Luc’s Mexican Garcinia vs Achachairu - Video comparison - Garcinia Showdown

[Sleepdoc]

We put Luc’s Mexican Garcinia to the test.  Check out the vid

https://youtu.be/uX-eo5tspd8

[Gone tropo]

Great video thanks for sharing, how do you rate the purple mangosteen against these two?

[cbss_daviefl]

Mangosteens are better. But even if I had unlimited access to mangosteen, I would still eat both Luc's and achachairu. The flavors are different enough to keep it interesting.

[Mike T]

I have eaten a lot of Garcinias of all kinds including good dulcis, lucs, russells macrophylla madrono megaphylla, the main SE brazil species achachas etc and many mangosteen varieties. Mt view is that the queen has a very shaky grip on the throne.
Lucs has a taste almost as good as mangosteen and flesh yield is ok for an American but the texture is less than ideal. I'd still have it in the top 5. Mangosteens especially the better lines like mesta are pretty good with a nice taste and flesh yield can also let mangosteens down generally. Imbes are like vitamin c tablets, gardneriana, brasiliensis and intermedia are too small with too little flesh to be contenders. Megaphylla is on par with achacha in taste and flesh yiels as well as size and is just a bit sweeter but these are not the big guns.
Ok number 1 Russell sweet with size, flesh yield and nice peachy taste putting is ahead. The taste ideally could be a little more intense. 2 Mangosteen and I don't need to describe the queen, 3 Macrophylla and Lucs by proxy as I have never had a really big fat fruit. 4 Now it gets more subjective with more contenders like cherapu, magaphylla, achacha and dulcis. Maybe a good big sweet form dulcis gets this spot but most are not sweet enough but they have good flesh yield.

[Mike T]

The macrophylla in that handsome paw at the top shows why I rank it highly. The Megapylla below shows the fruits similarities to achacha but it tastes better.

[Gone tropo]

Interesting mike, I would love to try a russels. I have only tried mangosteen and achacha and I really
Like the achacha I rate it only just behind the mangosteen. Others I have talked to around here didn’t rate the achacha so highly similar to you.

[cbss_daviefl]

Another thing to note is that my Luc's are a bit different from Clint's. Based on Raul's sales posts of his different findings and my first hand experience with a handful of flowering trees, I think there is enough variability that future propagation may benefit from seedling selections.  Of the three flowering seedlings I have in the ground, one has a clear productivity advantage. In the fall, I will have fruit from four different trees to see if there is a significant quality difference.

Mike T, thanks for posting your top selections. I have been keeping my eyes and ears open for signs of the elusive Russell's sweet here. I have not seen any available, be it seed or scion.

[Sam]

Hey Mike,

Great info on all the Garcinias. How big does the Macrophylla tree get and at what age do they begin fruiting?

Are they dioecious as well?

Regards,
Sam

[Mike T]

Sorry didnt mean to hijack the the thread. I made a serious error Garcinia magnifolia not macrophylla and I keep calling magnifolia by the wrong name so sorry for any confusion. Achacha just cant mix it with the big guns its true but I have heard people rave about them. G. macrophylla seems to get around 20 feet before fruiting and I am talking about the good Ecuadorian form not the trashy brazilian pretender. Alan Carle's tree is big. Someone handy at throwing a cricket ball can bring them down and probably someone handy at pitching a baseball also.

[sytanta]

Sorry didnt mean to hijack the the thread. I made a serious error Garcinia magnifolia not macrophylla and I keep calling magnifolia by the wrong name so sorry for any confusion. Achacha just cant mix it with the big guns its true but I have heard people rave about them. G. macrophylla seems to get around 20 feet before fruiting and I am talking about the good Ecuadorian form not the trashy brazilian pretender. Alan Carle's tree is big. Someone handy at throwing a cricket ball can bring them down and probably someone handy at pitching a baseball also.

So Garcinia magnifolia is number 3 along with Luc, right Mike?

[Mike T]

Sorry I must have been half asleep when I wrote that last night, and now need to correct the correction. Macrophylla is the better one at number 3 and it was megaphylla that is the incorrect name I should have said magnifolia.

[sytanta]

Makes sense, thanks Mike.

