that prove this claim.

A slow-growing tree

Under favourable conditions, the tree can reach a height of up to 9.5 meters. It has thick, dark green, glossy leaves about 15-25 cm long, which are arranged in opposite pairs along the stem. The tree produces large pink flowers that later turn into the delicious fruit.
The fruit is small, orange and round (flattened at the end). The bark of mangosteen is thick, hard and dark red. Beneath the bark you would find a white flesh that occurs in segments that resemble a tangerine. One tree can produce more than a thousand fruits per season! However, the bad news is that it only bears fruit eighth years after planting…

Origin

Mangosteen has been cultivated since the ancient times in Java, Sumatra, Indochina and the southern Philippines. It is a very common tree in Indonesia. In 1855, mangosteen trees were cultivated in English greenhouses and subsequently spread to the western Hemisphere – today it is rather common in Jamaica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Ecuador.

Growing mangosteen trees

It is a tropical tree and growing in cooler climates is not easy and even if you do everything right, there is a very little chance that the tree will bear fruit. Growing from seeds is really hard, so you need to buy a grown seedling. High-quality and established varieties can be propagated by grafting. As mentioned above, the tree grows very slowly. The tree needs about two years to reach a height of 30 cm and it demands the right climatic conditions. It does well within a temperature range from 4 °C to 38 °C.

Photo: Pixabay

Site selection

You need to provide a deep, rich and well-draining soil. The fact that temperatures in our region can drop below 4 °C in autumn is not good so, you need to plant it in a container and bring it indoors when necessary. Young trees need to be protected from direct sunlight. Mangosteen likes light, but not direct sun as it often grows in a partial shade of larger trees. Once the tree is seven to nine years old, it becomes old enough to produce fruit. You can get an average of 500 pieces of fruit from one tree per season.

Medical effects

Mangosteen is used to alleviate premenstrual syndrome, but also to support proper heart function and healthy bowel movement. Consumption of mangosteen also promotes healthy skin, and there are the alleged anti-cancer effects. These effects have been confirmed in animal studies, but not in humans. Further research is needed. What has been proven is that mangosteen has anti-inflammatory properties.

Source: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangostana_lahodná
https://www.jimeto.cz/mangostan/

Preview photo: Pixabay