The Tropical Fruit Forum

I just gave the lamb hass a serious prune so that may wake it up next season.

But going through the options given:
My lamb hass produces ripe fruit between late July-Oct. Some of these varieties ripen at the same time. I'd like to not have the exact same season.

Reed (also a type-A) July-Sep
Nabal also ripen summer and early fall
Hass - I've avoid this as I've only heard about how big these trees get. I do not want a monster. Though I suppose it can be kept pruned to be shorter
Pinkerton - I am reading this is a domey, spreading tree. So I'm guessing this will grow wide.
Sharwil, Sir Prize - too bad, they sound great on paper
Gem - this one appears to fit the requirements.

Its really hard to tell for certain what you have with bananas but yours may be namwahs.  Namwah have thin peels and dense fruit and need to get pretty ripe.  Blue java goes mushy if left to turn brown.  I think the namwahs are better fruit.  The rack in your last picture does look like namwahs. 

That looks really similar to mine, and same characteristics. And yes, I explain to people that it's tastes better the longer you let it ripen, don't be afraid of it getting a deep dark yellow peel. Like I mentioned it never gets mushy. Ever. They also split if left on the plant to long, though I'm not sure if that's a common banana trait.

Now if the plant would just slow down a bit or it's going to get replaced with a Sharwil Avocado tree I've been eyeing.

I ordered a Blue Java banana plant from Plantogram in 2016. Though I understand that it may actually be another Ice Cream Variety. Friends and family really like it. Personally it's not quite as I expected, it's not very sweet. It's better eaten fresh as the bananas don't ever get mushy and sweeter. You can leave them out till they are pitch black and when they are peeled they still have a fresh bright white fruit.  They make terrible banana bread. Making ice cream from them, I baked the bananas in their peel to bring out their sugar content, the peels dyed the fruit a dark purple. The ice cream was very mild in flavor and little starchy. So I suppose my question is whether others had a similar experience.

Now for the plants themselves,  a full sized shoot can be 12 to 15 feet tall, is prolific, and extremely fast growing. I can remove a bunch of new shoots and a week later 10 more are popping up. It's starting to become a full time job keeping the plant as bay. I'm beginning to consider if it's worth the effort. I have a feeling it's growth is exponential. My understanding removing the plant will be no small feat. On the plus side they really do look make the front yard look great.

I do spray throughout Feb and March for powdery Mildew. I've pruned off the flowers early on really bad years on mildew but usually I do get get two waves of flowering and fruit on the Glenn. Below is an example of the fruit I'm getting from the first wave so far.




Pixel,
It seems your trees had heavy powdery mildew resulted no fruits? Some plants have white powders on them -- fungicide?
Try next year to pick off all flower shoots appear before March, and the new flowers in late March and in April will have less PM issue and warm weather also help in fruits set.
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Good to know, and thanks for sharing, it'll temper my expectations... I'm considering this a test run and I'm glad to have gone through the experience. If the scions fail to take I'll try again in the hotter months.

As for the Sweet Tart, I'm not trying to convert it, I'm just trying to add a bit of variety while also waiting for it to mature. I have a citrus fruit salad tree with lemons, navel oranges and mandarins. It's more than enough citrus for a single household. I'd like to have that with my mango trees.

What grafting technique have you found works best for you? I mostly did side grafts with a couple veneer grafts.

Whenever anyone asks me advice on fruit trees I always tell them to buy the biggest most mature tree they can get. If they have a 24" box... get it. Don't think about the money. Life is too short to wait and watch a tree grow. In this case I already had a productive mango tree, and the varieties I wanted were not available locally so I had to get it shipped and that was only available in a 3 gallon. I thought, sure I can hold out a few years...

Oh yeah mine is a Dr. Seuss tree for sure. I did one major trimming couple years back but it grew back so slow I've been hesitant to do again. But after this summer I'll take out a couple of lower hanging branches. I'm looking forward to this one as I really wanted a strong coconut flavored mango.

Here's my tree from another angle, the lower brighter green leaves are part of the same tree:


And here's an early flower bud, definitely a bit different then my other mango trees but the following image shows they develop to look the same.

Yea my Coco Cream has a strong tendency to have many branches growing sideways and downward. Last year I trimmed many of the downward branches trying to force new growth upward. This mango tree has a strange growth pattern but the branches are fairly easy to trim. I hope this tree works out in the long run in terms of production. As an insurance policy, I top worked four branches on the CC to Seacrest. Even if my CC is a total dud and I get no production I will continue my top working to other varieties so the tree will not be lost.

My trunk is longer because it was grafted to a manila mango seedling tree in late 2016. I believe your rootstock is turpentine which is different.

If I was just getting started or had to do this over I would be much more inclined to plant a Seacrest mango tree rather than the Coconut cream. Thus far I have been very impressed with the fast growth and appearance of my Seacrest. It has the same parents (Edward X Gary) as the coco cream but has a more traditional upright growth pattern, and by all accounts is an excellent tasting mango with a citrus component close to the skin. The Seacrest is reported to have consistent and excellent production.

Good luck with your trees.

Johnny

Yes, Culver City is more mediterranean climate wise I'd say. Outside the the marine layer, most sunny, but not as hot as inland. High seventies to high eighties in the summer. I still need to watch out for powdery mildew for the first few months of spring.

Great to hear other experiences. I'll be more patient. Waiting for a tree to grow is worse than waiting for paint to dry.

Another thing I've noticed is the Coconut Cream buds are very different then the other two mango trees. Thicker clumps, stickier. Others notice this too? I'll get a pick tomorrow.

I live in Southern California and a few years back bought a Coconut Cream and a Sweet Tart from Florida. Neither have produced any fruit yet. The Sweet Tart is looking very healthy this spring so I'm crossing my fingers this will be the year. I'm not as confident in the Coconut Cream. I think 5 years should be sufficient to get something... anything. I knew I was taking a chance planting trees with Turpentine stock. Meanwhile my Glenn I bought at Mimosa Nursery produces more mangoes then we can eat, I end up freezing them each year. Granted I bought it in a 15 gallon vs 3 gallon so I'm not sure how long I should wait before pulling the plug on the Florida varieties. Or is there a suggestion on how I can kickstart the fruiting process?


Coconut Cream, bought as a 3 gallon on 9/15:


Sweet Tart, bought as 3 gallon on 2/17:


My prolific Glenn tree I bought locally as a 15 gallon, bought in 2014 but produced fruit immediately:

Very possible. It works that way for mangoes from what I understand. We don't get as many hours of sun as Florida so our season is later. On the other hand since you and I have new trees their cycle may be a bit off the first year or so. The second crop will be a more likely indicator of their true season. In my case 18 months places the season exactly with what I've read. That's a long time to wait.

No, it was a 24" box. The tree is about 6 or 7 feet tall.

My question is more about how long the crop is expected to stay on the tree. Are the avocados expected to stay on the tree a year and a half before they are ready? I could keep picking one at a time to test them out but I don't have all that many this year would like an experienced answer of what I should expect.

I don't know a lot of about mango's but I have a mango tree of some unknown variety. The fruit is really flavorful, I wouldn't consider it to be fibrous overall but it is definitely stringy around the seed. Are the non-fibrous varieties completely clean around the seed?