The Tropical Fruit Forum

That’s a very witty analogy. I appreciate the depth of that unique comment. After watching that Gary Zill video I now know why my Orange Essence tasted like crap. Because I left them on the trees tooooo long.

When shoots develop I will graft another variety on. Probably Orange Sherbet.

The mangoes disappeared very quickly all 55 of them.

Hey Gringo your Doni’s appear a tiny bit sunburn but that’s OK. Did you feel the seed moving around on any of them when you shook them? Yes I confirm CT Miami’s comment. It’s definitely Doni and I have the same situation as you with many Doni’s amazingly still on the tree mid August. It’s probably because Miami Doni’s blossomed late. My tree is about 14 years old and I never had them this late before. This is a very exciting thing to happen but especially for me because I was away for a month and was sooooo happy to see the fruit still on and big and healthy and not attacked by the squirrels.

I was away for 1 month. Came home 2 days ago. Today is real mid August. This is what was on my trees and all in perfect condition except for Sweet Tarts which had some splits but only because they should have been picked way way earlier.
Venus (same 4 that were on when I left town)
Keitts (not a mark on them which is the opposite of what was mentioned above and all in plastic clamshells)
Orange Essence
Amazingly 2 Lemon Zests (out of 40+ LZ trees) insignificant
Amazingly 2 Cotton Candy (but I have 26 CC trees) insignificant
M-4 (2 of the 4 fruit were still hanging)
Hatcher ( 1/3 of my entire Hatcher crop is still hanging)
And to top it off every Doni avocado that was on the tree before I left is still on the tree even though Doni is a June through July fruit. About 15 fruit total and very big.
Now my opinions
Super happy about being able to taste M-4’s when they ripen
Of everything I mentioned above I will now relate those findings to the question above.
The latest is Keitt….period. If someone is reporting BBS on their Keitts I tend to think it’s usually some other pathology. Just my opinion. Many beginners just misdiagnose.
Surprised very much so about my Orange Essence. Have 5 of these trees and not a single fruit fell off or was stolen or damaged. All are solid green and a few are really big.
Venus fruit are all in the shade and maybe that’s a reason they are still on. Also solid green and real big.
So we are talking mid August mangoes. In the previous 5 years I always picked my Keitts on or before August 16th because that’s when the squirrels start to annihilate them but this year I have almost all the fruit on my 4 Keitt trees inside clear plastic clamshell boxes and I am confident that the squirrels will only eat from the uncovered ones. Doing this to prove how effective the clamshell boxes are. The uncovered ones are my controls. This is called the “scientific method”
PS one of my Keitt trees is along the street and about 15 of the uncovered beauties were stolen by humans since none were on the ground.
I am located about 10 miles south of the Miami Airport for reference.

I have 4 Peach Cobbler trees that are going on 4 years in the ground and haven’t ever gotten to taste a PC. I look very forward to next season. I envy that you got 4 Kathy’s to taste test and compare to your OS. Hopefully both varieties will be ripened perfectly and get immense pleasure and gratitude for giving yourself and others this eye popping experience. It will make all your efforts get paid off big time. It will be like visiting a King and a Queen in high court!!

I picked an OS about 3.5 weeks ago and it took 13 days before I cut in. It was still hard. So now it’s a month later. So happens that on July 16th 2018 ZHPP’s picked all their OS’s and had them for sale in their office. I cleaned all mine off this past Friday July 16th too. Yes it’s Orange Sherbet time. If only OS could have babies with Kathy can you even imagine how great those children could be!

First I am referring to mango grafts only. Second is scion selection which is that the thinner more green the more flexible it is. This means that when you have such a scion and you slice off a side to attach to a branch it will be so flexible that it should attach to the branch side with very little pressure. Not in every situation but in most strong pressure shouldn’t be needed if one chooses a young thin flexible scion. In most of these cases you might need to twist the Buddy tape near the top of the graft to hold it down better because twisting it allows much stronger pressure. But before doing this one must hold the separated sides together then hold it with the twisted tape. And sometimes a small clothes pin will hold the top snuggly but gently. To me using electrical tape means you are putting a square peg in a circle.
Give this video a little time to load up. PS I am sorry but if anyone says their grafting success rate is 100% I just don’t think that’s possible unless your sample number is very low.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0PFcax_I4VUWPJPhsM8BVS2Lw

With the same dilemma you are talking about I thought I saw an Orange Sherbet with a bit of lightening up to yellowing 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. I picked it and it took 13 days to seem ready. It was spectacular. We are talking Miami. I picked another one 5 days ago and I had every confidence it would also ripen perfectly. I’ll take a photo of it next to a green Lemon Zest and Sweet Tart. Tomorrow the OS will be eaten and again I’m confident it will also be great. It is very firm to touch right now.

I cannot verbalize the differences. I’ll tell you this crazy thing. I took a spoonful in the kitchen of my 1st OS and got very excited and took a big scoop and went in the bedroom where my wife was walking on the treadmill and she took the spoonful of the OS. She loved it and said she tasted coconut. I said you’re crazy. Then I sneezed and blew my nose in a tissue and then smelled the coconut and apologized. I don’t remember anyone saying coconut and OS together. That OS sat on the counter for 13 days till it turned a bit more light yellow. It was still firm and not the slightest wrinkled. I’m leaving for a month on the 18th to visit my kids and grandkids and I want to take a big suitcase full of Cotton Candy’s and Orange Sherbets. I’m almost ready to start praying that their seasons don’t pass before I pick them. Same for my Lemon Zests Lemon Meringues Sweet Tarts and a few more cause where they live there is nothing like these mangoes 

For me Orange Sherbet, Kathy stood out so far this season. Many others are great. But so far this season they caused the most emotions.

My coconut creams are healthy looking but in 5 years 3 of the 4 never produced fruit. The 4th about 12-15 feet tall made 2 fruit this season. I topped 3 to convert.

4 on 2 M-4 trees holding solid green.