Author Topic: Keitt & Kent no longer recommended for planting? Please say it ain't so.  (Read 2859 times)

nighthawk0911@yahoo.com

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I was hoping to plant a couple LATE season Mango trees. Keitt & Kent along with Beverly were at the top of my list as likely choices.  So I was concerned to see that Tropical Acres now no longer recommends Keitt or Kent for home planting due to newer disease issues. Are the problems really that bad?  We don't have enough good late season varieties now as it is.
Blessed be the man who plants a tree knowing he will never live to enjoy it's fruit or shade.

RodneyS

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Look into Cotton Candy

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Alex is a smart cookie, but my suggestion would be to take any planting recommendations with a grain of salt. There are numerous keitt trees in my bario that pump out prodigious quantities of clean fruit. One of my keitt trees did have an issue with MBBS, but a hard pruning seems to have rectified the problem. And, oddly, the older keitt just a couple dozen feet away never got it.

It's pretty typical to see overreactions to the predicted / perceived scope and severity of a disease outbreak in the early stages. I'm personally not letting MBBS susceptibility guide any of my planting decisions until I've had enough time to fully evaluate the impact to my particular growing conditions. I would suggest you do the same.

For a late season mango, I personally prefer Keitt over Kent. Keitt has a later season, and the fruit is far less susceptible to internal breakdown than that of the Kent.
Jeff  :-)

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I agree with Jeff, as long as you are willing to spray, as he is.

I haven't seen evidence of immunity to Mango Bacterial Black Spot by any mango variety. 

Florigon and Duncan are very tough, but I have seen a couple of infected fruits on both.  Glenn and Cogshall seem pretty good also.

Po Pyu Kalay, Nam Doc Mai, Elephant Tusk, Lemon Zest;  and Kent, Southern Blush, Cushman, all seem very susceptible.
Har

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Quote
Are the problems really that bad?

Yes.

The Keitt/Gary and Kent/Gary crosses from Gary Zill’s project offer the most promise as far as late-season stuff is concerned. These will continue to be evaluated over the next few years.

The problem the established late season cultivars have is they’re mostly purely descended from Haden and/or Brooks, and lack Julie or Saigon genes that appear to afford some level of resistance.

« Last Edit: June 18, 2018, 11:44:25 PM by Squam256 »

zands

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Quote
Are the problems really that bad?

Yes.

The Keitt/Gary and Kent/Gary crosses from Gary Zill’s project offer the most promise as far as late-season stuff is concerned. These will continue to be evaluated over the next few years.

The problem the established late season cultivars have is they’re mostly purely descended from Haden and/or Brooks, and lack Julie or Saigon genes that appear to afford some level of resistance.

Could you please post a few photos of what the leaves and fruit look like on mango trees with this problem?

Capt Ram

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I've also got 2 keitt trees were just about all the fruitis split looks like MBBS
Very sad,. If I do a severe prunning could that help the chances of getting rid of this diease ?
What about top working the tree, will MBBS infect the new grafts??
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Aaron

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I've also got 2 keitt trees were just about all the fruitis split looks like MBBS
Very sad,. If I do a severe prunning could that help the chances of getting rid of this diease ?
What about top working the tree, will MBBS infect the new grafts??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXNeGaGYNIg

Capt Ram

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Thanks Aaron
Excellent
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DuncanYoung

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Lemon Meringue with MBBS & Rot



bsbullie

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I've also got 2 keitt trees were just about all the fruitis split looks like MBBS
Very sad,. If I do a severe prunning could that help the chances of getting rid of this diease ?
What about top working the tree, will MBBS infect the new grafts??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXNeGaGYNIg

Not sure I would follow this and expect success.
- Rob

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The nice thing about PPK, though, is that most of the fruit ripens before the onset of rains -- which is when MBBS is most prevalent.

Lemon Meringue with MBBS & Rot


Jeff  :-)

Cookie Monster

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Did you find MBBS before the rain started? All of my PPK came off clean, but harvest was finished in June.

Lemon Meringue with MBBS & Rot


Jeff  :-)

bsbullie

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Did you find MBBS before the rain started? All of my PPK came off clean, but harvest was finished in June.

Lemon Meringue with MBBS & Rot



Not on PPK but I have seen it show its ugly head on immature fruit, before May.
- Rob

Squam256

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MBBS showed up when it wasn’t raining at all in large sections of 2017. It doesn’t appear to require much moisture.

Guanabanus

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Agreed.  I saw a lot of MBBS in the very dry Spring weather.  The spots were small, but very black, very raised, and oozing.  Most of the fruit pulp was still perfectly usable.  [This was mostly on Southeast-Asian varieties, not much on Kent or Keitt until nearing ripening.]

In wet weather, the spoilage is much more extensive.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2018, 12:15:06 PM by Guanabanus »
Har

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I was reading that copper application once per fortnight can keep MBBS infection at bay. And I did note that I had no discernible MBBS infection until I stopped spraying. However, that event coincided with what was the rainiest May on record here -- and the rain was why I stopped spraying, as I could never find a clear day to spray :-).

So I'm not sure if I'm seeing causation or correlation. But my keitt went from squeaky clean to riddled with infection right after the non-spray / rain event. I'll have to wait til next year to examine the phenomenon further.

My guess is that we're getting to a point here in FL where mango cultivation is simply not feasible in inland areas without spraying -- much in the same way as we've adjusted to not being able to grow guava without bagging or citrus without fungicide. Alas, it's just another growing season in Florida with a slew of new pests contend with.

I saw that Walter mentioned how Guava was more resistant to MBBS than cultivar which formerly shared rootstock with it (Lemon Zest I presume?). But my Guava actually had MBBS infection, though not to the severity of what I see on my Keitt.

Jeff  :-)