The Tropical Fruit Forum

I know it's probably not practical or necessary but has anyone braided two different varieties of grapevines? Female and a self pollinator planted about 6 in to a foot apart. Braiding The Vines vertically until they reach the wire then running one North and the other South. As a backyard gardener always trying to think of ways to get more varieties on less real estate. I have a summit muscadine and a  Ison muscadine Vines being shipped. I saw a large bougainvillea that was braided with three different colors in the Florida Keys

Since I have a newfound interest in grape root stock this article about University of California Davis involved in a collaboration research with the US geoplasma and Mexican government in the study of Mexican wild grapes. Mexico has a range of geographic temperate zones mostly arid and dry mountainous but the research did go to southern Mexico and into South America. This particular Wild Grape may never be used for rootstock but I do find it interesting that it grows in a high humidity environment similar to Florida. With soil that high in organic matter similar to around the Okeechobee area where sugar cane is raised. Here's what I pirated
The genetic diversity of wild grapes in Mexico
 The wild vine Vitis tiliifolia is found in Mexico, Central América

 This species has been documented south to Colombia and the Antillas (Rzedowski and Calderón de Rzedowski 2005). V. tiliifolia, also known as V. caribeae, grows in tropical low and highlands, in acidic soils with high levels of organic matter (Galindo-Tovar et al. 2019). It has been described as having bifurcated tendrils, long apical tooth, very hairy, serrated leaves, sometimes lobed, and light green on the back of the leaf. Vitis blancoii Munson and Vitis biformis Rose are other reported forms of V. tiliifolia (Rzedowski and Calderón de Rzedowski 2005). Multiple studies have described its presence in Puebla and Veracruz (Comeaux 1987; Galindo-Tovar et al. 2019). Although, most of the accessions in this study were collected from Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Puebla in the Sierra Madre Oriental, morphological features of Vitis tiliifolia were also identified in the Eastern, Northeastern and Central Mexico groups, groups with leaf features of V. cinerea. From these results, we can infer that the ranges of V. tiliifolia and V. cinerea overlap allowing hybridization. However, more sampling from southern Mexico is necessary to identify V. tiliifolia’s entire range and the extent of hybridization with V. cinerea

I love the taste of Gary but never planted one because I hear they are shy bearers. I also think Gary is more citrusy then coconuty but my pallet is different as everyone’s is.

Too much sea salt I suppose. Gah! gah!! gah!!

Is Sugarloaf a multi- bloomer?

Great thread, love coconut flavor mangoes (and pineapples!)

Any chance M4, Pickering or another variety would produce in wet humid Hawaii?

For reference I’ve only seen Rapoza, Keitt, Pirie, R2E2 and Mapulehu produce here.

If they're growing keitt then M4 is the golden ticket definitely worth rolling the dice

My fellow Mango Maniacs. Lend me your ears.

I’ve been following the “coconut mango collection” cultivars from Gary Zill for quite some time. I’ve been trying to evaluate peoples opinions and experiences since about 2017. That makes me still very new to this.

Of the mango cultivars people would claim to have “coconut” flavor i want to hear everyone’s experiences with them please. If I don’t mention one please add it to the list. I would love to know about:

Disease resistance
Ease of blooming
Production
Flavor

I’m a huge fan of most mangos that have coconut flavor. Excluding one which I won’t mention for fear or bias.

Of the “coconut mangos”, In my yard I grow

Sugarloaf
M-4
 


but of-course there is also

Pina colada
Coconut cream
And maybe more im forgetting


In my north Miami area -yard, m-4 does the best so far but it’s too young to evaluate really(4 years old )
Sugarloaf barely produces but a couple fruits a year so far (it’s 7 years old).

