Author Topic: Mango Leaf Sap: if it strongly smells like Turpentine, will the fruit be similar  (Read 797 times)

JakeFruit

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Let me say up front, I am not bashing Turpentine mangoes universally; just don't like the ones I've tried. I know there are countless mixed offspring growing around the state since it's been around so long, maybe I just haven't had a good one. All that I have tried had that very recognizable flavor/smell and all were fairly fibrous with a small seed sealed tight as a clam.

Anyway, so I have a few seedlings going into their second season from an unknown tree in Miami that gave very delicious mangoes. Two of the seedlings have sap that smells like the fruit of the tree that bore them, but the other seedling sap smells very strongly like Turpentine. Probably not a coincident that there was a very large Turpentine tree a stone's throw away. Has anyone ever encountered a mango where the sap DID NOT indicate what the fruit would be like? I've never taken a tree from seedling to fruiting, seems a long road only to find out the fruit tastes like Turpentine. Trying to decide if I shouldn't waste my time and just graft something else onto it this Spring.

JakeFruit

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Strange, there were two replies to my question on Saturday, but they seem to have somehow disappeared :/
One was from Har, didn't catch the other poster's identity. Anyway, sounds like the sap smell is used as an indicator of what the fruit *might* be like. Sounds like Zills might use the sap smell early on to determine which trial trees it takes to maturity. Grafting attempts with a few dozen varieties over the last few years has given me the chance to smell a good deal of sap. It does seem like the newer varieties have (strong) varied notes/aromas compared to say a Kent. It also seems like the local trees I've encountered with faint/mediocre sap odors give fruit that tastes similar.

Har mentioned Turpentine's part in parenting several well-received varieties. I guess there's nothing to lose grafting a scion or two from the seedling onto a tree to see what the fruit comes out like. I'm expecting the fruit will be too much like Turpentine for my liking, but maybe I'll be wrong...

Galatians522

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I was the other poster. I noticed that several recent threads got truncated. I also noticed that the forum had some login issues not too long ago. Maybe the two are connected.

JakeFruit

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Yep, there you are ;D
I wonder if they had to reload a database backup for some reason. The forum software is several versions behind the current release, there is at least one known vulnerability in this version (https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2018-10305/); could be gremlins.

shaneatwell

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The leaf thing has been discussed before. I don’t have that many named varieties but from the handful I have I’d never have kept them based on leaf smell. They’re just bland. Someone with a big collection could walk through and tell you how many leaves match the wonderful fruit.
Shane

 

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