venus mango

[TnTrobbie]

Just had the 2nd of 3 Venus mango. This one was fully ripe with no hint of green anywhere picked from the tree yesterday. This 808g (1.7lbs) mango was delicious. Flesh was firm and fiberless. Teeth marks on scraping flesh from the seed made a pattern reminding me of Mallika and Juliette. But it's flesh is firmer/denser and yellow. If I had eaten it the same day it was picked I would have gotten that nice chalky sweet texture I love but I managed to get hits of it from the top.  The seed flesh was a little watery but the outskirts was really delicious  sweet with a little hint of tart. Very mild what looks to be like jelly seed. Shucking the husk exposed the seed had fully developed roots and shoots already. Can't wait to get this tree in ground. I think I like it more than Cushman. Brix was 22.

[bovine421]

Just had the 2nd of 3 Venus mango. This one was fully ripe with no hint of green anywhere picked from the tree yesterday. This 808g (1.7lbs) mango was delicious. Flesh was firm and fiberless. Teeth marks on scraping flesh from the seed made a pattern reminding me of Mallika and Juliette. But it's flesh is firmer/denser and yellow. If I had eaten it the same day it was picked I would have gotten that nice chalky sweet texture I love but I managed to get hits of it from the top.  The seed flesh was a little watery but the outskirts was really delicious  sweet with a little hint of tart. Very mild what looks to be like jelly seed. Shucking the husk exposed the seed had fully developed roots and shoots already. Can't wait to get this tree in ground. I think I like it more than Cushman. Brix was 22.

I would like to hear others updated review of this fruit and the anthracnose resistance of the tree. An update on this particular tree would be just dandy.
I actually like the chalkiness of a zill indo-chinese

[FlMikey]

I'd be curious to hear others comments on the growth habits of their Venus trees.  Mine is moderately vigorous.  Less vigorous than Sweet Tart, and more vigorous than Pickering.  I love that it's precocious, and has been resistant to anthracnose.  It has had 0 issues flowering and producing fruit.  I actually planted out another one last year.  So far, I have not had any issues with MBBS, and this is the 3rd year producing, and it was planted as a 7 gallon back in 2017. 

In any case, I digress, and it's the the growth habit when it fruits that I'm concerned with.  Before it fruits, the growth habit is great, and somewhat compact.  However, with my tree, the fruit really weighs the tree limbs down, and branches must be staked to prevent the fruit from ending up on the ground.  The tree is probably about 12' high, but many of the limbs are now sprawling horizontally from the weight of the fruit.  It's slightly unattractive, but I question how I can keep it long term without removing these horizontal branches.  Over time they'll all end up on the ground, unless I completely prune off the branches.  The only positive I can think of is it has great airflow hahaha.  I will post pics of the tree this weekend.

Has anyone that has had a Venus tree for a lengthy period of time had issues with pruning, and managing how it has been growing?  I'm having serious considerations about top working the tree with other varieties with a better growth habit.  It's unfortunate, as I have another tree I just planted out last year as a 7 gallon before I realized what can happen with a more mature Venus.

[FlMikey]

Attaching a few pics from today.  The red arrows show the lateral branching, and the blue arrow shows where the branch used to be.  The freeform red lines simply outlines where the Venus tree is.  There's a large Sweet Tart behind it, so wanted to highlight the Venus growth relative to the Sweet Tart growth.

After this year's fruits, I have 2-3 substantial lateral branches I'll have to trim as it's starting to extend too far away from the tree.  I'm wondering if anyone else is noticing this with their Venus or if I'm the only one experiencing it?  Please chime in fellow Venus folk 

Also, does anyone have good solutions for staking branches and keeping fruit off the ground?  I just bought a couple of these branch supports to mount on some pvc (https://www.groworganic.com/products/save-a-branch-tree-support).  Any other ideas?

[skhan]

Attaching a few pics from today.  The red arrows show the lateral branching, and the blue arrow shows where the branch used to be.  The freeform red lines simply outlines where the Venus tree is.  There's a large Sweet Tart behind it, so wanted to highlight the Venus growth relative to the Sweet Tart growth.

After this year's fruits, I have 2-3 substantial lateral branches I'll have to trim as it's starting to extend too far away from the tree.  I'm wondering if anyone else is noticing this with their Venus or if I'm the only one experiencing it?  Please chime in fellow Venus folk 

Also, does anyone have good solutions for staking branches and keeping fruit off the ground?  I just bought a couple of these branch supports to mount on some pvc (https://www.groworganic.com/products/save-a-branch-tree-support).  Any other ideas?

I have the same battle with my Cac tree every year.
I trim it back hard every year and they still hang on the floor.
I'm trying to raise the canopy a lot higher.
Until then, I'm using bungee cords and scrap lumber.

[Orkine]

Do you see a lot of fruit split with this variety?
I have had fruits on mine for two seasons now and last year just about all the fruits split (I only let it hold a few and it dropped some itself).
This year, it has dropped most fruits but of 4 that have reached a good size, one split this morning and our bif rain event was a week or so ago.  We didn't even have a much if any rain in the last 3 days.  I am in southeast florida and inland and have relatively relatively higher humidity than coastal regions.


The link below is to my post from last year with a picture of the split fruit.  The two posts that follow have some information about the variety, including its susceptibility to MBBS.  I am not removing the branch (at least not yet) but I am not making it its own stand alone tree either.
 
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=35738.msg385360#msg385360

[Brev Grower]

Do you see a lot of fruit split with this variety?
I have had fruits on mine for two seasons now and last year just about all the fruits split (I only let it hold a few and it dropped some itself).
This year, it has dropped most fruits but of 4 that have reached a good size, one split this morning and our bif rain event was a week or so ago.  We didn't even have a much if any rain in the last 3 days.  I am in southeast florida and inland and have relatively relatively higher humidity than coastal regions.


