Seed Growers insight wanted

[fliptop]

I've started a few things from seed, and I've got to wondering . . .

Does the condition in which the parent fruit is grown affect the seedling it produces?

For example, I just had Madame Francis mangoes which were nowhere near as good as the ones I had last year. They tasted washed out versus last year's awesome spicy full-flavored ones. If excessive watering (or conversely excessive drought) affected the fruit quality (as opposed to a fruit being subpar by its nature), would that affect the seedling it produces? The question isn't just about polyembryonic mangoes, but things like papaya and Suriname Cherry, as well.

On a side note, the only monoembryonic mango seeds I planted last year were two Pickering seeds from fruit off the same tree. It's interesting that they are not growing as fast as other seedlings planted around the same time. I'm hoping they are dwarf/semi-dwarf.

Here's a pic of the Pickering seedlings flanked by a Nam Doc Mai and a Po Pyu Kalay seedling.

Thanks!

[fruitlovers]

Less than optimal soil or climate conditions, especially if temporary, are not going to affect genetic make up, so once seedlings are planted in prime conditions they should produce good quality fruits.

[achetadomestica]

If excess moisture causes a mango to taste bland one year it shouldn't affect the genetics of the seed.
The pollen that germinated the seed would have more importance. The topic of selective breeding is
very interesting. I recently was trying to obtain a cajun gold fig that I heard about several years ago.
This man named O'Roark didicated his life to developing superior strains of figs. He crossed certain types
of known figs and then grew thousands of seeds to sample the fruits and pick the best tasting and most
productive for the humid South. This cajun fig I was trying to locate turned out to be one such outstanding
surviving tree. Literally thousands of trees were grown out and many are long gone but there are now
wild unnamed figs waiting for people to find throughout parts of Louisiana. I did locate the fig and was offered
an unrooted cutting for $50. I was so thrilled but then realized how poor my figs do in Florida. The figs ripen
every year in our rainy season and are very similiar to the mangos this year bland and not high brix.

[baccarat0809]

I have 4 mango seedlings that are around 23 months old - so coming up on 2 years now at the end of this month.

Tree #1.  The seedling is from my favorite fruit that I ate in June of 2016 and picked up from a street seller in Okeechobee.  The seller called the variety "sugar cookie" - though nobody on the forum has heard that before.  The mango was the sweetest fruit I have ever eaten.  It was fantastic and the reason I decided to grow mangos at all.  I couldn't believe how great that fruit was.  The tree has two trunks coming up from the seed so its a Poly seed.  The largest trunk is already over 6 feet tall (close to 7 feet tall) and branching out on its own rather nicely and looking like a real winner.  The smaller trunk is around 4 feet tall.  I haven't done any sort of pruning on that tree and it developed a nice low set of branches and another high set at around 5 feet.  The tree, unlike my other seedlings, has kept all of its leaves from all of its flushes - ie - the trunk itself still has leaves.  The tree has limited anthracnose damage to the leaves but there is some.  Genetic winner at least the way its growing now and since its a Poly by evidence of the multiple trunks if the mangos taste anything like the one I bought from that stand ima gonna be a happy camper.

Tree #2.  This seedling is from a beautiful Kent mango.  Again it was bought from a street vendor around Okeechobee in June 2016.  Its around 4 feet tall and just pushing another flush right now.  I pruned that tree following the "Ghana pruning video" this spring and its creating a beautiful open canopy.  The internodes on that tree are HUGE.  The canopy is nice and airy and the tree is looking phenomenal.  If it keeps this up it'll be well over 6 feet tall  and fully branched out next year.  This seedling shows almost no anthracnose and is taking off into a very wide tree and has also not dropped the lower, developing leaves.

Tree #3.  This seedling is also from a Kent mango that was rather tasty.  This tree however has internodes that are around 1 to 1.5 inches each.  I pruned it according to the "Ghana pruning video" again and it is branching nicely but the tree is maybe 3 feet tall if that.  If you're looking for a dwarf tree, this is it.  It has some anthracnose damage to the leaves and has dropped all of its lower leaves.  The tip leaves are looking good now but the current flush its going through is right on top of the last growth and my guess is i'm going to have anthracnose issues on this tree.  Keeping it for now but seriously considering top-working the tree.  Genetic unknown but i don't think this is a tree I'll use for anything more than a graft - though I do need trees to graft onto so not a big loss.

Tree #4.  I'm going to pull the plug on this one and use the container for another tree.  The tree is maybe 2 feet tall and almost looks like a bonsai tree.  The seedling was a brother/sister of the sugar cookie mango and came from the same tree that seedling #1 came from.  Genetic looser.  It has around 8 or 9 branches but gets HAMMERED by anthracnose.  I can't believe this seed came from the same batch that produced tree #1.  This one isn't even worth grafting onto as it truly looks like I bonsai'd it from the beginning.

Then lets talk about some of my seedlings that were started last summer.  I've got some seedlings that I started 4 months ago that are bigger than some of the seedlings I started last June.  I gave away two of my nicer seedlings and kept the runts but I'm not going to use those for anything more than grafting material.  Again, i need seedlings to graft onto so no big loss - and in the long run I'm saying myself money by starting trees from the fruits i'm eating anyway - but neither of the 2 from last summer that I have left are worth keeping.

Its all about the genetic lottery at work.