Seedling Mango tree thread

[SHV]

I have an E4 sugarloaf seedling that is similarly a vigorous grower and large enough to produce its first fruit this year.  Fingers crossed.
With all the cold weather and inordinate amount of rain in SoCA the past month, who knows what flowering conditions will result. 

[Oqueel]

Wow! I can't believe I'm just reading this thread now. I should've been doing this a long time ago! Still, better late than never.

I grew seedlings from my mom's mango tree. In my country, we call it the "German mango" (don't know why). It's polyembryonic, definitely Indo-Chinese and may actually be the Okrung because they taste very alike. My yard has a slope so I scattered the seedlings around the property because I didn't know which area would be best to grow them. It turns out that the ones downhill have grown very large but always have diseased leaves while the ones on the slope (unfortunately, just a couple) are much smaller and don't have as many fungal issues (I'm in the hot and humid tropics so fungi is more or a less part of life here). The trees on the slope fruited faster than those downhill.

Anyway, I was hoping to topwork most of the trees but I think I'll just uproot the ones downhill and restart on the slope, using seedlings (scions are quite hard to get and they probably won't even arrive in the best shape). I do hope someone will be happy to sell me some polyembryonic and disease-resistant fruit/seeds when the mango season arrives. This is so exciting!

[sapote]

The trees on the slope fruited faster than those downhill.

How many years and how large the trees to fruit? Why top work them -- don't like the honey sweet Okrung? I like them.

[Oqueel]

The trees on the slope fruited faster than those downhill.

How many years and how large the trees to fruit? Why top work them -- don't like the honey sweet Okrung? I like them.

6 years on the slope, 7 downhill. I'm not sure exactly how tall but I'd say about 6-7 feet on the slope and perhaps 10 feet downhill. I'm not sure if they're actually Okrung but I also have a 3 year old Okrung seedling so I hope to compare them properly someday. However, as nice as they are, I'm looking for other varieties otherwise all the trees will be pretty much the same.

[fliptop]

Flies working the seedling Coconut Cream's blooms. Fingers crossed . . .

[fliptop]

Ten little mangos remain on my Coconut Cream seedling.

I removed these ones that weren't going to make it:

I dug my thumbnail into them, and they had that overwhelming pine smell I first smelled in an Angie mango I once grew. I understand that's a popular flavor profile. I hate that flavor profile, but may have to learn to love it.

Here are photos of the little ones growing:

[Oolie]

Sounds like a not true-to-type seedling.

Is it a vigorous tree?

If it has that flavor and is vigorous, I'd consider it, especially if it's poly.

[johnb51]

Ten little mangos remain on my Coconut Cream seedling.

I removed these ones that weren't going to make it:

I dug my thumbnail into them, and they had that overwhelming pine smell I first smelled in an Angie mango I once grew. I understand that's a popular flavor profile. I hate that flavor profile, but may have to learn to love it.

Here are photos of the little ones growing:

Come on.  I don't think you can tell the flavor profile from that!

[roblack]

Ceci Love seedling we are growing has leaves that smell very piney and spicy when crushed. While I do like the piney mangoes a bit, it's not my fav of flavor profiles. Hopefully it's more like its mother than it seems.

Might need to do more controlled crossing. For next flowering season, was thinking of attaching a mesh tube between Sweet Tart and Ceci Love, letting some flies in, and crossing them.

[Oolie]

Ten little mangos remain on my Coconut Cream seedling.

I removed these ones that weren't going to make it:

I dug my thumbnail into them, and they had that overwhelming pine smell I first smelled in an Angie mango I once grew. I understand that's a popular flavor profile. I hate that flavor profile, but may have to learn to love it.

Here are photos of the little ones growing:

Come on.  I don't think you can tell the flavor profile from that!

That is how Gary selected off-types from poly seeds. So believe it or not, it's the way.

[fliptop]

Oolie, yes, it's fairly vigorous.

johnb51, the sap, even from fruitlets that small, have a distinctive smell. My Pickering fruitlets have a classic turpentine smell, my Sugarloaf fruitlets have that creamsicle smell, and this seedling's fruitlets have a piney smell.

[johnb51]

Ok, if you guys say so.

[Oolie]

Ok, if you guys say so.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I have a seedling of an indochinese flavored mango. The seed was poly and the two seedlings were different in sap smell, one had sap that smelled like indochinese parsnip smell, the other which survived had a smell different than the parent like the spicy orange oil smell of a valencia orange skin. That one should be fruiting soon, so we will find out how accurate the test is.

I'm interested in this new vigorous seedling, please update this thread with the taste when ripe!

[fliptop]

Will do, Oolie! I'm afraid the current heat and drought may cause them to drop . . . ☹️

[fliptop]

Oolie, I've not yet encountered a spicy orange smell in mango leaves/sap. Looking forward to a taste report on that one.