The link below is to my post from last year with a picture of the split fruit.  The two posts that follow have some information about the variety, including its susceptibility to MBBS.  I am not removing the branch (at least not yet) but I am not making it its own stand alone tree either.
 
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=35738.msg385360#msg385360

I have not seen any Venus split on my tree (topworked branch on Alphonso) that I can remember in 3-4  years of production. It's a richly flavored mango in my opinion and quite productive. It does seem to drop a lot of fruit before maturing, but it sets so many that I still get a good amount. I have not had any disease issues like anthracnose. A rosigold that is about 15 ft away gets decimated each year with Anthracnose. I like it very much and plan to plant a tree someday. I say give it a chance, maybe something else is going on like MBBS splitting the fruit. I have been lucky so far, although a Keitt tree is very close to the Venus also. This has been my experience with venus.

E.

[FlMikey]

I haven't had issues with split either.  I may have a couple split on me during the season, but it's a non-issue.  This year I've been trying to water my trees 1x - 2x a week when it wasn't raining.  I think that really helped with split issues and also fruit retention.  I'm seeing a lot of neighbor's trees with not much fruit on it this year, despite flowering profusely and I believe it's from not watering.

In any case, about fruit production, it has been a heavy producer and flowers consistently like my Pickering.  Last year, it got hit with Powdery Mildew so had a bad crop.  This year I got lucky and will have a lot of fruit on it.  My only issue with it just presented itself this year where I have previously vertical branches shooting out horizontally now due to the fruit weight. 

[Orkine]

That is good news, perhaps in time and as the tree gets larger it will make good fruits that survive to be eaten without splitting.

[Tommyng]

I’ve always wanted to grow this variety but the reports of it being highly susceptible to mbbs have made me hesitant. Negative tendencies with pina colada have also stopped me from trying to add that also.

[FlMikey]

I guess the issue I'm facing with Venus is fairly common.  Skhan mentioned he has it with CAC, and Truly Tropical also has it with Florigon and Fruit Punch ->  https://youtu.be/wbKY3hb9lXQ

I had never seen it before, so I guess it's reassuring knowing it happens to other varieties too.  The things we do for mango's 

[Orkine]

A quick update regarding my experience with the fruit splitting.  On cue this year I had two of the fruits split early in the season and I was sure the rest would share their fate.  The first split was just before my first post on this topic and the second shortly after.  Well, there has not been a single split since and the fruits are reaching mature size.  Could be because we've had hardly any rain the last several weeks. Maybe the tree is just hitting its stride and it's smooth running from here out. 
There was a suggestion splits in earlier years was a result of mbbs, I don't see any evidence of that this year (and I am keeping a watch).
I will post here again if conditions change after the rains return.  For now, I look forward to trying some Venus this season.
 

[simon_grow]

A quick update regarding my experience with the fruit splitting.  On cue this year I had two of the fruits split early in the season and I was sure the rest would share their fate.  The first split was just before my first post on this topic and the second shortly after.  Well, there has not been a single split since and the fruits are reaching mature size.  Could be because we've had hardly any rain the last several weeks. Maybe the tree is just hitting its stride and it's smooth running from here out. 
There was a suggestion splits in earlier years was a result of mbbs, I don't see any evidence of that this year (and I am keeping a watch).
I will post here again if conditions change after the rains return.  For now, I look forward to trying some Venus this season.

Do you supply enough Potassium and Calcium? Hopefully your issue with splitting is resolved but applying adequate Potassium which aids in cell division and Calcium may be beneficial. If these two nutrients were lacking and you supply it,  you may have fewer splits and and also increase the quality(Brix) of your fruit.

Simon

[Orkine]

A quick update regarding my experience with the fruit splitting.  On cue this year I had two of the fruits split early in the season and I was sure the rest would share their fate.  The first split was just before my first post on this topic and the second shortly after.  Well, there has not been a single split since and the fruits are reaching mature size.  Could be because we've had hardly any rain the last several weeks. Maybe the tree is just hitting its stride and it's smooth running from here out. 
There was a suggestion splits in earlier years was a result of mbbs, I don't see any evidence of that this year (and I am keeping a watch).
I will post here again if conditions change after the rains return.  For now, I look forward to trying some Venus this season.

Do you supply enough Potassium and Calcium? Hopefully your issue with splitting is resolved but applying adequate Potassium which aids in cell division and Calcium may be beneficial. If these two nutrients were lacking and you supply it,  you may have fewer splits and and also increase the quality(Brix) of your fruit.

Simon

I think I should be good for both.  I use gypsum and Sulfate of Potash (0-0-50) on a regimen I came across a few years ago.  It has worked well, but perhaps I should do a soil test to determine if I need more than I am currently applying.
 

[dmwong93]

Mr. mangonuts - here's a pic of the small grafted Venus.  When I turned the plant around
I noticed a couple new shoots coming up!  Looks healthy.  It was the standard cleft graft on a manila.
Yeah, I've not had a lot of luck with grafting directly on planted trees and I think you (and I) probably know by now with our heat, the window for grafting is much narrower than for everyone else.  I think I managed this one late summer but can't remember.  I remember I shaded it heavily and gave it a good chance to take.

sorry for the blurry pic....


Gary

Congrats Gary on the successful Venus graft!  Curious to see how well Venus will do in the desert and SoCal.   Happy planting! Please keep us posted.

I just got a grafted Venus from CRFG plant sell a couple months ago. Grafted onto Manilla rootstock, hopefully does well.