The Tropical Fruit Forum

For our friends in Florida there season has just ended but for California our season has just began. Just ate my first Seacreast mango and it was fantastic. I detected some citrus component but it was totally different from a perfectly ripe Lemon Zest. The Seacrest has a deep orange color in the flesh with excellent richness. It was very sweet but with a complexity not evident in LZ. The long hang time with a lack of rain in SoCal might concentrate flavors more so than in Florida, just speculation. The first photo shows some of my Seacrest on on lower right with Coconut Cream on the lower left. CC ripens later than Seacreat at my Location. I have 20+ Seacrest on my tree. Not sure how many Coconut Cream mangoes are on my multi grafted tree but if I were to guess it would be about 20 or so. This tree is eight years old.

Just picked a few Sweet Tart mangoes from my tree. The one I had two weeks ago was excellent. This tree is also eight years old. (See 2nd photo)

Guava is also doing well with several grafts on various trees all producing Fruit. (See 3rd photo as a example)

ValCarrie has a few fruit Ripening on my tree. The right half on the tree is ValCarrie. The left half is Orange Sherbet for a 2022 graft which is growing very strong. (See 4th photo)

This is the first year I have fruit from my Buttercream graft from 2020. Have five fruit (See Photo). I also grafted this variety to several other trees this year so looking foward to more fruit in future years.

My Zill M4 Mango Seedling tree that I started in July 2023 is now 46" tall and has grown very well. I just recently took it out of the greenhouse and upottted it to a #7 pot. (See photo) Grafted it to one of my in ground trees and looking foward to fruit in 3-4 years.

Many other grafts are growing well but are to immature to produce fruit. Very impressed with the growth of Raw Honey (Shwehintha). This Mango tree from Burma Grows fast and upright with dark green Foliage an are highly disease resistant. This is grafted onto (3) different mango trees in my garden and all are growing very well. I even had to remove to few immature fruit this August from a 2022 graft. The new growth foliage is a beautiful purple growth. (See Purple Growth on th last photo, Top middle) This variety seems well suited for California based on my experience so far.


Seacrest and CC Mangoes (9-13-2024)


Sweet Tart Mango Tree (9-13-24)


Guava ripening Mangoes (9-13-2024)


Orange Sherbet and ValCarrie Mango Tree (9-13-24)


Buttercream Mangoes


Zill M4 Mango Seedling Tree (9-13-2024)


Multi Grafted Mango Tree (9-6-2024)

My four-year-old Seacrest mango graft is loaded with fruit now. (See 1st Photo) This follows the trend I saw last year with this variety. This year it looks to be my most productive mango I grow. Anybody growing mangoes in California should have a Seacrest. It’s vigorous, disease resistant, a early ripening variety with excellent taste and has great fruit production. In other words, it checks all of the boxes to be successful in SoCal. Hope to start harvesting in late September as we are about 90 days behind Florida. Also it's interesting Coconut Cream growing on the same Seacrest Tree had good flowering but appears to have produced only a fraction of the fruit. See all of branches to the left of the seacrest fruit which are CC. 

My early assessment of Sweet Tart looks good. I already have small developing fruit and more blooms have formed in May making an extended harvest possible this year. (See 2nd photo)

Angie, Guava and Peach Cobbler all look good this year in terms of Production. My favorite of the three in terms of taste is Angie. A California grown Angie is really hard to beat but last years Seacrest tied with a different flavor profile. The only problem with Angie it is it is a relatively low vigor tree. It grows much more slowly overall but for it’s size produces very well and is precious. 

Johnny


Seacrest Mango Graft with many small fruit (5-24-2024)


Sweet Tart Mango Tree (5-24-2024)

For the benefit of our California growers I thought I would post a few phots of some mango trees showing various rootstock. The goal is to select robust rootstock to increase tree vigor. A healthy root system is a healthy tree. Our mango loving frends in Florida have no such problems but here in SoCal it is a issue because of our cool winter and spring tempatures.

The first (3) photos is a Selected Ataulfo seeding I started two years ago and is green house grown. I just took it out of the container to Up-Pot to a larger #15. As you can see from the root system is is very well developed. This tree is excellent rootstock for grafting.

The next photo is my grafted Orange Essence mango tree grafted to a strong ataulfo that I just moved to a larger #25 pot in Spring. Even after harvesting (6) OE scions from this tree in mid July it still is putting out a good flush now. This tree grows well at my location with no disease issues.

Next is my young Dot mango Tree. I just planted this in the ground in 2022 from a #7 pot and it just flushed. I did have some dieback in spring from this tree but I just cut out the die back limbs and it seems to be recovering well now.

Next up is my five year old Lemon Zest Mango Tree on Ataulfo rootstock. It is currenty starting a new growth flush. The rootstock is fine but the issue I have with this variety is the constant attack of Powerdy Mildew (PM) with this variety. For this reason I am in the process fo topworking this tree. Orange Sherbet thus far has no disease issues and is a attractive mango tree so it is a much better choice as is OE with even faster growth.