[fruitlovers]

We put Luc’s Mexican Garcinia to the test.  Check out the vid

https://youtu.be/uX-eo5tspd8

Nice video, and fun comparison. But honestly i think it's too early to make the call. Once you have lots of the Luc's fruit, or at least same number as you do of achachairus, so you can taste lots of them at once, once you know how to pick them at the best time, once the tree has been bearing for a few years, and maybe improves with age?, then maybe it will be a more fair call?
Here i've only tasted a few of the Luc's, and they had kind of a sweet apple sauce taste. Nice, but not as nice as the best of the achachairus. But my achachairu has been fruiting for many years. I noticed that the achachairu fruits improved a lot as the tree got older, especially in years when it was well fertilized.
As far as growing for market, the achachairu is a very clear winner. The Luc's is slow to produce, and there's still too much we don't know about it. The achachairu pumps out tons of fruits once it gets going, and the fruits keep for a very long time.

[fruitlovers]

I have eaten a lot of Garcinias of all kinds including good dulcis, lucs, russells macrophylla madrono megaphylla, the main SE brazil species achachas etc and many mangosteen varieties. Mt view is that the queen has a very shaky grip on the throne.
Lucs has a taste almost as good as mangosteen and flesh yield is ok for an American but the texture is less than ideal. I'd still have it in the top 5. Mangosteens especially the better lines like mesta are pretty good with a nice taste and flesh yield can also let mangosteens down generally. Imbes are like vitamin c tablets, gardneriana, brasiliensis and intermedia are too small with too little flesh to be contenders. Megaphylla is on par with achacha in taste and flesh yiels as well as size and is just a bit sweeter but these are not the big guns.
Ok number 1 Russell sweet with size, flesh yield and nice peachy taste putting is ahead. The taste ideally could be a little more intense. 2 Mangosteen and I don't need to describe the queen, 3 Macrophylla and Lucs by proxy as I have never had a really big fat fruit. 4 Now it gets more subjective with more contenders like cherapu, magaphylla, achacha and dulcis. Maybe a good big sweet form dulcis gets this spot but most are not sweet enough but they have good flesh yield.

In my opinion a good achachairu is as good or better than a good mangosteen. If the achachairu had smaller seeds, like the mangosteen, it would definitely be tops. Look forward to tasting Russel's sweet. I have a few planted in the ground, but dang they are super slow, like most garcinias!
I thought for a moment you had a new species of garcinia in Australia in the megaphylla! 

[Mike T]

Oscar your palate must be tune a little more in favour of acid in the acid/sugar balance than mine. Achachas rode an erly ave and were planted a fair bit around here. They are really productive. I was being more generous in my assessment of them than some of the growers around here that have them.

While I have your attention, I am likely to acquire a seedling of a very glamorous mangosteen.Its not a mesta or big borneo small star but the mother trees in tenom park gardens is a bit of a show stopper apparently. A chum got some seeds personally and just planted the seedlings. I offered to relieve him of one. They are big, thinner skimmed and firmer fleshed but not sourer like the other borneo one I mentioned.

[sytanta]

Sounds like a big winner of that Tenom mangosteen. Wonder why it is not widely known knowing that the quality is superior.

[Finca La Isla]

I really like the different varieties and don’t try to judge them so much. But as a vender I will say that the mangosteen easily has the best demand. I have clients who prefer achachariu and others cherapu. Now with the Brunei cherry, parvifolia, on the scene that has people asking for it too. But overall mangosteen will still outsell all of those together at our farmers market.
Peter

[fruitlovers]

I really like the different varieties and don’t try to judge them so much. But as a vender I will say that the mangosteen easily has the best demand. I have clients who prefer achachariu and others cherapu. Now with the Brunei cherry, parvifolia, on the scene that has people asking for it too. But overall mangosteen will still outsell all of those together at our farmers market.
Peter

Mangosteen has all the publicity and the PR hype, and a lot of people know it's considered the "queen of fruits", and many call it the "most delicious fruit of all". That is very difficult to beat with a newly introduced fruit like achachairu. Also mangosteen has the additional advantage of supposedly having positive health effects with the xanthones content. The mangosteen drink Xango was heavily advertised and marketed. Also mangosteen is more attractive looking fruit than achachairu. So it's no wonder that mangosteen sells better.

[Gone tropo]

I agree with Oscar I rate the achacha as a great fruit and I consider my tree as prized as my mangosteen trees, still a long way off durian though.

[BrizzyFizzy]

@miket I can't wait to try and hound you for a scion in three or four years time

[Mike T]

Oscar I don't take back the harsh words I said about achachairu. However a cherapu experience today has convinced me prainiana need to be higher on the list of the best. There were much bigger ones up high and not many mangosteens can compete with really good prainiana selections.They had great tang and pleasant citrussy tones and I could have eaten far more than I did today.

[Mike T]

Just ignore those white jabs.  Prainianas do have high flesh yield, gamboge or latex issues and really deserve more attention. Mind you some selections are better than others.

[Mike T]

I will say something about those white jabs and they are the next generation of some of the seeds Paulo sent me a long time ago. Paulo is a giant of the jab world.

