Mango Variety Recommendations (FL9b Interior)

[hipasfolk]

I'm finally gearing up to get things in ground next spring, essentially having spent the last year sampling fruit, getting small trees, and prepping my yard. I have space for four medium-large trees, and two small-medium left in my garden plan. I know I don't need to fill every spot I've mapped immediately, but I'm kind of a plan twice dig once gardener. So now that this year's mango season is wrapping up does anyone have recommendations for what to look into sampling/buying next year beyond what I already have?

This is what I already have (or have on order):

Buttercream
Cecilove
Coconut Cream
Dwarf Hawaiian
Fruit Punch
Harvest Moon
Honey Kiss
Ivory
Little Gem
Mun Kun Si
Nam Doc Mai #4
Orange Sherbet
Pickering
Pina Colada
Seacrest/Triplesec
ST Maui
Sugarloaf
Sweet Tart
Zill M-4
Zill P-22
Zill 3-18 'Honey'
Zill 40-17
Zill 40-26

So far Carla, Peach Cobbler, and Venus are on a short list for possible additions. Ones I tried and for sure didn't enjoy were PPK, Guava (Sein Ta Lone), Irwin, and Zill.

I'm also growing non-mangos (loquat, sugar apple, sapodilla, jaboticaba, mulberry, persimmon, banana, figs, etc) but I'm rather particular about food textures so I'm afraid I'm not as adventurous on that front.

[yoski]

Are you near a large body of water? Smaller Mango trees are easily killed by frost. Well irrigation (warm water) can help. Larger trees can take a short time of about 25F.
Another problem is disease, especially MBBS. Don't plant anything that's disease susceptible. I know Nam Doc Mai has it's fair share of problems.
I like Pickering, awesome tasting, small tree (easy to protect during frost), disease free, great producer. On your list I like M-4 as a very good late season Mango, also made good experience with Orange Sherbet, Fruit Punch, Sugar Loaf and Honey Kiss. Not on your list is Rosigold, a trouble free, small tree that sometimes produces as early as mid March into late May.

[Galatians522]

I really enjoyed Peach Cobbler this year. I would add a Geffner Atemoya grafted on Cherimoya rootstock to your list (it has a better texture than sugar apple and makes a tougher tree). Pineapple and passionfruit are two of my other favorite tropical flavos that aren't on your list. Passionfruit makes great juice, so I assume that texture would not be an issue.

[hipasfolk]

Are you near a large body of water? Smaller Mango trees are easily killed by frost. Well irrigation (warm water) can help. Larger trees can take a short time of about 25F.
Another problem is disease, especially MBBS. Don't plant anything that's disease susceptible. I know Nam Doc Mai has it's fair share of problems.
I like Pickering, awesome tasting, small tree (easy to protect during frost), disease free, great producer. On your list I like M-4 as a very good late season Mango, also made good experience with Orange Sherbet, Fruit Punch, Sugar Loaf and Honey Kiss. Not on your list is Rosigold, a trouble free, small tree that sometimes produces as early as mid March into late May.

I'm not located near any large water unfortunately. Last winter the coldest our weather station recorded was 28 for about an hour before Sunrise on Christmas eve. We're consistently about 3-4 degrees warmer than the city temp reports but I'm fully expecting to have to go out of my way to protect the trees.

I will definitely consider rosigold as ease of care will take some pressure off when I've already got quite a few varieties without solid disease resistantance info for interior growers. Plus I don't have many early season types. Thank you!

[hipasfolk]

I really enjoyed Peach Cobbler this year. I would add a Geffner Atemoya grafted on Cherimoya rootstock to your list (it has a better texture than sugar apple and makes a tougher tree). Pineapple and passionfruit are two of my other favorite tropical flavos that aren't on your list. Passionfruit makes great juice, so I assume that texture would not be an issue.

That's great to hear! I have heard good things about the Geffner, my struggle is sampling specific varieties so I'm planning to put in a little more effort in sampling for these last few spots.

I'm currently growing about five varieties of pineapple and hope to add more and I do have a 10x14 foot pergola that will be dedicated to passion fruit although I have not begun looking into specific varieties for that project 😅

[yoski]

I really enjoyed Peach Cobbler this year. I would add a Geffner Atemoya grafted on Cherimoya rootstock to your list (it has a better texture than sugar apple and makes a tougher tree). Pineapple and passionfruit are two of my other favorite tropical flavos that aren't on your list. Passionfruit makes great juice, so I assume that texture would not be an issue.

Geffner was a disappointment in my yard. Disease problems, a failure to thrive and low production of a so-so fruit. As far as Passionfruit goes I had good success with Possum Purple but the opposite with Sweet Sunrise, didn't try any other varieties.
Longans are pretty good trees. Somewhat cold hardy and much more resistant to various pests than Lychees. I grow Kohala and Biew Kiew with good success and little effort.