[skhan]

After a spectacular show of flowers I only have two fruits to show for it. Most the flowers work male.
The sap has what I describe as a green mango smell which I'm my exp means a classic flavor.
So hopefully it's different enough from Edward and will resolve the flower imbalance

I'll report it with flavor in the summer

[Oolie]

Oolie, I've not yet encountered a spicy orange smell in mango leaves/sap. Looking forward to a taste report on that one.

Haven't had any others which smell this way. Different from LZ, different from CC and other Gary descendants. Looking forward to the fruit, it's 4th year in the ground.

[jbirdfunk]

I fruited a Sugarloaf (E4) seedling. See page 8 of this thread. Last year was the first year it fruited so I need to evaluate it some more but so far it seems like it’s a clone of the actual E4 with some very minor differences which may be attributed to the rootstock or environmental factors.

In my review, I compared the real E4 Fruit, which is grafted to my multigraft Turpentine rootstock tree to my Seedling E4 fruit that was grown and fruited on my E4 seedling tree. My multigraft E4 tree is in full sun but the graft is towards the lower branches so the leave’s around the graft don’t get as much sun as my E4 Seedling tree. My E4 seedling tree is right next to a fence and gets a lot of shading because the fence is South facing but the fruit were in the upper canopy of the tree where it got decent Sunlight which may explain why the real E4 skin color stayed green whereas my Seedlings E4 skin color changed to a mottled Yellow/brown. My E4 seedling fruit may have also been slightly sun burned.

Either way, I’m super happy with the fruit from my E4 seedling because it’s a relatively vigorous grower and its blooms are disease resistant.

I have two other E4 seedlings which should fruit this year or next. I would highly recommend people in Southern California try growing out some E4 seedlings.

Simon

Where can you get an E4 here in San Diego?

[Oolie]

I fruited a Sugarloaf (E4) seedling. See page 8 of this thread. Last year was the first year it fruited so I need to evaluate it some more but so far it seems like it’s a clone of the actual E4 with some very minor differences which may be attributed to the rootstock or environmental factors.

In my review, I compared the real E4 Fruit, which is grafted to my multigraft Turpentine rootstock tree to my Seedling E4 fruit that was grown and fruited on my E4 seedling tree. My multigraft E4 tree is in full sun but the graft is towards the lower branches so the leave’s around the graft don’t get as much sun as my E4 Seedling tree. My E4 seedling tree is right next to a fence and gets a lot of shading because the fence is South facing but the fruit were in the upper canopy of the tree where it got decent Sunlight which may explain why the real E4 skin color stayed green whereas my Seedlings E4 skin color changed to a mottled Yellow/brown. My E4 seedling fruit may have also been slightly sun burned.

Either way, I’m super happy with the fruit from my E4 seedling because it’s a relatively vigorous grower and its blooms are disease resistant.

I have two other E4 seedlings which should fruit this year or next. I would highly recommend people in Southern California try growing out some E4 seedlings.

Simon

Where can you get an E4 here in San Diego?

That's a real challenge, I think most of the people who grow it in SD are grafting scions from Florida onto established rootstock trees in the ground.

Since it's poly your best bet is to acquire seed and go from there.

The seeds are often aborted in this variety, so if you find someone selling seed, make sure they open the husk.

[fliptop]

And then there were four . . .

Strong winds this past weekend claimed a couple more fruit from the Coconut Cream seedling. One of the remaining four fruits is small, so I'm thinking it won't make it. Hoping to try at least a couple this year and even more next. These smell so piney!

[Oolie]

I went through the grove today and found a seedling I purchased from exotica that bounced back from containerization and appears to be outgrowing the gopher damage. Fingers crossed, as the sap has a Gary type smell. Probably at least 2 years from fruiting, 3 seems more likely.

A Juile seed with a Gary type smell was planted next door earlier this year. It came from a grove with several likely Gary descendants.

[fliptop]

I am now down to three Coconut Cream Seedling Mangos.

Here are three that fell off the tree earlier:

I left them on the shelf and forgot about them until coming across them this afternoon. The skin was really wrinkled and they were soft. I've eaten small Sugarloafs that fell from the tree and got similarly wrinkled and soft (they have a great pineapple taste then), so I figured I'd see what these were like. The flesh was deep orange and fiberless, and the piney smell was nearly gone. It was actually tasty, even at this immature stage--it kind of reminded me of Ice Cream Mango or that Talenti Alfonso sorbet. Granted, this is from one immature drop, and may not be a representation of a mature fruit (though I'm sure the mature flesh will possess the orange color and fiberlessness).

The seed had no husk and was monoembryonic. Not sure if it was viable, but it was planted.

I'm getting a "502 Bad Gateway" message when trying to add images, but will add a couple images when I am able.

[fliptop]

Hmmm, the "post images" option seems to be back for now . . . Here are the three remaining fruits on the Coconut Cream seedling tree:

[fliptop]

Here's the immature fruit. The flesh was a deeper orange than what it seems here.

[sapote]

Come on.  I don't think you can tell the flavor profile from that!

Well, you can tell the different smell of Southeast varieties vs Indian from crushing the little fruits.