[Stevo]

Giant Prainiana is certainly a contender

[fruitlovers]

Oscar I don't take back the harsh words I said about achachairu. However a cherapu experience today has convinced me prainiana need to be higher on the list of the best. There were much bigger ones up high and not many mangosteens can compete with really good prainiana selections.They had great tang and pleasant citrussy tones and I could have eaten far more than I did today.

I like the cherapu a lot, but wouldn't place them as high as mangosteen. Sometimes cherapu can have annoying bitter after taste if the fruits are not perfectly ripe. On the plus side, the cherapus have thin skin, and much better pulp to waste ratio than mangosteen. Also the cherapu does not get the gamboge resin that mangosteens often get. Back on minus side, cherapu needs hand pollination to fruit really well.
I think it's important to keep on open mind on all these ratings because quality of fruits can change as trees grow, and as we learn to pick them at perfect stage. And even our taste buds can change, and so also our preferences. None of these ratings are written in stone.

[Mike T]

Sober words Oscar and that is true. Some prainiana have a really good flavour profile however even when a bit green. Bigger fruiting one that are more red orange seem to be better.

[Mike T]

Contrary to what I am told photos of me do exist. Peter Salleras a friend of over 25 years and a giant of the Australian tropical fruit realm took this pic of me after I raided his button mangosteen trees. I thought it was a good idea to relieve him of a few. The dashing one in the foreground is yours truly. Mike Prociv behind me has been a friend for over 30 years and has heavyweight knowledge of tropical fruit especially dragonfruit. We spent Wednesday morning inspecting Peter's impressive orchard, swapping lies and telling tales in good fun. Peter's cherapu are mighty fine fruit.


Last time I visited Peter he was road testing pruning equipment.

[fruitlovers]

Last time i saw Peter Salleras here in Hawaii he wanted to gift me his boots. But i didn't want to have to follow in his boot steps. Tell Peter to take another photo of you Mike, this time with your eyes open!

[Mike T]

I am not one to elbow others outa the way when a camera comes out and that is probably enough. Peter has big boots alright being a few inches taller than me  and I'm over 6 feet with quite a hoof on me. I am told I dont have the genetics for a fruit hand model as I make the fruit look smaller having a large paw.
A more considered appraisal of Garcina fruit and which are the best/most desirable may go a bit like this:
in first place is Russell Sweet or better large mangosteen types like mesta and the big borneos. The jury is out on Lukes but maybe a big jumbo fruit is right up there.
Big fruited prainiana  and macrophylla must be near the top also and I suspect Lindero from Ecuador could also be a star
The best sweet dulcis deserve a high rating also but standard dulcis are a bit sour.
I think there is a bunch of worthy americans that warrant honourable mentions like acachas, magnifilia, and a couple of species of madrono especially fuzzy skin types but these can vary in quality.

[Mike T]

What makes a showdown difficult is the variation within each species and variety adding to the subjectivity. While the pictured big mangosteens may not be Tenom Gardens elites they are just a large fruiting selection (big star flattened base) of the common mangosteen but Id like those along in a competition.


By contrast if you were to try this form of G.macrophylla which you can see in the handsome paw you would think it is a lousy fruit.G.dulcis is another  that ranges from being a nice fruit to something of extremely mediocre quality.

[fruitlovers]

What makes a showdown difficult is the variation within each species and variety adding to the subjectivity. While the pictured big mangosteens may not be Tenom Gardens elites they are just a large fruiting selection (big star flattened base) of the common mangosteen but Id like those along in a competition.


By contrast if you were to try this form of G.macrophylla which you can see in the handsome paw you would think it is a lousy fruit.G.dulcis is another  that ranges from being a nice fruit to something of extremely mediocre quality.

Well yes.  But that's the truth about most fruits: extreme variation in quality, and also lots of variation depending on where and how they were grown and if they were picked at peak ripeness.

[Dada]

Here some Garcinia macrophylla from Ecuador. The lines on the skin a bit different. So Garcinia magnifolia is coming after macrophylla in Mike's rating?

[Mike T]

Dada my point is that the variation in 'alleged'  G.macrophylla is so great that there are poorer ones that don't rate well such as those in the second pic. I am not the keeper of Garcinia fruit quality scorecards or ratings but yes good G.macrophylla outshines magnifolia. Different judges in a Garcinia pageant would no doubt award the tiara to different. I have no doubt the mythical big Rusty of which there is a tree in Puerto Rico would no doubt rank highly.
If we did a dirty dozen of the worst Garcinias to eat out of hand we may have some spirited debate.