[Galatians522]

Yoski, thanks for the tip about Sweet Sunrise. I was considering planting one now that my Purple Possum is gone. I suppose that I will have to look elsewhere (maybe just a seedling yellow like I grew years ago). I think Annonas are more finiky in general, requireing more attention and care. However, I love the fruit. Atemoyas are one of my favorite fruits. Tim and Dream are stronger growers than Geffner, but the texture is not as good.

[Brev Grower]

Hipasfolk,
That is a nice list of mangoes that you already have planted. Many of those are what I have planted out. I personally would not plant Coco cream or Rosigold on the interior due to disease issues. I might consider Maha Chanok in place of Ivory. Peach Cobbler and Venus are both super delicious and are worth growing IMO. The other ones I might suggest are Angie as an early mango that is productive and disease resistant, Lemon zest for flavor and firm texture, and Carrie for flavor but it does have a pretty soft texture which I love. (Maybe you don't) The last suggestion might be a Keitt or Neelam mango as your late late variety. Both of those can give mangoes into November. Good luck!

[yoski]

Hipasfolk,
That is a nice list of mangoes that you already have planted. Many of those are what I have planted out. I personally would not plant Coco cream or Rosigold on the interior due to disease issues. I might consider Maha Chanok in place of Ivory. Peach Cobbler and Venus are both super delicious and are worth growing IMO. The other ones I might suggest are Angie as an early mango that is productive and disease resistant, Lemon zest for flavor and firm texture, and Carrie for flavor but it does have a pretty soft texture which I love. (Maybe you don't) The last suggestion might be a Keitt or Neelam mango as your late late variety. Both of those can give mangoes into November. Good luck!

Keitt and Lemon Zest are disease magnets (MBBS), the complete opposite of Rosigold. I have/had all 3 in my yard. Angie does not have any disease problems, good quality fruit and great producer. At least that's my personal experience here in Sebring, FL.

[hipasfolk]

Bummer to hear about the Geffner. Admittedly, I have one sugar apple and a slot reserved for a second (or another annona) that isn't part of my mango area of the yard so I will have to try and taste more options for that. If I had more experience germinating seeds I'd like to try growing that chewy red sugar apple or a duguetia. I have some passion fruit seeds on order, varying kinds, and truthfully no idea if they'd do well here or how to keep them so it'll be a bit of an experiment on that part.

I had not heard about Coconut Cream having disease issues here when I bought it so I'll have to look into that. I know LZ would not work for me. I've tried to limit myself to 3 or 4 trees that may need more babying in terms of disease prevention and those are mostly all the unnamed Zill's that didn't have enough info on growing in the interior.

I'm glad to hear PC and Venus are good choices, those and Orange Essence are my top picks as of right now. I really enjoy the bright citrus flavors over the PPK/OS "citrus". The few Mahas I had this year were good but a completely different flavor than Ivory. My Ivory is just a seedling so it'll be a good while before it puts out and is slotted for one of the few less than ideal spots (my front yard) as I'm not concerned with maximum production for that one.

[Galatians522]

Bummer to hear about the Geffner. Admittedly, I have one sugar apple and a slot reserved for a second (or another annona) that isn't part of my mango area of the yard so I will have to try and taste more options for that. If I had more experience germinating seeds I'd like to try growing that chewy red sugar apple or a duguetia.

Over 100 sugar apple trees later, I can verify that Geffner is more resilient in 9b Florida than a sugar apple. In that entire time we have had the same Geffner tree. It is grafted on Cherimoya rootstock--that makes a difference. Trees grafted on Atemoya can go either way with some growing just as well as the ones on Cherimoya and others that perform poorly. It is normal for Atemoyas to have a heay crop one year followed by a light crop the next.

[JulianoGS]

I'm finally gearing up to get things in ground next spring, essentially having spent the last year sampling fruit, getting small trees, and prepping my yard. I have space for four medium-large trees, and two small-medium left in my garden plan. I know I don't need to fill every spot I've mapped immediately, but I'm kind of a plan twice dig once gardener. So now that this year's mango season is wrapping up does anyone have recommendations for what to look into sampling/buying next year beyond what I already have?

This is what I already have (or have on order):

Buttercream
Cecilove
Coconut Cream
Dwarf Hawaiian
Fruit Punch
Harvest Moon
Honey Kiss
Ivory
Little Gem
Mun Kun Si
Nam Doc Mai #4
Orange Sherbet
Pickering
Pina Colada
Seacrest/Triplesec
ST Maui
Sugarloaf
Sweet Tart
Zill M-4
Zill P-22
Zill 3-18 'Honey'
Zill 40-17
Zill 40-26

So far Carla, Peach Cobbler, and Venus are on a short list for possible additions. Ones I tried and for sure didn't enjoy were PPK, Guava (Sein Ta Lone), Irwin, and Zill.

I'm also growing non-mangos (loquat, sugar apple, sapodilla, jaboticaba, mulberry, persimmon, banana, figs, etc) but I'm rather particular about food textures so I'm afraid I'm not as adventurous on that front.

Nice list there! What does buttercream taste like??  No love for carrie?

