The Tropical Fruit Forum

The Palm Beach Chapter Rare Fruit Council will be hosting its first FRUIT ONLY Sale on Saturday, July 8, 2023.

At least ten vendors are expected participate, each setting their own prices and own inventory.

For Mangos I will bring Sunrise, Carrie, Mahachanok, Pickering, Kathy (K-3), Lemon Zest, Angie, Coconut Cream (limited amount), Duncan.
Sapodilla:  Hasya (limited quantity)
Mamey Sapote: Pace

Location:  Mounts Botanical Gardens Auditorium
531 N. Military Trail
West Palm Beach, FL 
10 AM to 2 PM

Mounts is across the street from Palm Beach International Airport on Military Trail.

Please bring CASH.  Sales like this are a fundraiser for the Palm Beach Rare Fruit Council - the council receives a portion of the proceeds.

https://pbrfc.wildapricot.org/

Many of us know that Turpentine is a common root stock for mangos in Florida.  However, I heard from a very credible source that due to the lack of sufficient Turpentine rootstock, some of the large nurseries are importing Turpentine-like mango seeds from other countries.  Basically, if a mango grafting nursery needs 100,000 seeds for grafting, there are not enough Turpentine mango seeds.  So the nurseries travel to a foreign country, find a mango grower that is growing a Turpentine like mango and buy the entire crop.  Then has the seeds stripped of flesh and lawfully imports the seeds with the proper permits.  The nursery uses these seeds as grafting rootstock.

I use the term "very credible source" because I didn't ask the person's permission to attribute their name to the information.

Of course I am talking about the "Sunrise Mango."  In my opinion, Sunrise is one of the best of the new Zill varieties.  I found myself typically eating the Sunrise mango, regardless of what mangoes were on my counter (Mahachanok, Coconut Cream, Sweet Tart, whatever).

Ironically, Zills is NOT propagating the Sunrise this year - supposedly Sunrise has production issues.  Nobody told my Sunrise tree; it produced over a hundred pounds of mango.   

I topworked three of my trees to be Sunrise mangos.

For those who with fruit trees that may be affected by a hurricane...a few thoughts on recovery.

If a branch or main trunk is broken off during a storm, it may be best to prune off the damaged portion, leaving a clean cut.  This may speed the healing process.  The jagged break provides a larger surface for insect infestation and disease entry.  Cuts should not be into the collar of a branch.

If you apply fertilizer, reduce the fertilizer to reflect the new canopy size.  You risk chemically burning the tree with too much fertilizer.

From my experience, trees susceptible to flooding... avocado, starfruit, sapodilla, and papaya.

Trees that can withstand some flooding:  mango and jackfruit.

Best wishes to all!

One of the challenges for some fruit related organizations is to finding interesting speakers.  This post is to provide a list of potential speakers for various clubs in Florida. Please feel free to add your name, if you give fruit related presentations.

Mark Young ("Mr. Clean") - President, Palm Beach Chapter of the Rare Fruit Council.  Mark currently has two presentations:  "Tropical Fruit For The Backyard" and "Micro Irrigation For The Home".   His presentations focus on practical application related to fruit trees, i.e. trouble-free trees that produce fruit.  Mark has over 110 fruit trees and plants in his yard, with over 70 mango trees.  He has spoken at various organizations.  www.mangosbymail.com  Mr. Young is a lawyer concentrating in business and construction legal issues.  http://www.asbuiltlaw.com/ 

Alex Salazar ("Squam256") - Owner of Tropical Acres Farms.  https://www.facebook.com/TropicalAcresFarms/  Alex has over 250 varieties of mangos and is a leading expert on mangos in Florida.  He has several presentations and has traveled through out the state of Florida giving presentations.

Chris Rollins - Former Director of Fruit & Spice Park (for about 20 years) - Chris has a list of about 20 presentations that he can give.  Mr. Rollins in a wealth of knowledge on tropical fruits and edible plants.  He introduced the Borneo Red jackfruit to Florida and lead numerous international fruit trips.  He knew all of the "giants" of tropical fruits, such as Bill Whitman and Julia Morton.  He currently resides in North Carolina and is growing apples and paw paws, but visits south Florida in January or February, where he gives presentations at about 20 organizations during the month.  Since Chris is traveling from such a far away, it would be nice if the host organization could provide him lodging the night of the presentation.

Har Mahdeem ("Guanabanas")- Har worked for many years at Zills High Performance, including grafting trees.  He has vast knowledge of fruit trees.   Har has a business specializing in pruning fruit trees and offers top working services as well.

Mike Winterstein - USDA.  Mike is the curator of the USDA's plant germplasm repository at the USDA facility in Coral Gables, Florida.  The USDA collection includes over 400 varieties of mango.

Richard Campbell, PhD - Dr. Campbell is former Curator of Fairchild Botanical Gardens.  Richard is author of a number of books on mangos and jackfruit and a leading expert on mangos.

Jonathan Crane, PhD - Dr. Crane is a researcher of tropical fruits for TREC.  He is a leading expert in tropical fruits. 

Noris Ledemsa, PhD - Dr. Ledesma is the head curator of Fairchild Botanical Gardens.  Noris is a co-author on a number of books on mangos and jackfruit.  She is a leading expert on mangos.

Noel Ramos  ("FloridaGreenMan") - Noel grew up on his family's owned coffee plantation in Puerto Rico.  Mr. Ramos has an amazing presentation on coffee.  Noel is knowledgeable about many fruits and has fruit contacts in Puerto Rico.

