Good to know FruitFool, I never paid attention to the nipple.
Both the E4 and the E4 seedling fruit smelled super good last night and had a little give so I put them in the fridge last night and cut them open tonight.
Both mangos had a slight coconut flavored Lifesavers smell to it and they both had a very mild tropical smell that was a fantastic combination.
Both mangos were drops so there was quite a bit of damage on the nose end.
The real E4 mango weighed in at around 11 oz and it was still green in color. The flesh color was yellowish orange and the Brix was 18.4% with such a low Brix, I wasn’t expecting much from this fruit but after one bite, I was in heaven. It tasted like the typical E4 that was fully ripened meaning it had that coconutty taste with just a tinge of tropical mango flavor. This is the best tasting mango I’ve ever had with such a low Brix reading. There’s just something about the complex depth or layers of flavor that make this variety so special. It’s that coconut background with the candy lifesavers combined with that hint of tropical flavor that just makes this variety pop.
I’ve had many other E4 mangos with higher Brix that tasted better than this fruit but at this Brix, it was the best mango I can recall.
The Seedling E4 was just like the real E4 except it had a Brix of 21.5% and tasted correspondingly better. This seedling fruit was just a bit sweeter and a bit more coconutty and just a slightly stronger taste probably due to the higher Brix. The Seedling E4 weighed in at around 13 oz.
The real E4 and the Seedling E4 tasted so similar that the slight differences are most likely attributed to the differences in Brix alone.
I’m guessing that this E4 seedling is likely a clone but for some reason, when it ripens, it’s skin color changes. This difference in Phenotype may be attributed to genetic drift, epigenetics or I could be completely wrong and maybe it is a zygotic seedling that just tastes like the real E4, I really don’t know.
I need to observe the rest of the fruit on this tree to see if they also turn yellow as it becomes tree ripened. The first two fruit definitely changed colors as you can see from the pictures I posted but we did have a heatwave which may have caused the skin to burn and turn that color.
If this seedling does consistently turn color when tree ripened, it can be very beneficial to growers that want to grow E4 but have a difficulty determining when to pick their fruit. I have one more fruit ripening in the garage and two more still hanging on the tree so I’ll update as they ripen.
Oh yeah, the E4 seedling had a completely aborted embryo and the real E4 had a very small embryo.
Simon