[hipasfolk]

I'm finally gearing up to get things in ground next spring, essentially having spent the last year sampling fruit, getting small trees, and prepping my yard. I have space for four medium-large trees, and two small-medium left in my garden plan. I know I don't need to fill every spot I've mapped immediately, but I'm kind of a plan twice dig once gardener. So now that this year's mango season is wrapping up does anyone have recommendations for what to look into sampling/buying next year beyond what I already have?

This is what I already have (or have on order):

Buttercream
Cecilove
Coconut Cream
Dwarf Hawaiian
Fruit Punch
Harvest Moon
Honey Kiss
Ivory
Little Gem
Mun Kun Si
Nam Doc Mai #4
Orange Sherbet
Pickering
Pina Colada
Seacrest/Triplesec
ST Maui
Sugarloaf
Sweet Tart
Zill M-4
Zill P-22
Zill 3-18 'Honey'
Zill 40-17
Zill 40-26

So far Carla, Peach Cobbler, and Venus are on a short list for possible additions. Ones I tried and for sure didn't enjoy were PPK, Guava (Sein Ta Lone), Irwin, and Zill.

I'm also growing non-mangos (loquat, sugar apple, sapodilla, jaboticaba, mulberry, persimmon, banana, figs, etc) but I'm rather particular about food textures so I'm afraid I'm not as adventurous on that front.

Nice list there! What does buttercream taste like??  No love for carrie?

I do enjoy Carrie, when I started looking for varieties to add to the yard I leaned toward ones that were harder to source fresh fruit of near me so I had passed over planting my own. Same with one's like Maha and VP.

Buttercream is good, to me its milder than other SE Asian varieties, similar flavor just not as strong, probably why I don't see it often. Unfortunately I think if it gets washed out from heavy rains the flavor suffers more than most. If I had less yard space it probably wouldn't make the cut tbh, the texture is really great though.

[Simple_Jack]

Nice list.
Most I have. I would add to this Orange essence and Ice cream which are both excellent. Just my 2 cents.

[hipasfolk]

Nice list.
Most I have. I would add to this Orange essence and Ice cream which are both excellent. Just my 2 cents.

Thank you. Funny enough since making this post I had decided on an Orange Essence but have been struggling to find anyone with them in stock. I've gotten several suggestions for ice cream but thought it had disease problems for us. I'll have to look specifically for anyone here in Central growing and see how they're doing.

[Simple_Jack]

When ya have some free time, I suggest you look up "The Orlando Gardener" on Youtube.
He is having great success with Ice-cream mango trees in and out of pots with little to no issues.
Yeah, OE seems to be a little on the hard side to fine these days. Picked a 3 gallon one up yesterday actually. But they were all relatively on the small side. I looked out and happened to find it way in the back at one my nurseries that I frequent that was ready to up pot from a 3 to 7 gallon. 

[hipasfolk]

When ya have some free time, I suggest you look up "The Orlando Gardener" on Youtube.
He is having great success with Ice-cream mango trees in and out of pots with little to no issues.
Yeah, OE seems to be a little on the hard side to fine these days. Picked a 3 gallon one up yesterday actually. But they were all relatively on the small side. I looked out and happened to find it way in the back at one my nurseries that I frequent that was ready to up pot from a 3 to 7 gallon.

Thank you, I'll look their videos up.

Does anyone know how Ice Cream compares to Graham? I've not personally tried either, but it appears they have a similar flavor profile but Graham seems like it might be a little more disease resistant.

[puglvr1]

Maha Chanok! I'm in Zone 9b no lake around, I have mine planted slightly underneath an Oak tree, though it does not get full sun for 8 hours apparently it gets enough to fruit every year except once, when it didn't flower not sure why? The Oak tree provided some frost/freeze protection too. This year I got about 60-70 which a third of it went to critters but enough to share with me  ...my tree is 9 years old and not that big. Good Luck!!

[Lostkeys]

Duncan. I really enjoy them and they're about as disease resistant as they get.

[hipasfolk]

Thanks for the input so far everyone. I've pretty much decided on Venus, Peach Cobbler, and Orange Essence for 3/4 of the med-lrg slots. Duncan was on my shortlist in my notebook but somehow got skipped over when I was transferring my notes to the PC so that's a likely last slot filler unless I decide to keep it open in the event something exciting crops up.

I am thinking Ice Cream or Graham and an Angie for the two small-ish spaces I have left. Although I ended up with a second Cecilove on accident so I'll have to try and fit her in somewhere.

I had a few Mahas this year but I think I let them get a little over-ripe as I wasn't crazy about them. They had kind of a perfumey floral tone I wasn't feeling. I may try to graft a branch or two onto one of these when they're large enough to see if I can get better at gauging when to eat.

Now my problem is wanting to add non mangos with no more room. I've got some things set for the front yard but have been trying to avoid going crazy as we have a few neighborhood help-themselfers and one neighbor that will call code enforcement the second a fruit drops on the ground.

[Simple_Jack]

 
Cecilove is a nice accident to have if ya gonna have one. Nice fruit.