Alina Campbell, PhD - Dr. Campbell is a researcher on Cocoa at the USDA facility at Chapman Field.  No relation to Richard Campbell.  She has a presentation on Cocoa, the chocolate producing fruit.

Jorge J. Zaldivar - Guavonia Guava Grove (Redland, FL)  GuavaRico.com  Jorge has a very technical presentation on guavas and is a wealth of knowledge on guava.

Cindy Weinstein with Green Sea Farms (Tampa, FL) has a presentation on pomegranate.

Gary Zill - Zills High Performance (Boynton Beach, FL).  Zills only sales wholesale to nurseries and landscapers.  Gary is a pre-eminent expert on mangos.  Mr. Zill pioneered the 10,000 seed Zill selective mango breeding program.  It can be difficult to schedule Gary as a speaker.

Richard Wilson - Owner of Excalibur Nurseries (Lake Worth, FL).  http://www.excaliburfruittrees.com/  Richard makes annual trips to Asia searching for new fruit trees and plants to introduce into the US.  Mr. Wilson is a jovial guy, with a wealth of knowledge of fruit trees.  It can be difficult to schedule Richard as a speaker.

Erik Tietig -  VP at Pine Island Nursieries (Homestead, FL).  http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/  A wealth of knowledge on tropical fruits as a co-owner of one of the largest fruit tree nurseries in south Florida.  It may be difficult get Erik to travel farther north than Broward County.

Robert - Robert Is Here.   www.robertishere.com 

Ray Austin - Business Manager-Seed & Crop Protection at Winfields Solutions (fertilizer company owned by Land O Lakes).  (Boynton Beach, FL). https://www.winfieldunited.com/   Ray worked 20+ years in agriculture.  He has a presentation on plant nutrition.

It is customary to give the speakers a small honorarium.  If the speaker is traveling from a different county, it is nice to give them a little extra to off-set travel costs.   Additional names will be added, as I remember them.

Making Orange Juice
https://youtu.be/p_RE-n95ccQ

Making Mango Juice
https://youtu.be/e_Nkj6oNb9E

How do you know a jackfruit is ready to be picked.  I know the give and smell test, which indicate ripe.  But I would like to pick them a little earlier, than the ready to each stage.  Any tips?

www.MangosByMail.com mailing mangos to mango fans in northern climates.

http://mangosbymail.com/our-mangos

Provides a variety viewer of mango seed cross sections of these varieties:

• Mahachanok
• Angie
• Coconut Cream
• Pickering
• Nam Doc Mai
• Rosigold

We are a small orchard of 1.25 acres with over 70 mango trees in ground in Palm Beach County, Florida.  We cannot ship to Hawaii or California.

We had an mango tasting on Memorial Day.  Squam provided the Lemonzest; Mr. Clean provided the rest of the mangos.  Squam diligently recorded the brix of each mango.  Two mangos had a 23 brix:  the Dupuis Saigon and Lemonzest.  The Dupuis was unevenly ripened, resulting in part of the mango having a Brix of 23 and another part with a 17 Brix.  Carrie and Angie had similar flavor, but Carrie had more flavor than the Angie.

Angie
Carrie
Dupuis Saigon (Brix 17/23)
Dwarf Hawaiian
Coconut Cream
Rosigold
Lemonzest (Brix 23)
Spirit of 76
Mahachanok
Pickering (did not cut, decided could ripen more)
Nam Doc Mai (did not cut, decided could ripen more)
Duncan (did not cut, decided could ripen more)

I understand that both Excalibur and Zills imported mahachanok from Asia, but that the trees are slightly different.  What are the differences?

I went to the news room at a local ABC news station, WPBF, to promote the Rare Fruit Council International, Palm Beach Chapter's Plant Sale (Saturday May 20, 2017 from 9 AM to 2 PM) at the South Florida Fairgrounds.  WPBF's staff was very nice and professional.

As part of my presentation, I brought four mango varieties:  1)  Fairchild, 2) Coconut Cream, 3) Mahachanok, and 4) Rosigold.  We only tasted one variety on the air, but afterwards, they tried the rest.  A number of people didn't like mangos, until they tried the mangos that I brought.  The clear favorite was the Coconut Cream mango among these varieties. 

I love mangos as much as the next guy, but I don't know how to describe the taste for the different mango varieties.   What do these terms mean in the context of mangos?  Any other popular terms?

Added terms and suggestions:

Resinous - having a twang that suggests a pine type of flavor.
Piney - see resinous
Sweet - having a sweet flavor
Earth - having a hint of dirt flavor
Tart - sour (not bitter)
Musky - flavor often associated with over-ripe mangos
Coconut flavor - tasting like coconuts.  Mangos such as Gary and coconut cream.
Thai flavor -
Delicious - very subjective term
Indo Chinese flavor
Citrus
Indian Desert
Peach - having a peach type flavor
Rich - suggesting  sweet and/or creamy flavor
Exotic - subjective term
cola - having a flavor suggestive of coca cola
funky but chic - advertising lingo
Fruity -
chalky - refers to texture of mango that is dry
iodine -
anis/fennel -
flowery - scent reminiscent of a boutique of flowers
Indian East flavor
Dessert mango - usually a sweet mango
Cooking mango - a mango that is under ripe or a "bad" mango
Traditional Mango Flavor - likely associated with flavors of Haden.
Spicy -
Funky - subjective term

For lychee, are Ohia and Ohia Red two different varieties or two names for the same variety?