Sheehan stopped by my place the other day, and seemed impressed by my "4 in 1" (7 in 1) Mango tree.  I suppose it is one of the more interesting trees in my yard  .  We tried one of the fruits from the tree, a Mun Khun See.  It was just starting to ripen, with just the shoulder begining to turn yellow.  This is a mango you can eat green and crunchy, and this particular mango had parts of it's flesh in 3 stages.  Ripe, partially ripe, and full green/unripe.  I actually preferred the partially ripe portions, which were crunchy and sweet with a really nice flavor and texture.  Sheehan thought I should do a bit of a write up on the tree, and I thought that was a good idea too   


When I moved to my current home in 2004, there were a few fruit tress planted on the property.  One of those trees was a Turpentine Mango which was obviously grown from seed.  It was a fairly large tree,15-20 feet tall, and productive.  The mango's from the tree had a rich and sweet flavor with a strong "turpentine" character.  They were small, and very fibrous.  After a few seasons, I decided to ry out grafting/topworking, and this tree would be my subject.

I obtained some Budwood, and gave it a go.  I started with Florigon, Mun Khun See, Pim Saen Mun, and Glenn. I started these grafts fairly high up in the canopy, in relatively mature wood, branches of 2 inches in diameter or so.  I didn't "chop and top" the tree, I sort of went as low as I thought was possible on the existing wood. 

That season ( 3 or 4 years ago) I was surprised that the grafts took.  I certainly wasn't very experienced at grafting, but I think the timing was on my side.  Over the last two seasons, I added a few grafts lower in the canopy, as experiments, and to add more of the existing varieties lower in the canopy in case a storm ripped off some limbs.  I don't want to lose that Khun See

Two years ago the tree produced Florigon only.  Last year, the tree produced Glenn only. Now, currently there are 4 varieties bearing fruit at the same time.  Florigon, Pim Saen Mun, Mun Khun See,  and Glenn.  Also of note, young and not bearing are Julie, Carrie, and ValCarrie.

Here is Photo #1 .. Florigon to the right, Pim Saen Mun on the lower middle/right, Mun Khun See middle upper and some lower.





Photo #2 ..  Slightly different angle ..







Photo #3 ... Glenn to the left ... Not as productive as the other 3 this year ..



 
Anyway, that is my first top working experiment,  the Frankenstein tree 

I picked up a grafted "Super Thai" Jackfruit from the Broward RFC sale today. 

Sounded cool, so I figured why not ..

Anyone know anything about this variety ?

So, I decided to go for it and pay the $100 for a Excalibur Red Grafted Jackfruit. 

Yes, I know, its a lot of $$.   But hey, why not, someone had to do it

I also decided to purchase a nice 3 gallon Excalibur Red seedling Jack that was a very reasonable $25 ..

So here are thePics

Excalibur Red Grafted Jackfruit



Graft line




Excalibur Red Seedling





And I figured I'd throw in a pic of my Bangkok Lemon seedling I purchased from Excalibur a few years ago..

I purchased this Bangkok Lemon Jackfruit Tree from Excalibur a few years ago ... maybe 3 years or so.. in either a 25 or 50 gallon.

I didn't ask if it was grafted or from seed, as I assumed all named trees would be grafted.  A year or so later I was informed that Excalibur did at times sell seedlings Jacks.  By the time I inspected the tree for a graft line, I really could not tell one way or another.

The interesting thing about this tree, is that there is a "Y" about a foot up from the roots, with two main branchings.  I had always wondered if maybe one side of this "Y" was a graft, and the other the rootstock.

Last summer, the left side produced flowers and the one fruit which ripened in November.  Now the tree has set two fruit on the right side, which should ripen in the summer.  Is it normal for a Jackfruit tree to produce both summer and Fall/winter crops?

November fruit


Current two fruit





Here are a couple of pics of the tree and trunk area..








Could this be two varieties on one tree?  One Rootstock and one grafted? Thoughts?

I just purchased this Pina Colada mango from Jeff Hagen in mid December.  I planted it right away, and to my surprise, it is already pushing what looks to be huge inflo's.

 







Thanks Jeff