Leo Manuel and Paul Ulrich informed me recently that there was a fiberless Mango growing in someone's yard in San Diego so I went to investigate. The Mango tree is growing in the Claremont area of San Diego, I believe it is considered coastal inland and the property owners say it never freezes and the lowest temps are usually around 35F.
The tree is 10 ft tall by 10ft wide with several branches growing vertical to about 12 feet. This is a seedling tree and I was told by the property owners that this is the largest crop the tree has held. They say The tree usually produces less but much larger fruit. The property owner, Margot, kindly allowed me to harvest some fruit and collect some scions.
As you can see in the pictures, there are Mangoes of varying sizes. The largest mango on the tree was approximately 1 lbs with many smaller mangos in the 5-13 oz range. The Mango is a beautiful red, yellow and green color. Margot brought out a knife and a counter ripened fruit for me to sample and I was pleasantly surprised as I sliced into the Mango to reveal the orange yellow fruit color. I took a Brix reading and this particular Mango had a Brix reading of 19%.
The Mango has a slight citrusy smell and has great acid balance. This particular fruit I sampled did not have much fiber but a second Mango I sampled at home had more fiber, very similar to the fiber content of a Haden. The acidic component of this Mango reminded me of Tangerine and this Mango was still very firm. I prefer to eat my Mangos fully ripe and slightly softer. If the Zills bred this Mango, they would probably call it Tangerine Delight.
At this location, the Summer heat is buffed by coastal marine influence and I would hazard to guess that this Margo Mango will be even sweeter when grown more Inland. Margo did not have any particular fertilizer regimen dedicated especially for Mangos, I believe she used a Citrus type fertilizer. With increased Potassium fertilizer during bloom and sizing of the fruit, I believe the Brix can be increased even higher.
The faults of this Mango is that approximately 10% of the fruit were cracked. I'm not exactly sure if this is caused by a lack of a specific micronutrient such as Calcium, too much Nitrogen or uneven soil moisture levels.
This Margot Mango is a great tasting Mango and deserves to be trialed at more locations to see if eating quality increases even more. This is the first year I've sampled this fruit and I will definitely follow up on it in the coming years to see how consistent the quality is. I just wished I knew earlier so I could have brought some of these Margot Mangos to be sampled side by side with all the other great mangos at Frank's recent Mango tasting. Here are some pictures.
Simon