The Tropical Fruit Forum

2 inches what the heck thats insane!!!! I thought it was dry here ive "only" had 61 inches so far this year for 2025. Last year I had 155 inches and the year before that 197 inches !!!!! You wanna talk about anthracnose on mango we are the experts here.

I found a really good Honey Gold to be about equal to a Kensington Pride, but from memory it was a little less tangy and Fibrous.
R2E2 I hate. I hate the texture, and I hate the flavour. It's got zero tang and low sweetness.
Calypso is like a Kensington but inferior to it in every way. Less tang, less sweetness, less flavour - but it did have more colour - not that it really matters to a homegrower.
Keitt is nearly as good as Kensington, and has a similar flavour, and starts fruiting (commercially) as soon as Kensingtons start to come to an end.
I like that new 'Maha Bliss', and I reckon it is equal, if not a teeny bit better (hate to admit it!) than KP.

What do you do you think of any Florida selections that you have tasted, Gone Tropo? Has your orange sherbet fruited?

I find it really interesting finding out about the difference in Mango preferences between Aussies and Americans. At the end of the day, I want to try as many interesting mangoes as I can, and if I don't like them I can just top work them (and grow more varieties!).
And interesting point: Could the reason that there have been so many mango varieties bred and introduced in Florida be that when mangoes first went commercial, people were dissatisfied with the Tommy Atkins, and wanted better mangoes, and that desire to breed better mangoes never faded? Here in Australia, from my understanding KP was the first commercial mango, and from the start people loved. Why breed tonnes of new varieties when you have already found 'the best'?
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Hey mate I personally prefer calypso, R2E2 and certainly honey gold over KP taste is of course subjective.  My orange sherbert hasn't fruited yet and my lemon zest died.  The people I know who have tried these zill varieties and compared with KP are people with large mango collections who know there mangoes well and I trust what they say. I will however come to my own conclusion once my own trees come into production.

Maha is excellent, I have tried most of the older florida varieties that are here and i dislike all of them they all have a chemical/turpentine aftertaste that our aussie mango's don't have.  Our tastes seem to align much more with the SE asians.

You ask this question on what should be called the Mango forum as 99% of people here are in florida or california and the answer you will get is mango

If you ask this question to the rest of the world and true tropics the answer you will get is Durian.  We can grow both Durian and mango side by side here and mango whilst great is not comparable to good durian and pretty much all of SE asia, China and many other places would agree with that.

Chempedak/Chemepjak had some of these in recent times that absolutely blew me away and certainly give durian a good run for its money.

yes please, as much as I like mango it is actually off putting to log on and see nearly nothing but mango topics. There is very little interaction from people outside florida/california for this reason i believe.

Pulasan seems to grow fine here I have only two trees and they have never had shade cloth or any irrigation whatsoever other than when they were newly planted to get them established. They are both seedlings one flowered already at 3.5 years old unfortunately looks like male, the other is yet to flower they are 4 years old. 

Like others have said ramutan are at least twice as vigorous and are amongst the toughest trees in my yard, many of them get flooded regularly disappearing completely underwater and doesnt faze them.

I have two lychee trees in my yard both too young to fruit however lychee are generally a disgrace here producing fruit maybe every 3 years if your lucky, because they are such an excellent fruit i had to plant two trees anyway just for that once every 3-5 year chance of a crop.

anyone got some willing to send to Australia?

langsat i also found reference to that same disease in SE asia but like you say it kills them quickly where as mine is going on 3 years old still alive. Sounds like we have the exact same issue on opposite sides of the world!!!

Shot that could be a great idea so approach grafting onto the marcott as long as you leave the growth only above the marcott should keep the same tree right ?

Mike i believe my tree actually came from your yard !!!!! got it from steve. I read about corky bark but that dont seem to be the issue, like you say it must be an issue with the roots just like some durian remain stunted and dont grow due to failed root systems.

Cassowary we will have to agree to disagree. I never once saw durian for $15 or $20kg last season always minimum $25 at local market and local road side market
Nth of Mossman.

Also very aware of trees from Mareeba myself and at least two others have purchased these trees (I know where they come from and who grafts them) unfortunately near all our trees from
This source have either died or remained stunted !!!!

All other grafted trees from sources I know are now $175 a tree minimum. Your experience may be different you may know different people to me. Hell if you can get durian for $15-20kg help a brother out and let me know where ?

Cassowary I would personally like to see the import of fresh durian from malyasia and thailand increase 10,000 fold.  The durian industry in Australia is a racket, people think it is normal to pay $25-40kg for what would be "kampung" durian in Malaysia what a joke they would have the hardest laugh at us from over there.  Those who are selling fresh durian in Australia who currently have a stranglehold on the market are able to charge what they want, they will cry poor if fresh imports start flooding in about how the aussie consumer wont support local farmers.  Maybe if they didn't rip people off.

Musang king trees selling here recently for first time for between $1000-1500 AU per plant depending on size what a joke and there are buyers who are buying them and think its ok !!!!!! what a dire desperate situation the Australia "durian industry/racket" is.  Even common red prawn and monthong grafted trees now selling for minimum $175 and people think thats normal and ok!!!!! Luckily i have moved to planting seedlings only and have a long memory of all the people currently taking advantage of others.

Have seen many people here advocating for root hormone gibberellin, so why such reaction to this compound (gibberellin antagonist of organic origin)? Am i missing something?

Think its mainly a US thing the paranoia with placo, it is used widely in Australia in the commercial mango industry and others as well as throughout SE asia.

Peter your "isla" tree sounds awsome I would love to get that here in australia, I have heard from others who have tasted your isla who rate it highly as well.

Cassowary Iknow its not apple and apple comparison because you are talking about seedling tree but my biggest grafted tree P88 (D178) is 3 years old and i measured the trunk diameter the other day at approx 150mm above graft union as done on the zappala study (so not the base) and it is 80mm. The tree has some thick laterals which i didn't measure but can if you want because i have topped the tree multiple times sometimes quite severely it is only about 2 metres tall.  Im still hopeful of getting some flowers before the wet season but could be wishful thinking time will tell.