The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have the Sri Kembangan variety and it is very sweet and juicy with no tartness when eaten very ripe.  You will know it's very ripe when it smells very fruity and floral, and the fruit will be slightly soft to the touch.  If you eat it before this time, I found the taste to be underwhelming.  I haven't tried any other tree-ripened varieties, so can offer no comparison.

I planted this SK last spring ('21) from a tall, spindly 3 gallon.

It's bloomed a few times and gave me a decent crop last winter.  It's blooming again, but not much fruit set (the recent nonstop rain everyday has not helped).  I'm curious to hear how productive this variety is as it matures.  I've contemplated planting another carambola tree to see if it helps pollination, but I don't think I need more starfruit.  I still have a bunch left over in the freezer.   

I live in SW Ranches, FL (SW Broward County, FL), and I'm trying to decide on what mango varieties to add.  I know there are some people in the area that read this forum, and I would love to get some advice based on their experience.    In short, I would like to stay away from planting poor producing /disease prone mangos (in our conditions).  I don't mind a poor producer here or there (like Ice Cream, which I love) if I really love that variety, I just don't want a whole yard full of them.

So far I have:

• Mystery tree (planted by previous owner): looks like a smaller/dwarf variety but it's probably 15 feet tall.  Has produced a few fruit, but they fall off before I get a chance to ID.  It was sickly when we moved in, but has been getting healthier over the years.
• Phillipine (Carabao) (mature, planted by previous owner): It had its best season last year.  I was selling fruits on FB at the end of its season and people were calling me for more  Fruit were were excellent. Anthracnose and BBS resistant.  Pretty much alternate bearing so far.
• Kent (mature, planted by previous owner): It tastes ok, produces well and reliably.  It's the mango I will happily share with friends/family.  Anthracnose resistant, not much problems with BBS the last couple of years.
• Sweet Tart: young tree, looks relatively disease free, but a definite favorite of thrips in dry, hot springtime.
• Ice Cream: one of my favorite mangos so far, prone to anthracnose and very prone to PM.  Has not held on to fruit so far, but I don't spray.
• Carrie: young tree, some anthracnose
• Orange Sherbert:young tree, some anthracnose
• Seacrest/Triplesec: young tree
• Honey Kiss: young tree, disease free
• M4: young tree
• Sugarloaf: young tree, just planted this year
• Pickering: young tree, disease free

Many of my young trees bloomed and set fruit, but I didn't let them hold fruit this year so they could get in another year of growth (ST, M4, and Seacrest did not bloom this year).   My trees were anthracnose free until the summer rains started.   In my yard, I have flooding/standing water frequently during the rainy season.  I have the typical mucky soil common in this area.

I just put in a grafting order for Cecilove at TA and am also considering adding these varieties for their disease resistance and productiveness in my conditions: Angie, Fairchild, Mahachanok.

I haven't been able to taste too many varities, but, too be honest, I'm not terribly picky.  I would say I like something more flavorful as opposed to mild, I don't mind tart, and don't mind the "piney-ness" of certain mango varieties.  I was able to buy some mangos from Hidden Acres, which is not far from me, and I liked them all: Angie (it was a bit overripe by the time I got to it, so had a bit of an off flavor, but it wasn't objectionable and I still ate it), Pickering, Cogshall, Lemon Zest, Fairchild, Ugly Betty, VanDyke, and Carrie.  Out of all those, VanDyke was my least favorite, but mostly just because it was boring, not because it was bad--it was a good mango and I was happy to eat it.

I liked the Lemon Zest and I've heard/read a lot about its productivity/disease problems, but I also read that there are some fellow SW Ranchers that have LZ trees that are doing well.  Should I take a chance, lol?  Those who are growing LZ in the area sucessfully, are you spraying them?

The other variety I was thinking about is Duncan, but I don't want to add another mild tasting mango like a Kent, that I will just end up giving away most of the fruit.

Nina

Is Vietnamese White prone to fruit drop?

I live in SE FL (near the Everglades) and have 2 Vietnamese white on trellises and fruit drop/flower pollination is about 50%.  It can get a bit of rust in cool, rainy weather, too, but it's manageable to to treat with a bit of copper spray.

I have a cutting of Sugar Dragon and Neon that I am debating replacing them with.  Should I just bite the bullet and replace the 2 above with them?

Quote from: sumognat on April 29, 2021, 09:04:44 PM

Had my first early mango of the season, there was a lonely Nam Doc Mai mango that was almost ripe, all the other mangoes on the tree are still a few weeks out, I think.

When I first tried these, I mistakenly ate them all yellow, which I did not like. Too sweet and floral. I spoke to someone not that long ago about this variety and he said to try it mostly green. Luckily, I caught this one in time. I like it much better this way (mostly green).  I am happy to have discovered this since the house we bought has a mature NDM tree with lots of fruit. 😋

Doesn’t look like Nam Doc Mai. Might be a Carabao

Alex, 

Wow!  You think so? I didn’t know what variety it was when we bought the house, just tried to narrow it down based on taste and fruit size/shape. Here are some better pictures.

