If you are into miracle fruit at all, it seems to do well in shade.

I go every year. Its worth it for me just to talk mangoes with other crazies. They also are the only sellers of some of their curator's choice varieties (such as Angie or Emerald).

I enjoy speaking with the experts at the mango display (Campbell, Ledesma, Crane, etc) and taking pictures of the fruit for wiki articles and whatnot.

The tasting table varies based on the quality of the cultivars they choose for it and the stage they are picked at.

My advice.....go early if you just want to check it out and avoid the hottest part of the day. Last year I stayed for the lectures but probably won't this year unless there is a topic that really piques my interest.

I think the Hatcher comes up in a post once or twice a year, so its been re-hashed a good bit, but anyways....

Here's a story for those of you who haven't seen me tell it already.........Cecil Broomfield, who owns Lawrence Zill's old place literally right across Hypoluxo from the Hatchers (who do a tremendous amount of business, congrats to them), has a Hatcher tree among the 3 dozen or so other varieties he has growing.....it is one of his worst selling and least requested mangoes at his stand. Amazing what good marketing can do for a fruit!

Its a decent if unremarkable mango in terms of flavor.....its main attraction being its size, color, and flesh-to-seed ratio. I plan on planting one anyways though just to have it in the germplasm.

It was likely a Haden by Brooks cross....so making it a 'full sibling' of such mangoes as Sensation, Kent, and Fascell, the latter two of which it bears some physical resemblance to.

These were grafted trees, which I thought was kind of strange since I thought that manilas were grown on their own roots.

Even though they and lots of other mangoes come *mostly* true from seed, its still beneficial to graft because you get a mature tree. A seedling on the other hand has to go through a juvenile stage and will take longer to fruit. Not to mention you eliminate the chance of getting a variation from the parent.

Quote from: fruitlovers on February 09, 2012, 07:14:35 PM

Leaves on that mamey tree look like they have a lot of tip burn. Seems it would enjoy some overhead misters to compensate for low air humidity.
Oscar

Are Mamey easy to graft?

No.....pretty difficult actually. A lot of people use approach grafts with them. Commercially I think cleft is the most common method.

murahilin, here's the old article on the Merritt Island mangoes:

http://centralfloridapalms.com/archived/sep2003/mimango.htm

For those who are unfamiliar, Merritt Island is the northernmost part of Florida where mangoes are grown on any kind of commercial scale. They are specifically aided on the southern part of the island by being sandwiched between the Indian and Banana rivers, which has helped protect them some from the periodic freezes we get in Florida.

The grove profiled in the article is the Ensey family grove; there are a number of other growers on the island but the Enseys were the source for most of the cultivars that originated on the island.

link to the cultivar descriptions:

http://centralfloridapalms.com/fruit/mango/mimangovar.htm

This list doesn't include all of their varieties but it has most; they also have plenty of the established old varieties as well that we're all familiar with.


Of those, most are largely unknown outside of Merritt Island, save for Osteen, which became something of a commercial success. The 'Sunset' that originated from the Enseys is not the 'Sunset' that was promoted by Fairchild at the 2010 Mango Festival; its a larger mango with pretty good flavor. The Fruit and Spice Park's 'Sunset' tree is an Ensey Sunset (sometimes described as 'Indian Sunset').

Ed Ensey (man profiled in the article) died in 2008. Fortunately the family seemed committed to keeping the grove in operation and they were still selling in 2009. Haven't been there since that summer though, so perhaps some of the board members from the area can confirm if they are still selling.

Most if not all of the cultivars they have are worth preserving for future generations, and I'd certainly be interesting in growing some of them, so maybe the family would be willing to allow some budwood distributed.

Because when the day is done you are only screwing the consumer! The average consumer has no clue this crap is taking place! They think Hopkins or whoever has discovered a new variety so they buy it not realizing they may allready be growing it or tried that variety and didn't even like it! Hopkins doesn't have to pay the trade mark fee nor do they have to propagate the material and sell it! It is a choice they make to avoid the fee and then create confusion among collectors and growers! Again most growers would rather pay $4 or $5 extra than buy the same plant twice by a different name. So I guess Hopkins will be confused by the new Zill Mangos and have to create new names for them to avoid the trademark fee!

Sincerely,

Ed Self

The people who trademarked the Sweetheart trademarked a lychee that was already in existence in Australia. Perhaps not unlike if someone were to rename the 'Ha Kip' something else and trademark the name. Or substitute 'Ha Kip' for an existing cultivar for any other species.

'Ataulfo' gets marketed as 'Champagne mango', 'Honey mango', etc, depending on who is selling it.

Cleft is the preferred method but side-veneer works well too. Winter/spring is probably the best time for grafting avocados.

I would remove dried out panicles, or they can/will become a source for disease on your developing fruit.

Why is Emperor hardest to grow?

Mostly because it doesn't. Or rather, grows extremely slowly. Seems to do particularly poorly in muck soils and is a poor producer. I think its kind of mediocre tasting actually. It does produce very large fruit though.

I like Kaimana and Early Large Red.  Not a fan of Ha Kip, don't like the aftertaste it has.

I've scoured the internet for information on this cultivar and that one spippet from FTBG on it dating to the mango festival a few years ago was the only source I could find when I wrote the wiki. They had it as a curator's choice mango a few years ago, had the trees for sale, and did not have it available last year.

The flavor description is intriguing if you appreciate Bombay-flavor (I do but know that some don't).

Richard Campbell or Noris Ledesma can more than likely provide  more info about it if someone inquires.

Pickering's vertical growth is so slow and the cultivar being "new" (relatively speaking), I'd be surprised to see one that was 35 feet tall. Saw one last summer that was 10 years old, never pruned, and it was shorter than me. Fruit and Spice Park also has a Pickering around the same age that isn't much taller.

Here's a pic someone on gardenweb posted of it last April: