Suggestions for Avocados & Mangoes

[Alisha]

Howdy all! I completed my first ever grafts on my Poncho avocado and Pickering mango. So far they look great but I'm guessing I'll know for sure in another week or two. I grafted three scions of Oro Negro avocado (one veneer, two cleft) and three scions of Honey Kiss mango (two veneer, one cleft). I'd like to continue adding more varieties over the next few years to my trees and would be open to any suggestions on what varieties to obtain based on your experiences. I think my main priority is going to be disease resistance followed by production. I know taste can be very subjective but I welcome any personal input.

Some info on my environment and the trees:
-I'm in north Orlando, no heat source like a lake to keep plants warm and it got down to 28 degrees for about 6 hours this past winter.
-My house sits on the top of a huge hill. The property has never flooded in the 40 years my family has been here.
-The four avocado trees are Poncho, Brogdon, Mexicola, and California Haas (I hear it doesn't do well in FL but it was a gift and I can always top work it later) and planted in-ground 10ft away from a tall privacy fence and each other in a square pattern. I plan to keep them pruned to about 8ft x 8ft to make harvesting easy.
-The Pickering mango is in a 2ft x 2ft x 2ft planter that I plan to bring into the garage during cold snaps below 45 degrees. I have a standard window in the garage that provides nice bright light if the cold snap lasts a long time. I will never plant it in-ground and plan to keep it pruned to maybe 6ft x 6ft since it's on a patio.

So far my suggestions from friends & family include:
Monroe avocado
NDM#4 mango
Cogshall mango

[simon_grow]

I would recommend making a drive out to Southern Florida and sampling as many varieties as possible so you can grow something you know you actually like. Some members have planted a Mango, waited however long it takes only to find out they don’t like the flavor. If you can’t make the trip, you can have a variety of Mangos shipped to you from Sauam256. Here’s a link:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=28202.0

When multigrafting, you should place varieties with similar growth habits on the same tree. Otherwise vigorous varieties will take over. You can get an idea about the taste of various Mangos by doing a search but here’s a link to a short thread with excellent flavor profiles of different mangos
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=6398.150

Here’s an abbreviated version with the top picks for that year:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=20769.0
Good luck with your planting’s and grafts
Simon

[mangokothiyan]

Honey Kiss is very productive, late season and stays small. Maha Chanok is another good variety. Does not stay as small as Pickering but productive and has good taste.

[CTMIAMI]

Not sure why you would want Poncho? Seem like you are top working the tree.
I have it and I don't think is a FL variety does not like our rainy season. I can tell you a virtue it has. Is a B flower, flowers very early and does an amazing job to pollinize early A flower trees. Only makes sense in a commercial environment not sure is it mas sense in a home environment. Is a big tree. Does great helping Simonds, Dupuis and Doni set fruit. 

[Alisha]

I'm not too picky with taste but I do plant to go south a few times this season and try out some different fruit. I've had Pickering fruit before so I know what I'm getting there. Never tried Honey Kiss fruit but will try to get some if it's available.

I'm making sure to keep growth habits in mind when matching up varieties to graft. Pickering is small so I'm sticking with small, low-vigor trees so they don't compete. MahaChanok seems like it would get too big though. I'm also making sure to compare growth habits for the avocados.

Poncho was the first tree I got three years ago when I didn't know anything about growing avocados (or anything in general) and it's very common at local nurseries here. It's my most vigorous growing avocado tree out of the four I have, never taken cold damage and never has shone signs of water stress. It's fruiting the first time this year but I'll give it another year or two to decide if I like the tree. And yes, it throws out an insane amount of flowers that last quite awhile.

[Vernmented]

Not sure why you would want Poncho? Seem like you are top working the tree.
I have it and I don't think is a FL variety does not like our rainy season. I can tell you a virtue it has. Is a B flower, flowers very early and does an amazing job to pollinize early A flower trees. Only makes sense in a commercial environment not sure is it mas sense in a home environment. Is a big tree. Does great helping Simonds, Dupuis and Doni set fruit.

Hi Carlos, what is your recommendation for Dupuis pollinator? I just put one in the ground and I want to add a branch of an early B to help it set fruit since it seems to be shy. I was thinking Miguel but I really don't know.

[CTMIAMI]

Josh. Miquel should do well. If you have limited space and want fruit that is the way to go. Now I know of another pollination to Dupuis but now I'm not sure I Think is Hardee for I will have to find out and get back to you next week.

I don't have a Poncho close to my Dupuis, which by the way 1/2 went down from last summers Irma. and the other 1/2 had a lot of broken branches. But it does a great job or Arue and Donni.

[Vernmented]

Josh. Miquel should do well. If you have limited space and want fruit that is the way to go. Now I know of another pollination to Dupuis but now I'm not sure I Think is Hardee for I will have to find out and get back to you next week.

I don't have a Poncho close to my Dupuis, which by the way 1/2 went down from last summers Irma. and the other 1/2 had a lot of broken branches. But it does a great job or Arue and Donni.

Thank you so much!