Premature fruit drop question.
Wondering which nutrients are key to keep young fruit from falling.
I had at least a dozen golf ball size Kents drop.  Couple dozen nice ones still on tree (record for me).
I know trees need many nutrients, i fertilize, what would top 2 most important nutrients be?
I have 50# bag of calcium too.

Thanks a bunch,
Ed

My Kent is dropping lots of little fruit, too.  I am guessing it's because of the lack of rain, but it also does seem to regularly drop small fruits each year.  There's also a ton of fruit on it, too, so I imagine it can't hold onto everything?

Quote from: sumognat on April 22, 2021, 09:49:29 AM

Yes, all my newly planted 3g trees that flowered and I didn't allow to carry fruit are flowering again: Carrie, Orange Sherbert, and Sweet Tart.  My Ice Cream mango has been established for a couple of years and none of the fruit from the initial bloom stayed on the tree so it is blooming again, too.

Carrie, Orange Sherbert, and Sweet Tart.   Ice Cream mango......

I have the same minus the Ice Cream. You have made fine selections. You must have been studying this forum
Carries carry controversy.
But for me I rank at or above the new Zills. 
Carrie is for those who take the red pill.

Yes, I have been scouring this forum for mango variety info and picked what I thought I might like best on the descriptions, my preferred flavors, and disease susceptibility since I live in a very wet, humid area.

I have not tasted anything I have planted, beyond Ice Cream (which I like very much), so my fingers are crossed that I made good selections for myself, including the controversial Carrie.   I also recently planted: Pickering, Seacrest/Triplesec, M4, and Honey Kiss and picked up a 1gal Sunrise from Alex @TA that is too small to plant out.   Luckily, I have lots of family and friends who will be happy to take unwanted mangos off my hands.  I am also going to try to buy some mango boxes from Alex @ TA so I can taste some of these--if they are objectionable, I'll just replace the ones I don't like.

I currently have mature NDM and Kent trees, so those are some of my baseline flavors.  I am not much of a fan of NDM when ripe (yellow), but I am going to try them again this year before they turn yellow, and maybe I will like them better at that stage.  If anyone in the Broward area wants to try some NDM, I am happy to let you have some when they ripen, lol.

Yes, all my newly planted 3g trees that flowered and I didn't allow to carry fruit are flowering again: Carrie, Orange Sherbert, and Sweet Tart.  My Ice Cream mango has been established for a couple of years and none of the fruit from the initial bloom stayed on the tree so it is blooming again, too.

I have 2 dragon fruit plants and decided to go with this option.  In the middle of the post is a steel pipe that was driven a few feet into the ground (I have limerock and rock from the house pad 12" under the soil in this location).

Hi,

I recently purchased and planted a Seacrest/Triplesec mango tree that is very tall (maybe 7-8ft) from a 3 gallon pot.  It doesn't have any lower branches and I would like to keep the tree at a reasonable height when mature and encourage more branching now.

How low can I top this tree? Would cutting it to 4 or 5ft be too much?

Thanks!

I inherited some mature mango trees when we bought our current house in 2016.  I finally figured out one was a Kent, the other a NDM, and the third I have no idea yet because we had to rehab it and it looks to have a couple of fruits this year.  The Kent, I am guessing, fell over during a hurricane and the prior owner never righted the tree upright.

My Kent is by far an incredible producer; here's a picture from last year after I harvested most of the fruit.  It tastes great, but, yeah, probably not as complex and sweet as some of these newer varieties I have not tried yet.  The Kents are super juicy, peachy, meaty mangoes--nothing like a gross supermarket mango.  Great for giving away to people or shipping off to your friends/family in the colder climate.  Yes, it can BBS on the outside of the fruit and you don't want to let it get too ripe on the tree, but that's not a big deal since you can pick when almost ripe and let them ripen in your house.  I don't spray my trees with fungicide, live practically in the Everglades, and the area under the mango trees is frequently flooded during the summertime.

Hi, I recently purchased a Grimal Jaboticaba and I'm having a bit of analysis paralysis with respect to its planting site in my yard.

I live in SW Broward (SW Ranches).  Most of my yard is muck over limestone and it stays pretty moist throughout the year.  Much of the non-irrigated parts my yard can be underwater 2-3 days in the summer, the water drains, and then the cycle repeats until the rainy season is over.  Most of the non-irrigated parts of my yard stay moist throughout the year.

I've read through the posts on this forum about the Grimal and it says it doesn't take flooding well.  Should I plant it outside of an area that doesn't get flooded at all in the summer?  I have a Red Jaboticaba that I planted last year from a 3g that is loving where I planted it between 2 mango trees, where it's often flooded in the summertime and its always moist (it didn't miss a beat during the week of record flooding we had here a few months ago).  I thought the Grimal could take the same conditions, but I'm now rethinking my initial plan after reading some posts here.

Thanks for any advice!