High-density planting has been a major improvement for temperate fruit crops, and the question of applying this orchard management method to improve tropical fruit crops, in particular mango, is asked. The theoretical basis of high density planting is to increase the number of trees planted per land area in order to increase canopy area and volume, i.e. yield potential, per land area. Positive agronomic and economic consequences are expected, but the challenge is to control tree size while maintaining high yield. Planting fruit trees at short distances is not sufficient to achieve high density planting system because it leads rapidly to overcrowding and yield decline. The complete tree training and orchard management system needs to be redesigned for this objective. This implies a good knowledge of the interactions between vegetative growth and reproduction and of the factors affecting them. For the mango tree, the factors affecting vegetative growth, reproduction and their interactions are related to genetics (variety, rootstock), to canopy management (pruning, tree training, ...), to tree arrangement within the orchard, to orchard management (irrigation, fertilization, ...) and to environment (climate, soil). It shapes a complex puzzle and at the same time provides levers to researchers to design high density mango planting systems. The effects of some of these factors are illustrated in the presentation with experimental results. Few experiments have been conducted on high density mango planting and it is currently at an experimental stage. The basic knowledge exists and there is a need for specific medium- to long-term experiments to design high density mango planting. International collaboration would be efficient to speed up the process. With the current experience, a wise advice is to move from low to medium density planting, instead of doing a jump from low to high density planting.