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHICH YOU THINK IS BEST “COCONUT”
MANGO TREE AND WHY. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR LOCATION FOR CLIMATE COMPARISONS.

thank you

-Abie

Honest Abe don't you remember recommending Karen Michelle as being coconut flavored four or five seasons ago?  I was sitting at a resort with a table full of squams mangoes

It seems as though someone doesn't think it's a good recommendation they've had it for 10 years it's disease resistant but just doesn't produce. I'll send you the private message with your full description. This kind of took the wind out of my sails I'm losing motivation I think I'll just stick with my muscadine and patiently try to acquire Dunstan Dream if I'm able to. I have one of my Co-op members who's very good at word craft emailing the vineyard in Bradenton just to see if they would be receptive to the idea of selling us that vine in the future. Since my mother-in-law passed on the glory at the first of the year I took over her gardening section and trying to preserve her Legacy for the kiddos. The dashsteen callaloo and taro have all been transplanted to better soil and are responding very well. Have a sawmill down the road for me that mixes potting soil for sale that all the plants love.🙂

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1992/09/06/family-cuts-wide-swath-through-history-of-osceola-county/

 I signed up on the notification list at Just fruit and Exotics for Dunstan's Dream. Reached out to that FB group inquiring about a hybrid that good for juicing. May have got a recommendation from fellow Forum member of Conquistador a hybrid release from UF. There's a Vineyard over in Bradenton Fl that carries that variety. I spend Christmas over there and my daughter is a drainage engineer out of Tampa that does a lot of field work in that area. Especially Fort Myers still a lot of recovery going on down that way. So I will reach out and I may have her stop by to visit.🙂



Conquistador is a purple, multi-purpose hybrid bunch grape that was released by the University of Florida in 1983 by J.A. Mortensen. It is recommended for red wine, juice, jelly, u-pick, fresh market, and home gardens. Vines are moderately vigorous and capable of producing high yields when grafted onto a recommended rootstock. Clusters are small and consist of medium sized berries that ripen in mid to late July with a flavor similar to Concord. It has good tolerance to spring frost and diseases such as anthracnose, downy mildew, black rot, ripe rot, and Pierce’s disease. However, it is susceptible to Isariopsis leaf blight

There is a Facebook page called Southern Grape Growers. There might be some info on there about Dunstan's dream. I don't have face book, so have only been on there a couple times when I was able to borrow an account. Tari's Burgundy and Lake Emerald are two other bunch grapes that get talked about as well as some of the Zender hybrids and some really old ones made by Joseph Fennell. I have Lake Emerald and hope to try Tari's burgundy and Dunstan's Dream at some point. I have hopes that grafting to the native Calusa grape (Vitis shuttleworthii) will be beneficial. It has field resistance to the grape root borer according to old UF research as well as resistance to many other soil pathogens and nematodes. My first graft with Lake Emerald is pushing now. Time will tell.

I pirated this off of the Florida grape Growers this should get me off to a good start. Hopefully it'll be useful to you. I've only immersed myself for about a day now but I find this highly fascinating. I'll call just Exotics today and see if I can get a pre-order. I used to drive by there when I took a left heading west at Perry headed for Apalachicola. Definitely interested in what you're doing and will share budwood that I acquire. My cantaloupes are doing spectacular and I prefer tomatoes over mangoes LOL










https://chestnuthilloutdoors.com/learning-center/dr-robert-t-dunstan/

Have high hopes for this one. As soon as I get budwood it's going on to Sweet Tart
 Marco

Just when I had started to lose interest. My pineapple cage is not big enough for all these🙂
Funny enough Amazon just delivered some Dig microjet sprinklers with the strip and 90° deflectors. I ordered to make watering and fertilizing pineapples easier

For the planter I would say December January February with a daytime High of no more than 60 degrees. For the trees June the beginning of rain unless you like the water.🙂

Recently visited a fellow forum member over in an area I like to call Area 51. Made Mr Toad's Wild Ride to sample mulberries and dig u p some Rogue mango root stock. Of course Palm City Elite showed the utmost  southern hospitality. Myself and another grower from here in the Osceola triangle had the Good Fortune to sample Frozen Okrung Kesar and supremely delicious coining the
Phrase of Hars. Super Julie. A whole Frozen Okrung was sugarcane sweet but in my opinion I prefer Kesar. My expectations weren't very high because everyone always disses Frozen mangoes but I was extremely pleasantly surprised how good they were. But was overwhelmingly delighted with how extremely delightfully delicious Super Julie was. It retained its deep rich flavor that I love. I recommend freezing your favorite top tier mangoes for a pleasant treat preseason. I believe it would be a fun event to have such tasting when everyone's not over inundated with mangoes during Prime season. Here's a couple of rogue mangoes we dug up right next to a mulberry tree