The last example is my 0-15 mango tree on manila rootstock. I grafted this in 2020 to a very small tree at the time and planted it in the ground in 2021. This seems to have grown well and just finished it's first flush. The rootstock is strong and long term I am optomistic. There are no disease issues at all.

Having strong mango rootstock and good draining soil gives you a fighting chance in the early years of growth.

Johnny



Two year old Ataulfo Seedling Tree for Grafting (8-12-2023)


Ataulfo Lower Rootstock (8-12-23)


Ataulfo Lower Rootstock Exposed (8-12-23)


Orange Essence with new flush (8-12-23)


Young Dot mango tree with New Flush (8-10-2023)


0-15 mango tree on Manila rootstock (8-12-2023)


Lemon Zest on Ataulfo (8-10-23)

Hey everybody,

If anyone is interested I have one Sweet Tart Mango Seedling Tree I started Growing in 2021 for Sale. It has been in my greenhouse and just recently completed a new flush. It appears to be a vigorous growing tree in a #5 pot. It is ready to go into the ground or a larger container. This is a top-tier variety but unfortunately, I am out of space and I already have another ST in the ground.

Enclosed are a few photos. If interested just message me with your contact #. Pick up only in OC.

The price is $110.

Thanks

Johnny

Hey Everybody, I decided to part with my Val-Carrie mango Tree I grafted two years ago onto Manila rootstock. The tree is healthy with a very nice lower rootstock. It is in a (7) gallon container. My intention several years ago was to plant this in the ground but I have since run out of room in my yard and I have already grafted this excellent variety onto sever other older existing mango Trees. The key is this has been grafted to the right rootstock and should do very well once in the ground.

Sold

My five year old Sweet Tart mango tree has some good fruit set this year. I am hoping the tree is mature enough to produce well hear at my location consistently. I did some modest thinning of the fruit to eliminate excessive fruitlets on the limbs. Any body else out there in SoCal that has a sweet Tart mango growing.? Would be interesting to compare notes. If we get some warm-hot weather I hope to begin harvesting in late August. Temps have been fairly mild hear throughout spring.  Enclosed are a few recent photos.

Also my Val-Carrie and Peach Cobbler produced very well this year with heavy fruit set but I had to remove all of the small fruitlets on the two year old graft to focus the tree on vegetative growth of the tree. Mallika and Nam Doc Mai also produced fairly well. The big disappointment was Coconut Cream. Heavy flowering but no fruit set on my five year old CC. Perhaps next year.

Johnny



Sweet Tart with Developing Fruit


Sweet Tart Mango Tree

I originally bought these two mango trees from Florida as small (3) gallon trees. They have grown nicely since purchase. I used them for scion wood for grafting hence the sale. They are both excellent varieties.

1.  Son Pari in (5) gallon squat container. $110  (This was a stick when I bought it)

2.  Cac in (7) gallon container. $140

Only have one of each. There are ready to go into a larger container or in the ground. Local pickup only.

See the Photos for more details.

Thanks

Johnny

If any body has Rich 16-16 Trifoliate Root Stock Seed please let me know. I am interested in purchasing some if possible.

Thank You

John

Earlier this summer I purchased a 3 gallon Venezuela Sapodilla tree from Mimosa Nursery in L.A. I asked the owner what it was like and he indicated it was similar to Alano but the leaves are larger compared to the Alano Sapodilla.

Does anybody know anything about this cultivar?  I took a chance when I bought it but I like the way it looks and grows so far. No Idea on the fruit quality but any information would be appreciated.  At the time they had 8-10 of these Venezuela's along with some Morena's and Molix. At the time I purchased one of each to try. I already have an Alano and small Tikal.

Thanks

Johnny

The other day I was driving my car in Garden Grove when I passed this house on a residential neighborhood on a major street in Orange County. I could not believe it as mature dragon fruit plants were around the entire perimeter of the house including the entire front yard and side yard. I returned today (Sunday) to take some photos and see if I could meet with the owner. Only the back yard, which is cemented in for a patio, did not have dragon fruit. 4 X 4 treated lumber was spaced about six feet going around the entire house and there were 3-4 rows back to back in the front yard. They were climbing on two dead palm tree trunks as well as sharing a living tree as you can see in the photo. The gentleman was very nice but spoke broken English. He indicated he has 22 different cultivars on this property. To me it looked like about 60-80 separate dragon fruit plants. There were hundreds of small potted plants he was also growing. I believe he sells cutting as a small business so I might go back later and ask for his top 3-4 varieties. He did indicate to me his personal favorite was a particular white variety that is very sweet. That is interesting as I always thought the Red dragon fruit has the best flavor. Everybody has a preference and that was his.

Side View of the House     


Growing on a Psalm Tree


The Proud Owner and Gardner


Climbing on Psalm Trees


Street View #1


Street View #2