Are Lemon Zest worth growing in SoCal, or nah? Should I try PPK instead?
I love Lemon Zest Mangos, one of my favorites. I personally have 3 LZ trees/grafts at my house and I planted more at my friends and families yards. The fruit is absolutely top notch but the tree is a Powdery Mildew magnet.
The PM infects the young leaves really bad and the blooms get them really bad as well. The flower panicles often abort due to the fungal infection but here in SoCal, our trees can bloom about three times. If you are lucky, one of those blooms will occur during a period where there is little or no fungal diseases and you may get some fruit.
One year, I had extremely heavy fruit set with maybe 100 or more baby LZ fruit that got to around 1 inch long and they slowly dropped one by one and I only ended getting 1-3 fruit that year, I can’t remember exactly.
If you want a highly productive tree, don’t get LZ unless you are willing to spray and have a regimented IPM system.
My initial thoughts were that I will let Mother Nature take its course but now I really want my LZ tree to start producing more so I am starting my IPM this year and will continue it to see if I can get significantly higher yield from my trees.
There are rumors that LZ needs many years to get settled down before it will start producing. The fruit is so good, I’m willing to wait it out but in the meantime, I’m going to start spraying.
You can read this thread where I’m going to track my progress
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=33398.msg375454#msg375454On a side note, I am also growing grafted PPK and Orange Sherbet seedlings. I’ve tasted all three multiple times before and LZ is still my favorite although the other two are also excellent.
Seacrest/Triple Sec may be another good mango to test out. I recently grafted several onto my seedlings so we will see in the coming years if this variety is productive here in SoCal.
Remember that our microclimates are unique and if you get good air flow at your location, LZ may do fine for you. Everyone should try for themselves just in case.
There is a little bit of good news with LZ, I’ve noticed over the years that my LZ grafted onto Lavern Manilla gets significantly less PM and also sets and natures more fruit than my LZ on Florida rootstock. I’ll update with pics soon in my other thread.
Simon