What are productive mango varieties for San Diego?

[ExpertPruning.com]

I planted an Alphonso and Ataulfo mango tree several months back. They have been doing very well, growing exceptionally (though no fruit considering I missed the season when planting).

I have one spot left in my yard for a mango tree.

What are some good tasting and productive varieties for the san diego climate?

I havent tasted any of the varieties, but I've been interested by Nam Dac Mai or coconut cream. Does anyone in southern california have experience growing a successful variety of tasty mango?

[wslau]

Alphonso is not productive in SoCal, but an extremely tasty fruit when you can get one.
The best production I have seen so far is Sweet Tart (#1 rated flavor in SoCal amongst my friends) and Maha Chanok.
Coconut Cream and Lemon Zest haven't been extremely productive either in SoCal, for the most part, but are excellent tasting varieties.  Coconut Cream branches are brittle and break easily with stronger wind.  Lemon Zest is extremely susceptible to powdery mildew and needs to be sprayed with fungicide to produce.

So...Sweet Tart would be my pick for the 3rd tree.
We are experimenting with Kesar as a replacement for Alphonso, but don't have enough SoCal data yet.
Ataulfo is not highly prized, but makes an excellent rootstock...if you are into topworking and grafting.

[simon_grow]

I agree with Warren, Sweet Tart is one of the best tasting productive worry free trees to grow here in San Diego. NDM is also a great variety that produces well.

Simon

[CA Hockey]

FWIW: My kesar is small and prefers to flower instead of put on vegetative growth.

[simon_grow]

FWIW: My kesar is small and prefers to flower instead of put on vegetative growth.

That’s the issue with planting young trees that are grafted in our climate. Our cold weather induces early and frequent blooms on trees that are much too small to hold fruit. This Issue is inherent in all mango varieties grafted with mature scion wood.

Simon

[JF]

Papaya mango is an excellent choice, creator rudy haluza,  and a great producer

[ExpertPruning.com]

Alphonso is not productive in SoCal, but an extremely tasty fruit when you can get one.
The best production I have seen so far is Sweet Tart (#1 rated flavor in SoCal amongst my friends) and Maha Chanok.
Coconut Cream and Lemon Zest haven't been extremely productive either in SoCal, for the most part, but are excellent tasting varieties.  Coconut Cream branches are brittle and break easily with stronger wind.  Lemon Zest is extremely susceptible to powdery mildew and needs to be sprayed with fungicide to produce.

So...Sweet Tart would be my pick for the 3rd tree.
We are experimenting with Kesar as a replacement for Alphonso, but don't have enough SoCal data yet.
Ataulfo is not highly prized, but makes an excellent rootstock...if you are into topworking and grafting.

Sounds like I might have to buy sweet tart on that sparkling recommendation!

When you say that Alphonso is not productive, how unproductive are we talking? I'm seeing some flowers sprouting currently on the tree...

As for the Autalfo, when you say that its not highly prized, is it that its too common of a mango, or that it doesn't taste very good? I figured I may turn that one into rootstock anyways, since it seems to be a seedling.

[wslau]

Alphonso flowers but it has a difficult time holding fruit to maturity in SoCal.  From
my observation, you will be lucky to get 5 mature fruit on a 6 foot tall tree.
Alphonso is highly complex in flavor...many love that Indian piney flavor.
 
Ataulfo (common supermarket fruit) is not complex in flavor, hence it isn't highly prized by us mango snobs.  It has a short window where it is ideal sweet and tart (right when it develops wrinkles).  Otherwise it is too sour (green or yellow but unwrinkled) or just pure sweetness only (yellow and overly-wrinkled).

[ExpertPruning.com]

Alphonso flowers but it has a difficult time holding fruit to maturity in SoCal.  From
my observation, you will be lucky to get 5 mature fruit on a 6 foot tall tree.
Alphonso is highly complex in flavor...many love that Indian piney flavor.
 
Ataulfo (common supermarket fruit) is not complex in flavor, hence it isn't highly prized by us mango snobs.  It has a short window where it is ideal sweet and tart (right when it develops wrinkles).  Otherwise it is too sour (green or yellow but unwrinkled) or just pure sweetness only (yellow and overly-wrinkled).

So would you reccomend grafting something new onto the alphonso tree? The tree has already been grafted at the base. Is it bad to regraft?

[wslau]

Alphonso flowers but it has a difficult time holding fruit to maturity in SoCal.  From
my observation, you will be lucky to get 5 mature fruit on a 6 foot tall tree.
Alphonso is highly complex in flavor...many love that Indian piney flavor.
 
Ataulfo (common supermarket fruit) is not complex in flavor, hence it isn't highly prized by us mango snobs.  It has a short window where it is ideal sweet and tart (right when it develops wrinkles).  Otherwise it is too sour (green or yellow but unwrinkled) or just pure sweetness only (yellow and overly-wrinkled).

So would you reccomend grafting something new onto the alphonso tree? The tree has already been grafted at the base. Is it bad to regraft?

You can give Alphonso a try for a couple of years.  Maybe you'll have better luck.  Some spray Alphonso with KNO3 to induce more flowering.
I'm am interested to see how well Simon has done with Alphonso in Mira Mesa.

Some of my friends are looking at the following varieties to replace non-productive Alphonso:
Kesar, valcarrie, Julie, Carrie, ice cream, pirie, alampur baneshan, Bombay, Angie, ST Maui, neelkiran, jehangir, son pari, and a few others.  These all have a similar piney flavor.  We are still experimenting with these varieties (productivity and disease resistance in SoCal) so I can't recommend topworking Alphonso with any of these piney varieties yet.

[simon_grow]

My Alphonso tree was growing great at first but then it started getting the droopy branches and dieback. It was on Turpentine rootstock. It flowered great and had good fruit set in years where there was minimal Powdery Mildew but in years where the weather favored Powdery Mildew, there was zero Fruit set.

I really Love strongly flavored Indian Mangos like Alphonso and Kesar. That intense piney resin flavor grew on me over the years and it is so nice to taste a mango that is very different tasting compared to the usual tropical peachy flavor of typical Mangos. The Alphonso however was plagued with so many issues aside from poor Fruit set in high fungus years. Alphonso grown in SoCal does not taste as good as the ones grown in Ratnagiri.

After some research, I read that some believed that the difference in flavor was due to the differences in soil composition. In India, the regions where Alphonso is grown, they have a type of red clay soil and it is believed that their rich red clay soil gave their Alphonso’s that uniquely rich sweet and piney flavor.

My soil here in SoCal is also very high in clay but it is a much lighter tan-beige clay. One year I supplemented my Alphonso tree with rock dust and sea minerals and the flavor was much better with more piney notes and the Brix increased but some of my fruit had jellyseed which is common for this variety.

I finally dug up this tree and gave it to my friend. I prefer Kesar over Alphonso because it is better tasting, sweeter, and is not prone to Jellyseed.

Simon

[Squam256]

I got 35 to 40 mangos off a 6-7ft tall Alphonso last year, grown in south Florida coastal sugar sand.  None of the fruit that came off the tree in 2016 had been any good (actually quite repulsive). Initially in 2017 the flavor was lousy as well, but after a few weeks the flavor improved dramatically, to the point that customers actually were requesting it.