Thanks to all for the words of consolation and for the compliments.
Nice looking trees. I'm curious on how the Tebow Young tastes. I got one growing that I planted a few years ago and it got really burnt back from the 09/10 freeze but has since recovered. But, alas, no fruit.
Dave, unfortuantely, I can only report mediocrity when it comes to Young/
Tebow.....flavorwise, anyway. Nice looking mango, disease resistance for sure, but not in my top two tiers of mangoes on the flavor scale.
Looks damn good to me! Harry, how old is that Duncan? That's a good size tree.....I bought mine thinking it was a dwarft.
Joe: My Duncan tree was a raffel prize from a Fairchild Mango Festival back in the mid-1990's. It has been a slower growing tree for me. Then in 2006, Hurricane Wilma broke the tree down to a stump about 4 feet high. So what you see for tree growth was from the last 6 years after a Hurricane style major "pugging." Its not a true dwarf, but definitely a slower grower and very manageable size-wise.
Harry, what an unfortunate loss. Wow that really hurts. I can feel your pain brother. Do your NDM mangoes split? I have yet to get one from my tree that did not split. Rollinia looking awesome.
Why don't you knock down that squirrel nest? I have done it a few times and sent the nesting mother scrambling just when she finished building the nest.
Omar:
My NDM do split, but not always. If we have any heavy rains at all, they are splitting for sure. Without heavy rains, less so, but still a risk if left on the tree too long. You have to harvest slightly early to avoid this. it isn't easy to time the picking but just watching the size of fruit, the first fruit that splits and animal activity in relation to the fruit gives some pretty good guidance on when the fruits can be picked to ripen off the tree. My problem is that I hate to pick fruit while still hard and green as I have so many mangoes in a typical year that I want to leave fruit on the tree, for as long as possible, such that the season could be extended for each particular tree.
As far as attacking the squirrel's nest....while I hate the damage that squirreals do, I just can't bring myself to destroying the nest. I'd much rather let the local hawks, foxes, dogs, car traffic, etc take the job of controlling the squirrel population. I should be a lot harder on them, but its not in my nature.
eek that sucks about the duncan. You've got a perfect prune point though right above that lower limb (where the red line is). Splitting like that doesn't heal well and will lead to disease and infection later on down the road.
Thanks, Jeff....will give the cut consideration as soon as the fruits on the remaining portion of the tree mature.
Nice trees! Looks amazingly delicious...
So u gonna sell some rollinia fruits?
??
Adam......oh that I would have enough to sell. Probably will be just enough for local consumption. I expect it to be one of my star offerings for the fruit tastings that I have for visitors. So....come on down to taste! I definitely don't want to count my chickens before they hatch or my rollinias before they are ready to roll.
Very sorry to see the Duncan's mishap. Have you had heavy crops like that before? Do you bother thinning or propping fruit-laden branches? I hope over production is a problem I have to face with my mangos someday! You have some beautiful trees there, Harry.
James
James.....this tree bears fairly consistant and quite heavily each year (once it regained its canopy after the Hurricane). It has never broken down before. I do wonder if any of my dogs had any part in this. Sometimes they'll have a possum or raccoon up in a tree and all of the lower branches are subject to be damaged or taken down. The thing is, I did not hear the usual noise that comes along with the dog induced tree trimming. And, this was an upward pointing branch, not even sure how I would have braced it, even if I thought about bracing it prior to the loss. Mango branch breaking is not that uncommon. My worst mango limb break down occurred with my Bombay mango. I grew it into a gorgeous, well pruned (a la Richard Campbell) tree. Lots of laterilization of branches. Then it had a fairly heavy crop one year and every lateral branch broke back to the main trunk. I lost over 300 mangoes.
Anyway, looks like mango season is rearing its head slowly here at my house. The first offcicial ripened fruit has not been eaten as of yet, but its getting very, very close.
Harry
